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Mark DiLullo likes to win! He is a business aviation pilot and owner of Threshold Aviation Group. Recently, he accepted a first-place trophy at the 72nd running of the Grand National Roadster Show held at the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds.
“My love of performance cars, especially the Corvette brand led to my desire to demonstrate our company’s design, fabrication and technical expertise to build the Grand Sport Corvette,” said Mark DiLullo, owner of Threshold Aviation. “As the new guys, we were thrilled to display our car with the best of the best at the finest car show on the West Coast. Obviously, we were ecstatic to win this award which compliments the whole Threshold team.”
Mark, is a military trained pilot and like his father, makes his living flying commercial aircraft. Mark runs an aviation company, unlike his father who flew for Pan-Am and United as a 747 Captain. They both share a love for Corvettes and between them own 15 show quality Corvettes.
When Mark’s father was asked if he was surprised, he stated “no,” the car is amazing and he drove that kid home from the hospital in a fuel injected Corvette.
“My father, collected Corvettes and we were always around corvettes that we were fixing, maintaining, restoring, driving and showing. Corvettes are a part of my earliest memories and have always been my favorite hobby,” said DiLullo. “We have restored numerous Corvettes over the years to Bloomington Gold Status. However, the Grand Sport Corvette is currently the masterwork.”
Only a handful of original Grand Sport Corvettes were purpose-built for racing in the mid-’60s by Chevrolet when “officially” they were not participating in racing per corporate edict.
DiLullo purchased a wrecked 1967 Big Block Coupe that no longer had the factory engine. Since it was not a candidate for an original restoration, he opted to build a tribute car.
While researching ideas for the car, he came across the Seminole Corvette Grand Sport book by Dave Friedman and Lowell C. Paddock. Using that as inspiration, Mark and his team at Threshold’s fabrication shop went to work building the vehicle using 1960’s era technology to create a tribute racer that was historically accurate.
“I wanted to channel Arkus Zora Duntov and build a vehicle that could credibly compete with other fine race cars at the time. Our goal was to build a winner. We understood the shortcomings of the original Corvette Grand Sport and corrected those issues. I believe if we could go back in time, we would be very competitive while racing the Cobra’s, Ferrari’s and other competitors” said DiLullo. The car sports a Tiger themed paint job and is so brutally powerful that it was soon realized “nothing eats the Tiger.”
The team made innovations on the vehicle. The goal was to use every original part with high level race modifications. Performance was fabricated into every system. As an example, the car has cooled Duntov brakes and a race prepped original L88 engine. The engine, transmission and rear axle are cooled via dedicated air to oil heat exchangers. Original Corvette knock off wheels were lightened and modified and jacks were installed at each corner to expedite pit stops. Weight was reduced at every opportunity.
The car made its public debut at the Grand National Roadster Show in Pomona, California, earlier this month and took home a first-place win in the Track & Performance category and was well received by the show attendees.
