Crashed 1960 Chevy Corvette Le Mans Racer Had It Rough, Now Looks Like a $2 Million Gem

May 12 is when a huge car auction kicks off in Indianapolis. There are literally hundreds of cars to be had there, in all shapes and sizes and from all imaginable ages. And there are plenty of Corvettes as well, some of them real stars of racing tracks and courses decades ago.

We've already talked earlier this week about the 1969 Chevrolet Corvette L88/ZL1 Greenwood race car draped in the colors of the Star-Spangled Banner. That one is quite a sight, having been driven by the likes of John Greenwood and Don Yenko. And it's also the car that back in 1973 set the speed record on the Le Mans circuit's Mulsanne Straight, hitting 215 mph (346 kph).

All of that is impressive and all, but seems not to even come close to what this 1960 'Vette has to offer, if not in terms of specs, then at least in terms of story.

The car is, as obviously displayed on its body, an endurance racer. It was fielded by a crew going by the name Camoradi USA Racing Team.

Back in the 1960s, these guys were the diamonds of the racing scene. The team drew in the biggest names in the industry, including Dan Gurney, Stirling Moss, Carroll Shelby, and Masten Gregory. It first and foremost became famous thanks to racing Maserati Birdcages, and for being a partner team for Goodyear tires.

The team's racing exploits however expanded far past Formula 1 and other competitions. It also had a solid presence in endurance racing, being a contender for a few years on the circuits in Le Mans and Sebring, but also in several other smaller GT competitions.

For its GT efforts the team used this here Corvette as well. It's not your standard sports car, but one that packed an engine specced to Zora Arkus-Duntov specifications. It came in white with blue stripes on the body, which was draped over a blue interior.

In this guise the 'Vette, wearing No. 4 on its sides, entered several competitions, including the 1960 Havana GT and Cuba GT, and the 1960 Swedish Grand Prix GT, winning all of them. It also placed second in the GT Class at Le Mans and Sebring, being, by all accounts, "the only straight axle Corvette to have finished both Le Mans and Sebring."

That same year when it managed to earn all those wins the Corvette was destroyed in a crash somewhere in Sweden. It then disappeared from sight, only to surface again in 1995. Turns out the car had spent its previous 14 years disassembled.

And not only disassembled, but with many of its most important components scattered the world over. We're told its engine and transmission, for instance, landed in New Zealand, where they were used to power a racing board. The components served their purpose there too, until the boat crashed as well, and sank.

We know this is the Camoradi' Vette thanks to its chassis number, namely 2272. It now wears a 283ci engine rated at 290 hp and worked through a four-speed manual transmission, and the same white and blue visuals.

The car looks as new thanks to a restoration process it went through after it was re-discovered. It still packs the original gauges on the dashboard, the 37-gallon (140-liter) fuel tank, and the native Koni shock absorbers, but other elements, like the hard top, were replaced.

After being completed, the car received a series of awards, and was for a time on display at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. It is now up for grabs, as its current owner is selling it.

The Camoradi Corvette is listed by auction house Mecum, and this time we get an estimate as to how much the car is expected to fetch as well. That would be no less than $2 million, making this Corvette perhaps the most valuable car to go under the hammer this spring.

To make sure there's no mistake as to the car's pedigree, the seller is letting it go complete with a copy of the 1960 Le Man's entry, the inspection form, historic photos, and of course tons of technical documentation.

Whether this Corvette manages to sell for the expected value or not remains to be seen, and it all depends on the right crowd. No matter how this goes, though, rest assured we'll come back on this story to let you know the outcome.