The C3's styling was derived from Bill Mitchell's Mako Shark II concept, adapted for production by Larry Shinoda and Henry Haga. The car retained the C2's fully independent suspension and four-wheel disc brakes while introducing a new body with vacuum-operated concealed headlights and flush door handles. The 1969–1976 versions carried the Stingray name. High-performance variants made it a natural basis for GT racing: the L88 aluminium-head engine was produced explicitly for off-road racing use, and in 1969 the rare ZL1 option offered an all-aluminium 427 cu in big-block. The ZR1 and ZR2 special engine packages added racing suspensions, heavy-duty brakes, and stabiliser bars for track-oriented buyers.
At the 1968 24 Hours of Daytona, DX Sunray Oil Co. entered two C3s — numbers 29 and 30 — driven by Peter Revson and Don Yenko, and Jerry Thompson and Tony DeLorenzo respectively, with results of 25th and 27th overall. At the 1968 12 Hours of Sebring, the Sunray DX-entered car driven by Hap Sharp and Dave Morgan finished sixth overall and first in the GT+5.0 class. That same year, C3s entered by Scuderia Filipinetti appeared at the 24 Heures du Mans in September, but both cars — entered as numbers 3 and 4 — failed to finish, one retiring with a head gasket failure and the other after an accident.
The 1969 season produced further class results. At the Watkins Glen 6 Hours, the Owens-Corning Fiberglas Racing Team car driven by Tony DeLorenzo and Dick Lang finished seventh overall and first in GT+2.0. Scuderia Filipinetti again entered C3s at Le Mans in 1969, but the sole car to start (number 1, driven by Henri Greder and Reine Wisell) retired with a gear selection failure. Greder also drove a C3 for his own Greder Racing Team at Magny-Cours, where he finished sixth, and at the Tour de France, where he and co-driver André Vigneron finished second overall and first in the GT+2.0 class. At the 1969 American Road Race of Champions at Daytona, Jerry Thompson won the AP class in an Owens-Corning Fiberglas-sponsored C3.
The 1970 season saw the Owens Corning Fibreglass-backed C3 of Jerry Thompson and John Mahler finish sixth overall and first in GT+2.0 at the 24 Hours of Daytona. The Corvette C3's GT racing career extended through the early 1970s as the car remained competitive in class terms despite increasingly specialised European GT machinery.
The C3's combination of powerful, large-displacement V8 engines and a relatively light fibreglass body made it an attractive GT racing tool for privateers, and its class victories at Sebring, Watkins Glen, and Le Mans endurance events underscored its competitiveness within its category during the late 1960s.
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