On weekends both shared a common passion -- racing Corvettes. Zora Arkus-Duntov, the famous Corvette engineer turned high-performance department director, was always on the lookout for ways to support successful Corvette teams, including the Heinz and Costanzo Corvette. The fact that Costanzo worked at Ferman Chevrolet helped, giving him open communication to GM.

In mid-1968 Duntov told Costanzo that his engineering team was upgrading the L88 option to make it more competitive. This included trimming weight and adding "open chamber" heads to the L88 engine. Only four would be available in early 1969 to teams that held Corvette Engineering buyer's key passes, which included Costanzo. Costanzo placed a special order for one of these L88 Corvettes through Ferman Chevrolet, and his 1969 Daytona Yellow hardtop Corvette convertible with black interior and L88 equipment group arrived at Ferman in January 1969. It had radio delete, M22 "Rock Crusher" 4-speed transmission, J56 Heavy Duty brakes, K66 transistor ignition, F41 Heavy Duty suspension and MA6 Heavy Duty clutch.

The new L88 also came with a "distance group" package in the storage compartment. It included Plexiglas headlight covers, headlight buckets, fender flares, wheel adapters and Harrison engine oil cooler. Duntov's team shipped GM-approved OK Custom Headers with sidepipes and Magnesium American Racing Torque Thrust D wheels that were installed when the car was delivered. This L88 was equipped with a dual disc clutch (MA6) and is the only known example with this factory option.

Costanzo's crew prepared the car for the 1969 12 Hours of Sebring. From 1969-1971, Costanzo and Heinz shared driving responsibilities including consecutive appearances at the Sebring 12-hour race and the 24 Hours of Daytona. Heinz tried to obtain sponsorship from the Heinz Ketchup company, so they put "57" on the Corvette. The company was never a sponsor, but the number remained.

The #57 Corvette team went on to win four of the five of the new IMSA (International Motor Sports Association) series in 1971. They won the Over 2 Liter Championship, and Heinz secured the IMSA Driver's Championship. Midway through the 1971 season, Costanzo sold the car to Toye English, who formed Race Enterprises and Development (RED). English repainted the car with a "Rebel" flag paint scheme to poke fun at John Greenwood's "Stars and Stripes" painted Corvettes. However, the #57 remained.

Don Yenko joined the team to co-drive with Heinz for the rest of the season. Their first race was the Six Hours of Watkins Glen, and they finished second in class/sixth overall after starting 26th.

In 1972 "Marietta" Bob Johnson joined Heinz to drive for the RED team. Their first 1972 race was the Six Hours of Daytona. Before the race, Leo Mehl, Goodyear's worldwide racing director, asked the Rebel team to use special unmarked experimental racing tires. Heinz and Johnson won the GT class and beat the Greenwood BF Goodrich team. The next day Goodyear ran a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal announcing Corvette's victory on the "first set of Goodyear racing radial tires." Goodyear became a sponsor for the remainder of 1972; this marked the start of the BFG / Goodyear tire war.

The Rebel Corvette's next race was the famous 12 Hours of Sebring. During qualifying, the Rebel was the second quickest GT car and thirteenth fastest in the field of prototypes and GT cars. Heinz qualified almost 10 seconds quicker than the BFG Corvettes. The Rebel qualified second behind the Rinzler 454 Corvette. At the green flag, the Rinzler 'Vette led into the first turn but crashed into a sandbank. Heinz took the GT lead, and the #57 Rebel Corvette led GT for the entire 12 hours. The #57 production-based Corvette finished fourth overall -- 50 miles in front of Peter Gregg's fifth place 911 Porsche. The rumbling L88 averaged 95.776 mph for 221 laps and covered 1,189 miles in 12 hours of racing. The overall leaders were two Ferrari 312 prototypes and one Type 33 Alfa Romeo prototype.

After the team's Daytona and Sebring victories, Goodyear sent the team to Le Mans. The Rebel was not eligible for Le Mans because many of its factory parts had been discarded and scrapped. A new car was built for Le Mans, and the Rebel was sold to Alex Davidson in New York at the end of the 1972 season. The old race car quickly dropped out of sight.