CERV stands for Chevrolet Engineering Research Vehicle. The CERV II often gets confused with theGS-II(b), which was Frank Winchell’s car. The CERV II was entirely Zora’s car. The CERV II was conceived early in 1962 and developed over the next year, after the GS program was squashed. The car was built under Zora's direction between 1963-'64. Zora had it in mind to develop a separate line of racing Corvettes but the idea got terminated by management, even though Zora had Bunkie Knuden's support (he was Chevrolet’s General Manager). Anyway, Zora got one car built and he packed it with the technologies he thought would make a good race car.

Although the original (clay) design looked like the Grand Sport II(b), the chassis wasn't the same. It was more like the Ford GT-40. It was a monocoque with steel subframe to carry the suspension and engine. The original power plant was the 377 cubic inch aluminum small block. Cross ram 58 mm Weber carburetors and a 10.8 compression ratio were planned but I think they finally settled on the Hilborn fuel injection. Power output would have been in the 500 range. I don't know how long that engine lasted but in its latter days the car was fitted with a big block. Karl Ludvigsen reported on a drive he had in the car (Motor Trend, November, 1970) when it apparently had a ZL-1 style all aluminum engine. I don't know if that one stayed with the car, either.

The engineering of the drive system and torque converter arrangement was handed over to GM's engineering staff. This was the first time that anyone had tried to design a variable power delivery to each end of the car, and which would vary according to vehicle speeds. They must have succeeded, because it was reported that the car would do 0-60 in 2.5 seconds or over 180 MPH while still achieving 0-60 in under 5 seconds.