Corvettes Gain the Upper Hand!
When we left off, Zora’s Z06 racer kit had the rug pulled out from under it. Too bad the Z06 had to race in the same class as the Cobras. After all, the Cobras weighed over 1,000 less than the Vettes. How would any Corvette overcome than kind of disadvantage?
While Corvettes were chasing Cobra taillights for a few seasons, Chevrolet engineers were working out the new big-block Mark IV engine. The ‘65 L78 396 big-block engine was underrated at 425-hp, by at least 25-hp! This was the beginning of the change of tide for racing Corvettes. 1966 saw a full-fledged L72 427 under the hood of ‘66 Vettes. Behind the scenes, Duntov was putting the finishing touches on his racer kit for ‘67, the L88. Roger Penske was the lucky guy to do some field testing for Zora in a prototype ‘66 L88 Corvette Coupe.
Too bad Chevrolet didn’t offer a completely tricked out ZL1 or L88 like this.
The introduction of the L88 in ‘67 floored everyone. This was as close to an all-out, factory-built racing Corvette as the public would ever see. America had moved from the jet age to the space age, and race cars were using more and more exotic lightweight materials such as magnesium and aluminum. Duntov had been wanting an all-aluminum engine for the Corvette since 1956. According to Gib Hufstader, engineers were even working on an all-magnesium engine for the car. Can you imagine how much that would have cost? Bolt-on aluminum chassis and engine components were one thing, but an all-aluminum engine was another. The alloy-headed L88 was definitely a step in the right direction, but it would take 30 years for the all-aluminum LS1 to arrive.
When the automotive press arrived at the Milford test facility in the summer of 1968 to preview the ’69 models, they weren’t prepared for Duntov’s latest toy: the ZL1-powered Corvette. The only things missing from Zora’s white ZL1 car were sponsor graphics and numbers. The car had killer looks and grunt to match. The objective was simple: take one Corvette roadster, all the latest performance parts, and build it like a racer would. Everything that didn’t belong on a race car was removed. By the time they were done, Duntov and his crew had reduced the weight of the car by about 400 pounds, to approximately 2,965 pounds. The ZL1 engine alone was worth a 175-pound reduction. Missing production items included the radio, heater, insulation, headlights, radiator shroud, upholstery, rear bumpers, and cast-iron exhaust manifolds. Racing equipment included 15 x 9.5-inch magnesium wheels with 10.5-inch front and 12.5-inch rear Goodyear racing tires, a ZL2 cold-air-induction hood with hood pins, and L88 fender flares. Header side pipes really opened up the breathing of the radical ZL1 engine.
Greetings! Meet the new Top Gun for 1969, boys! (Photo from Popular Hot Rodding)
Duntov himself gave journalists “believer” rides. When coaxed to make a drag-strip run, Duntov clicked off a 12.1-second e.t. at 116 mph, this despite the car’s tallish 3.60 gearing. Lower 4.11 or 4.88 gearing would surely have put the car into the low 11s. Earlier, Duntov had the hood blow off while performing speed test at 180 mph! Later, at GM’s Phoenix test track, journalists got to drive the white mule ZL1 on a short road course. Road & Track writers described its performance as being close to that of a Group 7 race car they had driven shortly before. Duntov’s quasi-ZL1 racer was a shining example of the engine’s potential.
Zora gave 1/4-mile drag strip passes to the automotive press. “We’ll take it easy.” he told one lucky guy. Then he clicked off a 12.1 et, NOT shifting like a drag racer. Grumpy Jenkins could have had the car in the mid-10s! (Photo from Popular Hot Rodding)
This car showed up in most of the car mags at the time, Road & Track, Car &Driver, Hot Rod, Popular Hot Rodding, and Car Life and was never seen again. It’s also too bad that the entire muscle car era couldn’t have lasted another five years. Had there been more time to develop the ZL1 package with actual engines in production and more track experience, a light weight big-block Corvette would have been an amazing performance car. How’s a 427 ZL1 with a Rochester Fuelie setup or a maxed out 454 ZL1 sound?. Imagine a C3 Corvette with big-block power and small-block weight. The Duntov Toy we’ll be highlighting next was exactly that, a 454 ZL1. It shows us, that’s what they were thinking about!
But “performance” isn’t just about numbers, it’s often “how” the machine performs. A C6 Z06 could easily keep up with this Duntov toy. And a C6 ZR1 would walk away from this car. But a car such as this is a true E-Ticket ride. Loud, hot, smelly, rough, explosively fast, and one tick away from being totally frightening. Gee, he still doesn’t look like the speed demon type.
This doesn’t look like a man that held GM’s Milford test track record for some time with a speed of 206-mph! He looks more like a math teacher. (Photo from Car Life magazine.
Another day at Mr. Duntov’s office. Automotive journalists LOVED this guy! (Photo from Car Life magazine
Coming up next, Corvettes were never designed for drag racing, but with the right parts, you could go Super Stock Hemi hunting in 1969!
This article was written by K. Scott Teeters, an editor for Alex Schult of
www.SmokinVette.com and a freelance columnist and artist with VETTE Magazine. His monthly column, “The Illustrated Corvette Series” has been running consecutively in VETTE since 1997 and can be found on the very last page of every issue. You can find reproductions of his Corvette art at:
www.IllustratedCorvetteSeries.com
