Flexing ZL-1 Muscle at the Drag StripWhen we left off, Zora was entertaining the automotive press with several of his engineering mule Corvettes. Since drag racing was the primary autosport of the muscle car world and several Corvettes had been made into potent drag racers, Duntov’s team cooked up a drag special to show off the awesome power of an unrestricted 427 ZL-1 big-block. But the cool part was that the automotive press actually got to drive the beast. Lucks dogs!
In Part 5 we told you about Zora’s quasi-A/Production ZL-1 racer. The only thing missing from his white ZL-1 Corvette were numbers on the doors and a few sponsor decals. Also on hand at the ‘69 press preview was a menacing looking Monaco Orange ZL-1 Corvette wearing open headers and 9-inch drag racing slicks. Although Corvettes were never developed for drag racing, many were quite successful, such as the Astoria-Chas L-88 and several Corvettes built and drag raced by Bo Laws.
In the early ‘70s Bayonne, New Jersey racer, Bernie Agman raced a 454 ‘70 Corvette and set the NHRA National Record with his SS/EA (Super Stock E/Automatic) Corvette. Automatic transmission Super Stock drag cars were easier to maintain than their manual transmission counterparts because they were easier on the car’s drive train. Agman’s solution to the Corvette’s somewhat fragile drive line was to replace the drive shaft and rear axle half-shafts with larger diameter, heavier gauge steel and universal joints from a Mac truck
Back to the ‘69 press review event. Along with Zora’s white ZL-1 road racer there was a pumpkin-colored beast that was setup with open headers, a Turbo 400 automatic transmission with a high-stall torque converter, and 4.88:1 gearing so that journalists could take a blast down an impromptu drag strip. Gib Hufstader did the transmission work and Tom Langdon built the ZL-1 engine that according to Gib, produced 710-horsepower! The car was setup to be deliberately easy to drive and those lucky enough to be on hand weren’t prepared for the awesome power of an uncorked, big-block ZL-1. A low-11-second and high 10-second run on a big-block-powered car with racing slicks can be a frightening experience if one isn’t used to that much power and toque.
Here’s Zora’s orange beast. Too bad he didn’t have a backdoor drag racing Corvette team to support.
So how good was the 1320 ride? About 30 guys clicked off 11-second flat runs, with a best run of 10.89 et @ 130-mph. Trap speeds are an indicator of plenty of power. Several guys did neutral starts by revving the engine up to 6,000 rpm and dropping it into gear! Proving Grounds PR guy, Bob Clift said, “We all enjoyed driving that car. Zora used to keep us all excited back then. That was back in the good ol’ days.”
Bo Laws was a force to be reckoned with in the Sports/Production class
A similar equipped ZL-1 Camaro prepared by Dick Harrell ran 10.21 et @133-mph at Kansas City International Raceway. Harrell was an accomplished drag racer, so you can be assured that his ZL-1 Camaro was much more tricked out that the orange ZL-1 Corvette Duntov had on hand. The slight trap speed difference between the Harrell Camaro and Zora’s Corvette indicate that while the ZL-1 engines were cranking out about the same around of horsepower. The Camaro was more dialed in and was probably launching stronger than the Corvette. Also, running the Camaro at a well-used drag strip with a sticky starting line gave the Camaro an advantage over the impromptu 1320 “track” at the GM proving ground. Had Harrell, Laws, or Agman prepped the orange ZL-1 and ran the car at a sanctioned drag strip, the Corvette’s performance would have been on par with the Camaro’s performance. Keep in mind that Summer of ‘69 was only six months before NHRA launched their new pro class at the ‘70 Winternationals called, “Pro Stock.” Grumpy Jenkins won that first ever NHRA Pro Stock event with a 9.98 et with his 427 ‘68 Camaro running with dual quads on a hi-rise tunnel ram manifold.
This is the Motion Performance “KO-MOTION” Astoria-Chas A/Sports production L88. This car ran a best et of 10.47 before being garaged for 31 years!
Here’s Dick Harrell’s ZL-1 ‘69 Camaro. Those rear slicks don’t look big enough for a low-10-second drag car.
The late ‘60s were wild and heady days. Although it is not documented, this may well have been the last time such a powerful car was ever offered to the automotive press for joy rides.
Coming up next, we’ll take a look at Zora’s wildest-looking Corvette and his last racer kit – the ‘74 wide-body silhouette racer developed along with John Greenwood for IMSA Corvettes.
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
