L-88, The story!

[69 DIRTY RAT]

Found this on http://www.digitalcorvettes.com  Its a great read if you're interested in one of the most legendary Corvette models ever made!
Also I thought I'd open a can of worms/debate...... This article sheds some light on the subject of why I entered my vette in the Personal Catagory (not Modified) at the Convention in 2006! I know some of you disagreed that my car should be in personal catagory. The red highlighted paragraghs shows that flares and the sidepipes (Hooker pipes were a copy of the Kustom headers produced for the factory!) were in fact factory options...that is ...if you ticked L-88 or ZL-1 then you got a whole lot of extra goodies for racing! But what most people didnt realize was that the vettes actually came with these factory accesories. In a lot of cases The dealers used to steal the Flares/side pipes and re-sell them over the counter, so the buyer didnt even know!. The Paint job is a copy from an original ZL-1 (exact demensions!) but opposite in color. Yes you could say its Baldwin Motion style paint, But no its not! The original ZL-1 in which I copied was built in late 68 (for 69). This was the time Baldwin Motion was using similar paint schemes on its Corvettes, and the word is that GM was playing around with this colour schemes/patterns plus numerous other patterns for the ZL-1! So.... from the exterior the only things that werent  factory were the wheels! Remember ....the convention is not NCRS, so although my vette had all these extra's that werent original on my car.... they were all offerred by the factory! Its a ZL-1 tribute/replica. babble...babble....bablbe anyway heres the story happy reading.......



L-88's – The Story

In The Beginning
As the horsepower and cubic inches race escalated in 1965, Zora Duntov knew that it would be only a matter of time before he had to place the Mark IV big block engine in his beloved Corvette. With the availability of the Cobra with either a street or full race version of Ford's 427 early in '65, the decision was made for the option of the big block Chevrolet engine for the Corvette.

The 396 cubic inch version was available with 425 horses in the spring of '65. But in order for the Corvette to remain the King, a better power to weight ratio than the 427-racing Cobra was necessary.

After four years of chasing Cobras, Duntov and his crew knew that they had to do something to put the Corvette back in the winner's circle. Endurance racing was the pinnacle of sports car racing. More horsepower was needed. In the fall of '65, a special high performance engine code named L-88 was developed for testing. The sights of Chevrolet were set on the 1967 24 Hours at Le Mans in France.

The Build
The Corvette L-88s were created to blow the doors off everything else on the tracks of the USA and Europe. Duntov worked to produce as much power as possible within the limits of the existing Chevy 427 cubic inch V-8. Aluminum heads and a number of special, heavy-duty components were added to the engine. The L-88 was intended for racing only and prone to overheating at low speeds, but it was fully street legal and came with complete emissions equipment.

The L88 was so close to being an all-out racecar that Duntov deliberately had the engine rated at 430 horsepower at a low 5,200-rpm. The true rating was 460 horsepower at 6,400 rpm. With open headers, 103-octane gas and a few other tricks, the power was over 500hp. All creature comforts were missing. There was no A/C, heater, defroster, radio, power steering, windows, carburetor choke, or radiator shroud. The J56 brake option was required with competition-only brake pads. Also mandatory was the F41 special suspension, and the M22 "rock crusher" four-speed transmission. To further discourage the L88s use on the street, a warning sticker glued to the center console pointed out that the radically cammed, high compression engine required fuel with a research octane number of at least 103.

Using the same four-bolt main cast iron block as the street Corvette, special parts were added. The forged steel crank was cross-drilled and tuftrided. Rods were shot-peened and magnafluxed. The forged aluminum pistons had 12.5:1-compression. The L88 used a radical camshaft and solid lifters. A huge 830-cfm Holley four-barrel sat on top of an aluminum high-rise intake manifold, flowing to aluminum heads. The entire valve train was heavy duty. A K66 transistor ignition was used. Also there was an aluminum radiator and a special cold-air induction, hood scoop.

In 1966, Chevrolet Central Office authorized a C.O.P.O. (Central Office Production Order) Corvette to be built with the first factory 427 L-88 engine. The competition race package included J-56 brakes, 36 gallon fuel tank, F-41 suspension, prototype 2:73 G81 positraction rear axle, K66 transistorized ignition, M-22 transmission, off road exhaust, radio and heater delete, teakwood steering wheel, telescopic column and a special prototype cowl induction hood.

The car was released to Roger Penske who had worked in Chevrolet's race program since pre-Grand Sport Days. Penske wanted the racer prepared for the 24 hour Endurance Race at Daytona. Based on Zora Duntov's recommendation, Penske hired Dick Guldstrand to assemble a team for the Daytona race.

Guldstrand picked up the red car at the St. Louis assembly plant. As some assembly line workers stood by, Dick fired up the car and found that it was content to idle at 1500 rpms. Since the car was prepared and not equipped with a heater, Guldstrand was given a blanket to keep from freezing for the drive to Roger Penske's shop.

Penske's Newtown Square Garage then prepared the car for the Daytona Race. After shoveling out of the snow, the team headed for the 1966 running of the 24 Hours of Daytona.

First Run, First Win
Roger was able to strike a one-race only sponsorship deal with Sunoco, so with their help a good pit crew was available as well. Sunoco 260 was the fuel of choice. Penske assembled the experienced team of Dick Guldstand, Ben Moore and George Wintersteen for the race.

In practice laps the Factory L-88 was one of the quickest ever recorded at Daytona. Chevrolet sent a second engine to Traco to be prepared, and just before the race the fresh 540 h.p. motor was installed in the car.

The L-88 was placed under the microscope by Daytona inspectors. After the hassle of getting the Sunoco 260 into a track, which was dominated by Pure Petroleum, the L-88 was finally on the track.

As the race progressed into the night, Wintersteen rear-ended a slower car tearing off half the front end. The damaged radiator was replaced with one from a Corvette located in the spectator's parking lot and Guldstrand had to drive his portion of the race with two flashlights taped to the fenders! Guldstand was able to continue the race by following the taillights of the Ferrari Team Car and by doing so broke the GT record. The L-88 finished 1st. in the GT Class and placed 11th overall in the race.

This accomplishment so impressed Sunoco that it extended its sponsorship for another race .... The 12 Hours of Sebring! This L-88 was matched up with one of the last Grand Sports to make a two-car team.

To impress Sunoco executives for future sponsorships (Camaro and Lola), the original factory red L-88 was painted blue and yellow for practice for Sebring 1966. Sebring produced a 1st in class, and 9th overall, tying the record as the highest finish ever for a Corvette.

The #9 L-88 racer is nationally recognized as one of the most important Corvette's ever manufactured. This car represents the first acknowledged L-88 Corvette and the only "mid-year" to win first in class consecutively at Daytona and Sebring.

Corvette Repair Inc. of Valley Stream, NY performed a state of the art restoration for debut at the Monterey Historic Automobile Races in August 2002.

This car has a prototype hood. One of three made by GM. The other two went on the Corvette Grand Sports. This one was installed at the factory.

 

 

L-88 Gains Speed
Duntov was so impressed that he gave the order for more L-88 Corvettes (425 HP) to be made available to "special friends" who would race this new motor on road racing courses and drag strips in 1966. He was hoping that all the bugs could be worked out before the L-88 became a regular production option (RPO) for the 1967 model year.

In Le Mans, the 1967 L88 debuted with Corvette legends Dick Guldstrand, Bob Bondurant and Dick Yenko sharing driving duties. The Dana Chevrolet, red, white and blue coupe blitzed the Mulsanne Straight at 171.5 mph. While leading the GT class, the L-88's engine ended short of the 24hr. halfway point with one of the stock wrist pins failing at the 11-1/2 hour mark, putting the L88 out of the race. Guldstrand commented: "Nobody was getting in your way... we showed them the short way around the track."

The L-88 proved to be a world-class winner it's first year out and it would continue with its winning ways for six more years. These mid year Corvettes had a top speed of about 172 MPH. Duntov knew that with the improving sports racers of the sixties, the huge improvements seen each season, created instant obsolescence for last year's winners.

When the Camaro Z/28 appeared for Trans Am series in the SCCA , the Corvette L-88's passed to George Wintersteen for Sebring 1967. George took a Second Place finish in GT behind a '67 Sunray DX Motorsports #8, red, white and blue, L-88 driven by Don Yenko and Dave Morgan who claimed First Place in GT class, and 10th overall, despite spending the final forty minutes of the race perched on a sand bank after brake failure going into the hairpin.

 

On March 9th, barely three weeks before Sebring, the Sunray #8, C.O.P.O. built, L88 Corvette, rolled out of the St. Louis Assembly Plant. The purchaser of this Corvette was the Motorsports Division of Sunray DX Oil Corporation. Road racer and Sebring competitor Dave Morgan traveled to the St. Louis Corvette Assembly plant to take immediate delivery of the car.

They were just finishing up when I got there, ? he recalls, and I watched it fail the water test at the end of the assembly line. It was built several hundred pounds lighter than a regular Corvette and the leak test people didn't realize all of the body putty and sealant had been left out to save weight! Morgan drove the L-88 from St. Louis to Yenko's facility in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania where it was immediately disassembled and race prepared.

Morgan campaigned the car solo for the remainder of 1967, taking home the SCCA mid-west division title for his efforts.

Besides its racing duties, in 1967 and continuing into 68 the car was used extensively as a test bed for other Corvettes raced under the DX banner and for retail product development. Some of the more notable names who drove the Corvette in 1968 include Peter Revson, Pedro Rodriguez, Bob Bondurant, Dick Guldstrand, and Jerry Grant. The most significant outing for the car in that year came at the Daytona 24 Hour race, where Grant and Morgan co-drove to a first in class, tenth overall finish. The car ran perfectly at Daytona for the entire 24 hours and, assisted by special differential gearing provided by Chevrolet Engineering and centrifugal forces generated by the super speedways severe banking, achieved speeds in excess of 194 mph.

From 1967 to 1968 only 100 L88 optioned Corvettes were built.

The L-88 needed to be improved and evolve. A sleeker, more aerodynamic body style would be needed for increased top speed and improved handling.

The 1968-1969 L-88's
Other modifications to the 1968 Corvette L-88 included a cold air intake hood, while the 1969 Corvette L-88's added fender flares that came in the trunk rather than installed on the car. The four-wheel disc brakes were heavy-duty, along with a Muncie M-22 "Rock-Crusher" 4-speed transmission, heavy-duty suspension, and positraction. Radio and air conditioning were not available, but there was a heater/defroster.

Chevrolet approved the 1968-style L-88 for international competition with the Paris-based Federation International de Automobile from January 1, 1968. Duntov kept an L-88 Corvette test car at the GM proving grounds for several years, complete with fender flares, roll bar, and racing wheels. Chevrolet produced 80 Corvette L-88s in 1968 and 116 in 1969.
The Racing Legends
The Sunray 1967 Corvette was sold and campaigned through 1971, by Bob Luebbe, whose greatest success was a class victory at the Watkins Glen Six-Hour enduro. A series of new owners raced it until 1987.

In the 1969 Sports Car Club of Americas (SCCA) American Road Race of Champions (ARRC) at Daytona, Jerry Thompson's Corvette L-88 won the A-Production Class. John Greenwood won the A-Production ARRC at Road Atlanta in 1970 and 1971. Jerry Hansen won the Road Atlanta ARRC in 1972.

International GT racing in the USA got off to a good start when Dave Morgan/Hap Sharp drove to 6th overall and 1st in GT class at the 1968 Sebring 12 Hour race. At the 1969 Watkins Glen 6 Hour race, Dick Lang/Tony DeLorenzo finished 7th overall and first in GT. 1970 Daytona 24 Hour GT honors and a 6th place overall finish were taken by Thompson/John Mahler. DeLorenzo/Lang were 10th overall and 1st in GT at Sebring in 1970. DeLorenzo/Mahler/Don Yenko teamed up for 4th overall and 1st in GT at Daytona in 1971â€"best ever at Daytona for a Corvette. Greenwood/Dick Smothers finished 7th overall and won the GT class at Sebring in 1971.

Henri Greder drove his Corvette L-88 in the 1969 Tour de France to a 2nd place overall finish. From 1968 Corvettes raced without success at Le Mans till 1972, when Heinz/Johnson finished 15th. Greder/Marie-Claude "Beaumont" finished 12th at Le Mans in 1973, the best result ever for an L-88 at Le Mans. Greder/"Beaumont" would return to place 18th in 1974, the last finish by a Corvette at Le Mans for twenty years.

In 1972, Dave Heinz/Bob Johnson swept the GT class wins in Florida, scoring 8th overall at Daytona (a six hour race in 72) and 4th overall (best ever) at a Sebring international race.

In 1973, Ron Grable/Greenwood/Mike Brockman finished 3rd overall at Sebring, which no longer had an international field of prototype racers competing, but had become part of the domestic International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) series. John Greenwood won at Elkhart Lake and Edmonton in the 1973 SCCA Trans-Am series.

Specs
0-60 mph: 4.2 seconds
1/4 mile: 11.0 seconds @130mph
Engine: 427 cubic inch displacement, aluminum heads
Rated horsepower: 430 @5200rpm
Actual horsepower: 550+ @6400rpm
Torque, foot-pounds: 485 @4000rpm
Carburetor: Holly 4-barrel, R3418
Fuel: 103 (Research Octane)

Transmissions:
M22 Close-Ratio 4-Speed M/T with fine spline input shaft, a large diameter output shaft and helix angled gear teeth.

1st: 2.20:1
2nd: 1.64:1
3rd: 1.27:1
4th: 1.00:1.

M40 Turbo-Hydromatic A/T with his 3-element hydraulic torque converter and compound planetary gear set (only available in '69/L88)

1st: 2.48:1
2nd: 1.48:1
3rd: 1.00:1.

Wheels: 7-inch Kelsey Hayes
Wheelbase: 98 inches
Weight: 2,776 pounds

1967-68
19437 Coupe $4,663.00
19467 Convertible $4,232.00
C48 Deletion Option (heater, defroster, radio)
F41 Special F/R HD Suspension (coil springs, shocks, 7 leaf rear spring). $36.90 (80)
G81 Positraction Rear Axle $46.35 (80)
J50 Vacuum Power Brakes $42.15 (80)
J56 Special Heavy Duty Brakes $342.30 with proportioning valve, HD brake shoes, and dual pin front brake calipers. (80)
K66 Transistor Ignition $73.75 (80)
L88 427ci, 430hp Engine $947.90 (80)
M22 Heavy Duty, close-ratio, 4-speed M/T $263.30 (80)
(No heater deletion credit in 1968.)

1969
19437 Coupe $4,781.00
19467 Convertible $4,438.00
F41 Special Front and Rear Suspension $36.90 (116)
G81 Positraction Rear Axle $46.35 (116)
J50 Vacuum Power Brakes $42.15 (116)
J56 Special Heavy Duty Brakes $384.45 (116)
K66 Transistor Ignition $81.10 (116)
L88 427ci, 430hp Engine $1,032.15 (116)
MA6 Heavy Duty, 10" Diameter Disc Clutch Assembly
M22 Heavy Duty, close-ratio, 4-speed manual trans. $290.40 (99)
M40 Turbo hydramatic automatic Trans. $221.80 (17)
MA6 10" diameter heavy-duty disk clutch assembly and open chambered heads (avaialable mid-'69).

[Available for purchase, not factory installed, shipped in the car, were Kustom tubular headers and body fender flairs.]

Just in case the L88's inability to cold start or its rough idle, ravenous fuel consumption, and total lack of creature comforts were not enough to dissuade street driving, the folks at Chevrolet devised a couple of more impediments. The first was the price. The engine alone added $947.90 to the bottom line and when all of the other, mandatory options were added in the price of the base car was increased by nearly 50%! If all else failed, the final deterrent was the L88's advertised power rating. It was quoted at 430 horsepower, five fewer than the L71 427/435 engine that cost less than half as much. Why would any buyer in his right mind pay more than twice as much for an engine that made fewer ponies?http://www.digitalcorvettes.com

[MADLT1]

the l88s are the legends of corvette history,personally the 67 L88 is the ultimate corvette for me;46;46;46

[RubyZR1]

Hey Andy (Dirty Rat), thanks for the historic perspective of the L88 and mighty ZL1.

Oh BTW your ZL1 clone is in fact NCRS. Have you not heard of the......"Not Correctly restored Stingray" in the USA?;41

I remember seeing a thread about this one time a few years ago. If memory serves me correctly, someone high up in the actual NCRS took offense and there were threats and even talk of legal writs to prevent some folks from using the NCRS motto as "Not Correctly Restored Stingray".

There was a guy making stickers, caps and T-shirts with the "NCRS- Not Correctly Restored Stingray" motto for free release to any one who asked for them IIRC.

Anyway, I thought it was a very clever use of the NCRS letters. I certainly did'nt take any offense to it, and got a kick out of it.

I often joke to a few corvette guys in Vic about their "Not Correctly Restored Stingrays". These guys are not interested in the NCRS....."it's horses for courses", I say.

FWIW, I was told a few years ago you could still source the Kustom style side pipes if you were prepared to pay $3000US for them.

As for my all time favorite Corvette, it's Roger Judski's 69 ZL1 Stingray. If I ever win tattslotto, that car will come down under to stay. For those who have never seen it click here:http://www.rogerscorvette.com/inv/special/69ZL1/index.htm

Regards,
Wayne;42

[69 DIRTY RAT]

Yeah I've seen those Kustom headers! Originally I was thinkin of makin a true ZL-1 and looked into all that stuff...but with headers being $3000 and an original ZL-1 block and internals going for $30,000US I wouldnt have got to far financially!
Rogers ZL-1...I reakon even with winning Lotto you wouldnt be left with much change! I'd guess it would easily get $5mil but more realisically US$10mil!