You might be surprised how high you can wind an engine when the hydraulics are adjusted to where the travel is maxed out. I used to adjust my old stocker with a .003 feeler gauge, as per Lunaiti instructions.

Link to the L88 story https://issuu.com/mecumauction/docs/againstallodds_web

Yeah I have an L-79 I did that with, and would spin close to 7,000 without issues, but it didn't make much power up there.

But that's a different deal, SBC has much lighter valve train in it. Plus the fact that these L78's don't make power way up at 7400, the cam is long done before that. Aside from that, a stock L78 complete with exhaust manifolds would fall short on HP needed to push a brick to that speed. Just my thoughts.

Neat story though. Some of these cars always seem to be associated with tall stories. Makes them interesting for sure.

Not that it has anything to do with that, but they were all non-posi also...

The story says that this car still has the 3.31 gears, and the engine looks completely stock, so I don't think there is enough power to push it to 172 MPH. That would be 7360 RPMs with a 26 inch tire. I may be wrong. Wouldn't be the first time, for sure. Anyway, it's a pretty awesome car and I'd love to have it.

Cliff's old L88 was at MCACN in November

http://www.kansas.com/latest-news/lw...GYf.So.80.jpeg

Gottlob says, `I've been very lucky in picking the cars.' This ultra-rare Z-16 Chevelle hardtop is one of them that he has held onto. He believes he is the last original owner of a Z-16 to still have one of them. The Wichita Eagle

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/cars/article11...#storylink=cpy

That's a pretty cool story. He had a very impressive winning record with the L88.

Outside of the Owens-Corning '68, I believe it is the "winning-est" L88 Corvette of them all.

That is correct. No optional rear ratio too