The Supercar Registry - 1967 Impala SS427 L-72?

Ivan.... I need to clear the air here as I was brought into this discussion from factual comments made at another site. I have no axe to grind with you and did not attack you or your car. I merely mentioned a few items that were sticking points because some folks were trying to help create an urban legend of this car at 2 other sites. First, congratulations on buying a beautiful car. I would love to own it myself. As I said elsewhere, the car is a beauty, and is a very nice restoration. The car has been discussed at great length at two other sites over the last couple of years. I was asked by one of the large auction companies to verify the authenticity of this car in particular, not whether or not an L72 could have existed. I told them what we knew as fact, not opinion about this car, and they declined the option to add it to one of their premier events.

The other car that you mentioned from another thread was previously part of the GM captured test fleet as I recall. I never saw the car, nor did anyone else for that matter. Only the dataplate exists today. If that car existed, it would not have been a production line vehicle. Could the skunk works have put something like this car together, sure. That does not make it a production car in any way. You are correct that some plants did not use the 4D to identify the Z24 package. I know Alan. I do not know Bill, never met him. I think that I am probably a pretty well respected nobody when it comes to the big cars, but I'll let others comment on that. I do know quite a bit about the big cars from 1960-1970, and the 3 years of the Z24 cars (67-68-69) in particular. I am a highly regarded technical source on the big cars with a few National Organizations or Clubs. I am a VCCA Senior judge and have been Chief Judge at several National events over these many years. I have also Judged as a Team Captain at many AACA, NIA, and Late Great National meets, so my judging credentials are pretty solid I think.

Now, back to your car. I have not seen the car in person, no. I have, however, viewed many detailed pics of the car before and during restoration though. I will not get into the many suppositions and "might-have-beens" about whether or not an L72 could have existed as you mention. I will keep things factual about this car. As Warren stated, that car fooled several judges. If <span style="font-style: italic">"the well respected experts who have actually seen the car seem to agree"</span> proclaimed it is "the real deal and correct" knew some basic things about the big cars, they would have known, just as several of us do, that the car was a total fabrication. While I respect their knowledge on the Camaros, Chevelles, Corvettes, and Novas, they missed some very blatant things that would have told them that the car was not as it was made to appear. Several items have already been pointed out here in this thread. The tach, the T400 code on the cowl tag (ALL L-72's were 4 speed cars until 1969 in the big cars), etc. When A.O. Smith or Budd company made the frames for these cars, they would install the production cross-member brackets on the frames. Those brackets would handle 3 speed, powerglide, or 4 speed applications. The ONLY time a car had the second set of cross-member brackets installed on it was on a T400 car, and they were added by the line employees as the car came down the line. That was the reason for the option code being on the cowl tag. Your car has both the code and those brackets, therefore, it cannot have been a real L-72 car, or even a 4 speed car for that matter. The face of the tach has been modified changing the red line. That tach was originally not even a 427 tach as it had the lower yellow and red lines. There are documented cases of a few 427 cars with 396 and lower tachs in them, so that in itself is not a big deal. That fact that someone changed the length and the colors of those lines is however.

I will be happy to speak with you privately on some other issues, but that is all I will discuss here.

Donny