Quote:
Originally Posted by LT1vette
Definitely something fishy going on!!!!
Prices are out of reasoning. Some cars getting great $$, Camaros, that are hardly considered collectable. Corvettes not getting even what would be considered a starting bid at Barrett Jackson.
When is an L89 worth more than a ZL1?
Were than any guys from the website there on the Saturday that can comment?
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So....LT1Vette put me on to this thread. He was looking for some more info on the number of Corvette ZL1s and some of the background. He mentioned that there had been a large number of replies but I'm not finding them. It's probably easier just to post a reply here and see what happens. In the Corvette world there are a couple "sources" that are generally taken as being "gospel"
The first is Karl Ludvigsen and his book "Corvette: America's Star-Spangled Sports Car." He cites two ZL1 Corvettes as leaving the factor with "production paperwork". The yellow car now owned by Roger Judski is accepted as being one.....it has a long and detail provenance. The second car is a matter of some uncertainty. Many people have claimed that it is the white Corvette that was passed (most recently) from Otis Chandler to Kevin Suydam (WA). This is not universally accepted. However, in fairness, I must say that, at this time, there is no other claimant that gathif free of debate.
There are a number of other Corvettes that are presented as factory original ZL1 vehicles. The Treworgy (blue) car is one. But it generally agreed amongst the people I know that it is not. There is the orange automatic drag car sold from John Maher to Bruce Perrone. It has a good story but the NCRS will not judge the car....last I heard. Another car that is not currently around was the actual ZL1 mule. Then there are several replicas (of varying quality) represented as a ZL1 by the owner but generally dismissed by the Corvette community.
Now.... another authority on the ZL1 engine is Ken Kayser who began working at the Tonawanda engine plant in Rochester as his first job with GM. ken has a pretty good library and his own memories to serve as the basis for the many articles that he writes. Ken wrote a rather extensive and technical book on his life in GM. He provides articles to VETTE VUES on a regular basis.
One such article dealt with Corvette Big Blocks. In this article, there are some gems hidden among the wide range of engines he covered. It deals with a series of ZL1 engines sent to the assembly plant to update some L88 cars to ZL1 status. These cars were never sold and, as it turns out, the assembly plant was instructed to restore the L88 cars to their original format and send the engines back to Tonawanda. It seems that this didn't happen and that a number of cars may have been sent to Warren (MI) to be used as engineering cars.
I'll stop this thread right here. Ken is looking to go back over his work and do a new series of stories attempting to isolate these cars/engines and to put some more meat on the bones.
I've scanned the story that Ken had printed in VETTE VUES and can email to folks interested in reading it. Email me ...via regular email.... at
[email protected]
Since the article dealt with a large number of different experiences, I've highlighted the points that are relevant to the ZL1 story in yellow highlighter. But you still have to go slow and read carefully. Don't jump to conclusions.
Ken's next stories in VETTE VUES will attempt to bring some light to the story.