SS ZL-1's Authentic vs Clone

[aardvark413]

Hello, my name's Mike and I've been a lurker here for a couple of months. Long enough to know that forum members here are an excellent source of straight info about ZL-1's.

I have an interest in early Super/Stock cars and particularly ZL-1's which were raced in SS. Unfortunately, there were some cars raced in SS/C (1969) & SS/B (1970 forward) with ZL-1 engines which were clones instead of the authentic cars. Is it generally known which cars were authentic and which were the clones?

I've read, probably here on the forum, that Ken Barnhart, Pete Molnar & Bill Turner all raced authentic cars and that Bill Jenkins raced a clone. Is it true that the Strickler, Hielscher and Kanuika/ Jungle Jim cars were all clones?

There were several other cars raced in NHRA SS as ZL-1's in the '69- early '70's time frame. Anyone know for sure about any of these cars?

John Livingston TN SS/B (Livingston Bros / Tennessee Thunder)
Jack Bayer CA SS/B (Roger Rodacker)
Bruce Krumlauf OH SS/B (Robinson & Wilson / Scene Machine)
Larry Strube MD SS/B (Strube & Biddinger / White Fang)
Dennis Whitestone MD SS/B (Warlock)
Bob Tucker FL SS/C
Roger Cunningham OH SS/C
Sid Swennes CO SS/B
Len Sabatine (Hauser Chevrolet) CT SS/BA

Thank You
Mike

[mockingbird812]

Welcome aboard Mike. Am sure you'll get some input on your question. I have an early Plymouth S/S raced in the Chicago area.

[William]

The car raced by Len Sabatine was one of the original 50 Gibb cars; #4 Cortez silver auto. Len raced it for the 1970 season.


He returned it to Hauser less engine in 1971. They installed a 402 and put it on the used car lot. It was street driven until 1980 when it returned to racing.



Still snoozing here in Milwaukee.

[aardvark413]

Thank you, Sam.

[aardvark413]

William, thank you very much, that's fantastic. Especially since the car survived and is still looking good. Do you know if Len Sabatine ran another '69 Camaro for Hauser Chevrolet also in 1970? It's been suggested to me that he might have ran a second car in SS/DA. Thanks, Mike

[William]

Yes; a Fathom green automatic Yenko. I believe it survives.

[aardvark413]

Thank you, William. The pictures are super. As I recall those cars were very active and when they weren't running at larger events, they were often at Island Dragway in north Jersey.

[William]

As of September the ownership history of #4 became complete.

Around 1974 the #3rd owner installed a 435/427 and cruised the New Jersey area where he was stationed. So I believe it was there twice. Years later it was raced at Firebird Raceway in Boise, Idaho alongside ZL-1 #13, also a Silver Gibb car. At the time neither owner knew they had ZL-1 Camaros. #4 also spent some time in Scottsdale AZ.

Hauser Chev also had ZL-1 #43, Le Mans blue 4-speed. Stolen in 1972 and not recovered.

BTW the Jenkins car was an L78 SS later fitted with the ZL-1 engine from #14 or #20. Based on photos the Jungle Jim car was not a production ZL-1. Malcolm Durham had production #42 ZL-1 out of Lustine Chev, supposedly still around. Several ZL-1s remain unaccounted for and may exist as heavily modified race cars.

[aardvark413]

I didn't know the Malcolm Durham car was a ZL-1. I'm guessing they used up the original engine running in the AHRA version of Pro/Stock in 1969? By 1970 it was running in SS/D at NHRA meets. Below is a link to the best picture I've seen of that car. Some other good stuff there too.
Mike

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dodgede...7612759757433/