All Aluminum Big Block Corvettes.

[Steve_Hoog]

There were 2 or 3 of the 69's, right?

How about 68?

[Chevy454]

The number of '69s is sort of a hot topic, but there were NO '68s, unless prototypes or something screwy like that...

[Steve_Hoog]

Tom Goad spoke at our POCI dinner this last weekend. In 1968 before he left Chevy Engineering for Pontiac, he had possession of a very nice orange 68 with all aluminum BB built in engineering. As reported by Tom.

Since I was so wrapped up in what he had to say about Pontiac's, it didn't dawn on me to ask the outcome of the Vette. He still has several of his engineering built Pontiacs and one Corvair. One of the Engineer built Pontiacs's was a RAV 303 short deck 69 TA of all things. The Vette was at his home in the pic, so he certainly had it off the GM grounds. I would wonder that the car my still exist today.

[COPO_Anders]

I read somewhere that Arkus Zora Duntov had said that six -69 Corvettes where built, and two of them escaped.

Anders

To my understanding there were 6 or 7 cars built total. I was told that the orange car was scrapped as it was a test mule for many drivetrains. This came from one of the principals at Hechler Motors where the yellow car was sold. To my understanding Ted Patrick (owner of Hechler at the time) was told that if he wanted more than one to retail that there were others (plural) available. The Hechler car (the yellow car and the only one with ir-refutable docs) sat on the showroom for quite some time near the sales tower. The dealership facility was brand new in 1969, having moved from the smaller location in Highland Springs, VA and the car represented a viable sales traffic builder. I understand that people would drive from as far as NJ, NY and PA to look at the car. It was quite a conversation piece. It was started once or twice week, as they found it wouldn't run if it didn't get started with any regularity. When I worked at Hechler in the mid 1990's (sales (retail and fleet) and performance sales)) the spot on the showroom was called the "hallowed" spot as a result of the ZL1. Hechler was very performance oriented (also sold 1 of 4-5 '69 L89 chevelle 'converts..you had to be performance oriented to stock something like that..lol) and took delivery of not only the ZL1 vette, but also two ZL1 Camaros along with quite a few COPO's. They were the ONLY dealer to have had both types of cars..neither Dana,Baldwin, Scunico, or even Yenko can lay claim to that!!! Yet they are virtually unheard of unless talk about the 'vette turns up. The dealership is well remembered locally as having many, many (upwards of 20-30) 'vettes lines up at a time in front of the showroom along Nine Mile Rd. (same spot as today). There has been some talk between the owners of Hechler/now Patrick (same family from the '60's..Patrick (Ted and his son Pat)) along with Roger about reuniting the yellow ZL1 and the dealership. The original salesperson who retailed the 'vette to John Zagos is still around as well..Hoyt Rotella. If anyone wants any pics of the dealership (it looks the same) or anymore info on this area (very, very colorfull past)let me know.

Respectfully,

Gregory Carlson

[Steve_Hoog]

Greg that's some interesting stuff.

This orange one was 68 best I remember, the slide went by so fast I didn't get a chance to rethink the year but I believe Mr. Goad said 68. My friend has the slide show on video cam and I will try to get some stills from it to post, then the year will be un questionable.

[JChlupsa]

Any chance of getting any of the Dealership paperwork on the 69 ZL1 like copies of the Window sticker or shipping docs ??