Gorilla Milk Chicago gasser '62

[Verne_Frantz]

Chris,
To my knowledge, no car left the factory in the '62 model year with ANY "Z-11" equipment. That's one of those tales that comes up fairly often. The few '62 Super Sports, like 'Ol Reliable III, Nicholsen's car, the Zintsmaster car, etc were ALL regular 409hp 409s. They ran B/FX because of the aluminum, not because of engine modifications.
Late, maybe June or July '62 some "Z-11 type" parts were produced and funnelled through certain dealers to known racers. A number of '62s DID show up on the tracks with those high port heads and 2-piece intakes, but none are believed to be built at any Chevy assembly plant. Most of those early parts also carried the "O-" casting numbers, meaning engineering prototypes.
As far as '63 Z-11s go, NHRA required 50 units sold to the "public" to qualify for Super Stock. A Tonawanda engine assembly plant document exists which lists 50 complete engine units produced by July '63. Chevy also sent the NHRA a list of 40 cars and the dealers they were sent to just before the '62 Winternationals. The list fell short of the 50 required, so Hayden Profitt's Z-11 was put into a made-up-on-the-spot class of LP/S (Limited Production Stock). There may have been only one other car there to be classified that way, so the very beginning of the Z-11 legacy got off to a rather un-noteworthy start.
and the rest, as they say......is history....

Verne