1968 L72 Biscayne - Owner History, looking for more info

[SeattleCarGuy]

Looking for any help completing the owner history on my 1968 L72 Biscayne. This is what I have so far. Any help is appreciated. (Addresses of individuals and contact info deleted for privacy reasons) Also, not allowing my pictures to post...

1968 Chevrolet Biscayne L72
VIN # 154118J315545
OWNERSHIP HISTORY

Summer 1968 – July 1969: BOB KOHNKE
This Biscayne was produced in Janesville, Wisconsin during the 4th week of July, 1968 (07D).
It was sold new at Polar Chevrolet, 1801 East County Road F, White Bear Lake, MN 55110
The original owner was Bob Kohnke (6/23/50 – 8/23/17). Bob was 18 years old when he bought the car and street raced it, and ran it down a drag strip a few times. The only modifications made to the Biscayne during Bob’s ownership were the addition of exhaust headers. Bob lived with his parents at 280 Edith Drive, St. Paul, Minnesota 55118. Bob received a draft notice (1A) during the summer of 1969 and then sold the car back to Polar Chevrolet in July 1969 when it had approximately 7,000 miles on it.
Polar Chevrolet placed the car on their used car lot and advertised the Biscayne in the Minneapolis Star Tribune with the following classified ad on August 1, 1969:


August 1969 – fall of 1973: LARRY MYERS
The Biscayne was purchased off the Polar Chevrolet used car lot in early August 1969 by Larry Myers. (see Affidavit of Larry Myers ownership and Affidavit of Marv Witte) Larry owned the car until 1973.
Larry was a 19-year-old kid in 1969 and was a friend of Bob Kohnke’s. Bob had offered to sell the car direct to Larry when Bob received his draft notice, but shortly thereafter, Larry had also received a draft notice and had to decline the offer. As Larry soon thereafter failed his Army entrance physical, he was able to purchase the car from the Polar Chevrolet used car lot. His mother co-signed the loan.
This is a picture of Larry and the Biscayne in 1969 shortly after he acquired it:





During 1969-1970, Larry raced the car at Minnesota Dragways in stock configuration with nothing more than a performance tune, exhaust headers and drag slicks. The car ran in the 12.70’s with these simple modifications and at one point during 1970, Larry won the First Group Eliminator class with a 12.94 ET at 108.82 MPH:







Here is the actual time slip from Larry’s First Group Eliminator win:


Larry later modified the engine and after breaking the synchro’s in the M22 while street racing the car, decided to convert the Biscayne to a TH400 automatic transmission for drag racing. He also added 12.5 to 1 compression pistons, a much larger Lunati racing camshaft and 4.88 gears. As a result of these modifications, the car ran as fast as a 12.16 ET at NorthStar (Twin Cities) Dragstrip in 1972.
During 1972, at the KDWB Radio Drag Festival at Minnesota Dragways, Larry set the C/Modified Production track record at a 12.20 ET.

Larry struggled to get the car into the 11’s which was his goal as he raced several times against another 4-speed equipped 1968 L72 Biscayne, the “Sour Grapes” car owned and driven by Ned Hagstrom. Larry recalls beating Ned in a class final one time, although Ned’s car was several tenth’s faster, running as well as 11.70 or better.
Here is a picture of Ned Hagstrom’s Biscayne “Sour Grapes” at Minnesota Dragways:



Larry recalls jumping Ned at the light when Ned lost traction and holding on for the win. Like Ned, Larry was also running a pair of high flow electric fuel pumps on his Biscayne. Larry’s were mounted in each corner at the front of the trunk (patched holes now welded and visible) above the gas tank. Larry felt he was losing power and speed near the top end of the quarter mile while Ned was still running strong and into the 11’s. As a result, Larry mounted a fuel pressure gauge on the hood cowl of his Biscayne and found that less than half way down the quarter mile, his fuel pressure was dropping to near zero and the engine leaning out severely. Larry discovered this was due to his electric fuel pumps being mounted above the gas tank and thus having to pull fuel, rather than push fuel towards the engine. Electric pumps are not good at pulling fuel and need to be mounted below the gas tank to have a gravity feed of fuel to the pump. This was in 1973 and by now, the engine was also starting to lose compression and MPH was dropping off so Larry felt the engine was in need of another rebuild, or at least a tear down for new piston rings. Rather than face the expense of another rebuild, and as the nation was also in the midst of OPEC oil embargo and gas crisis, Larry decided to sell the car.
At this point, the car was thought to be worth more in pieces than as a complete car, so Larry sold the engine to one person (someone name Dee Ray (spelling?), the transmission to another and the body with original differential was sold to Tom Moldenhauer.
Also of note, Larry confirmed that he personally welded on the tow tabs to the front frame extensions and that underneath the car, he personally welded on the additional pair of transmission crossmember mounts (still on car today) that he required to transplant the TH400 into the car in 1970.

1973- 1976: TOM MOLDENHAUER
The Biscayne was sold without an engine to Tom Moldenhauer (11/23/49 – 6/3/14) of West St. Paul, MN. Tom later installed a DZ302 out of a 1969 Camaro into the Biscayne. Larry Myers and Marv Witte both knew Tom as well and saw the car when it had this engine in it. Marv says that Tom drove the car on the street with the 302 engine, but only sparingly as it was always clean and the miles were still very low and Tom had other cars as well.
Larry Myers took this photo of the car in 1975 when Tom owned it:


Tom Moldenhauer passed away in 2014. Larry Myers contacted his sister who was not much help. A friend of Tom’s that Larry Myers recently spoke with confirmed that while Tom owned the Biscayne he had later licensed it with the personalized plate “SNOOPY”.

1976 - ???: JERRY ALTMAN
The Biscayne was believed to have been sold to a gentleman named Jerry Altman, also of St. Paul, Minnesota. (Newspaper clippings from the period indicate that Jerry also raced a Road Runner at Minnesota Dragways. Have not been able to find accurate contact information for Jerry Altman. Still looking.)

2000-2016: SAM BATTAGLIA
Car was owned by Sam Battaglia for about 16 years. Per discussion with Sam, he drove it no more than 10 miles a year or less as it just sat in his garage. Car had around 19,000 miles on it when he purchased it and interior was all original in immaculate condition. Body panels were also original and not rusted. Sam has been a drag racer since the 1960’s and owns another 1968 Biscayne L72 as well as a 1967 Biscayne 427. Sam briefly tried to document the car during his ownership but was not successful in tracking down prior owners. He only knew that the car had originally come out of Minnesota, but didn’t get much more information. He had bought the car from a collector in Delaware who owned an extensive collection of dozens of cars. The collector had passed away and his estate was liquidating the collection. The heirs to the estate “were not car guys”, so they weren’t much help. Sam was attracted to the Biscayne at that time because it was a very low mile car in very good original condition except for its original engine and transmission were missing.
During Sam’s ownership, he commissioned Scott Chalk, a noted authority on L72 full-size Chevy’s to restore the car. The car was restored in 2012 with a date code correct L72 and all correct components. During the restoration, Scott took the liberty of adding and original Tach and Gauge Package dashboard, though he kept the original odometer in the car so as to not disrupt the original mileage which was still around 19,000 miles in 2012. Scott also added power steering at the insistence of Sam Battaglia, though knowing that neither the gauge package nor power steering were original to the car. This fact was also confirmed by Larry Myers who stated the car had factory disc brakes, rally wheels and an L72/M22/4.10 positraction drivetrain, but no tach or gauges when he bought it from Polar Chevrolet in 1969. Scott Chalk also replaced the carpeting and the gas tank that was in the car as it had been sitting for such a long time. He confirmed that the gas tank had the original 3/8 single fuel line used only on L72 cars.

2016: MICK PRICE
The Biscayne was purchased from Sam Battaglia by Mick Price. Mick is a private collector and dealer in classic Chevrolet muscle cars in Illinois. Mick regularly posts cars for sale on Yenko.net and is very knowledgeable about classic Chevrolets. Recognizing the uniqueness of this special Biscayne, Mick bought the car from Sam Battaglia with the intention of marketing it and reselling it for profit.

October 2016 - October 2017: PHIL MITCHELL
The Biscayne was purchased from Mick by Phil Mitchell of Sumner, Washington. Phil owns Sunset Chevrolet and is a collector of rare Chevrolet muscle cars. He has approximately 40 rare cars, including several Yenko Super Cars in his collection. Phil purchased the Biscayne along with a Chevelle from Mick at the same time and brought the cars out to his collection here in Washington State. Other than driving it once when it first arrived, the Biscayne sat in Phil’s warehouse with his other collector cars.
During the fall of 2017, Phil contacted Mick Price about buying another car in Mick’s collection. When Phil suggested he would “have to make room” for another vehicle, Mick suggested possibly selling the Biscayne to Paul Raidna, as Paul had been interested in buying the car from Mick the previous year before losing out to Phil on the purchase. Mick contacted Paul Raidna in October 2017 and Paul agreed to buy the car.
October 2017 – present: PAUL RAIDNA
Car was purchased from Phil Mitchell (Sunset Chevrolet) by Paul Raidna. Paul is a collector and restorer of Chevrolet Muscle Cars in Seattle, Washington. Paul had been negotiating with Mick Price to buy the car in 2016, when Mick sold the car out from under him in a two car deal to Phil Mitchell. Hearing that it might be available again, Paul jumped at the chance to buy the car.
Paul intends to own the car for many, many years and has set about doing all he can to research and document this rare car, including extensive correspondence with Larry Myers. To date, Larry has provided Paul with numerous items related to the Biscayne including original photographs, time slips from drag racing, newspaper clippings, 8mm movies and Larry intends to personally deliver to Paul the trophy he won when he set the C/MP track record at Minnesota Dragways in 1972.
Among the other cars in Paul’s collection are a 1969 L78 Nova, a 1962 Bel Air 409 and a 1963 Impala SS 409 convertible.

[SeattleCarGuy]

I'm not able to attach some other photos as it says they are too big...

[mockingbird812]

That's some real good sleuthing Paul, and it tells a great story about your Biscayne. Best of luck to you. Get those pix up (or send them to me and i'll do it: [email protected])

[mockingbird812]

Here are the photos of Paul’s beauty....

[Tenney]

Cool car (and research!!)!

[SeattleCarGuy]

Some shots of my car at Minnesota Dragways in 1970 taken from home movies

[mr.4speed]

So cool! Thanks for sharing

[SeattleCarGuy]

Very excited that I was able to get a hold of Jerry Altman recently who owned the car from about 1976-1999. Jerry is a great guy and sent me a stack of photos from when he raced the car at various Minnesota tracks in the late-1970's. Enjoy!

[SS427]

Now that I see the bigger photos it is definitely not North Star Drag Strip. Interesting that Crystal Welding was only about 15 miles from both North Star and Mn Dragways. So cool that you have received so many photos and past history of your car. Not an easy task.

[SeattleCarGuy]

One of the guys on Facebook says it is Grove Creek Raceway. Are you familiar with that one, Rick?