1970 L78 nova

[WILMASBOYL78]

Don't want to get off the track of all this "car history' but, did we ever get any info on the axle code for this L78 car? I would like to see a post with some docs or info on the axle. Rare options are of interest to us all.

Still waiting......

[DaJudge]

GTO_Don is at Barrett Jackson until Sunday night. That is why he has nit been able to respond.

Mike

[Salvatore]

So The building is still there. I guess Ken Montgomery's shop is close also.(Jenkintown) Jungle went to the west coast also I think. Ken junior has a video for me with the camera in his dad's Hemi car. Apparently they took videos of the racing season from inside the car. Saw some videos at York last year.

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

555

[Salvatore]

The Tripple Nickel! sam

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

I knew you would pick that up!

[PxTx]

Ken's Shop is about 3/4 mile from my house. I'll get some pics of that too.

[RichSchmidt]

I cant vouch for Jenkins ever building a street car,but as for his 70 prostocker,the actual prostock car was really a full bumper car and was raced that way in the first few events they ran it in.It later was fitted with an A&A specialties fiberglass front clip which was a split bumper piece.Other points of interest with that car was that it has pinstriping accenting the body lines when it had the stock nose on it,but most of the pinstriping was gone when the car was fitted with the glass nose,and some of the stickers were rearranged.The car also came from the factory with the full size rear spoiler,but I believe this was deleted when the glass nose was done.The 1970 issue of Hot Rod has the real car in it's earliest form on the cover and in a full spread.They claim it was an original SS396,but Jenkins claimed to have installed a "B" body 12 bolt with service package posi unit and 5.13 gears.I dont know why such a swap would have ben done if the car had a 12 bolt to begin with as all 70 SS cars had.
I buried my July 1970 issue of Hot Rod with the car in it,but I also seem to remember the first hood being a pro stock scoop on top of a cowl induction hood,but that might have been the earlier car I am drawing in my head.

Here is another piece of Jenkis trivia I was never able to verify.I know that Richie Zul owned Grump's 70 car in the mid 70's,and it was supposedly stolen,but I have also heard rumors that Zul had a 69 Camaro prostocker before the 70 car and it was also a previously Jenkins prepared car although maybe not a Grumpy's toy.It was also supposedly stolen and dumped under the New Jersey Turnpike overpass near Newark New Jersey.Is it possible that the stories are about the same car,or did Zul own 2 such cars that were stolen?The rest of that rumor went on to include that the Zul built engine was an iron block 427 that was one of the first Prostockers into the 9.40's,and that it either ended up in a very fast street race camaro of that time in Newark or under an equally fast big body 409 Impala of that era and area.Who knows anything about these stories?

[Salvatore]

Zul's 1969 camaro was his. It got stolen in early 70's. We talked to him at the SS nationals in York. That car was his. He told us that his father knew who stole the car. Don't know what happened then. he then borrowed or leased Jenkins car. I believe it was the 1970 or 71 car. (not sure about dates) Jenkins was doing the Vega then I believe. Also Zul was in the low nines with stamped steel GM rockers. I SAW them. At one point, he was the fastest big block. Sam

[RichSchmidt]

Back then,Zul was one of the first guys to run Ford Cleveland rockers on the big Chevy because it bumped the ratio from 1.70 to 1.73:1.He was also a big believer in compression,and he used to it run very late cam timing and was one of the only guys running 5.86:1 gears behind a bigblock at the time.He came to my friends shop to look over his prostock car that as also racing at the time,and he let in on a few of the ways he could have identified his engine.One way was that he milled the block so much that the top water pump bolt hole was almost breaking through the deck,and the other was that the heads were so angle milled that the headers were smashed against the starter motor.He claims he later started refacing the exhaust flanges to make the headers not hit,but you can imagine how milled down all that stuff must have been.The popular opinion at the time was that the engine ended up in a very fast big money race camaro from Newark{who I wont name},but looking back at it,many agree that during the time frame that Zul's car disappeared,there was a certain big tire 409 impala that got real fast out of no where at the street races,and that seems the be the new opinion on where it might have went.Either way,everybody seemed to agree that the engine wouldnt even show up in an actual race car.
SO the only part of the story that was incorrect was that the 69 car was never in the hands of a Jenkin's team racer.Either way,Zul should have put better locks on his doors.Having the second car stolen must have really stunk.
Thanks again for the imput.