Does anyone know the month/day that GM announced the L 88 option to dealers via an official notification letter?

Thanks

 

No answers? Probably in late 1966 Bob. Month and day I dont know. But I did buy two complete crate L88`s over the counter in Feburary of 1967 for $2400.00 and installed them in a 18 foot drag boat. The L88 "IT" tags are visable on the end of the right side valve covers.

 

that is way too cool, Wally..

BTW, Wally, I sent you a PM and never got a response......

 

It`s best to use my other E Mail wallyknoch@aol.com or waltpuffer@aol.com so I wont miss them.

 

Holy smokes!!! What a beauty.

 

As some people may (or may not) know, there has been, and still is, an ongoing debate about a very tiny handful of '66 Vettes that had L88 engines. Factory delivered, dealer installed, owner installed, which????
Who knows? Who will ever know?
Records (and they appear to be accurate) indicate that 20 '67 Corvettes were factory delivered with the L88 pkg. Thus, if only 20 '67s were built, how many, if any, '66s could have been built??? Documentation, at best, is very sketchy! But I've learned (the hard way) to never say never!

 

The reason that I am asking the question is that I have a portion of the letter that was provided to dealers intoducing the L 88. The problem is that I am missing the top of the letter that has the date. It is clear from the portion that I have that it is a 67 option and that it is not mentioned anywhere in the ordering info sent to the dealers dated Sept 66 as they are told to add the request for the L 88 on the order form - "...please make the necessary notation in the "Aditional Option" section of the order form."

Interesting the $$ info provided by Wally. The dealer net for an ordered engine was $684, $47.90 factory D&H, list price $900.00, MSRP $947.90. BTW the dealer order code was 30-7. Also, could not register "engine" in California as there was "no provision has been made for RPO K19.

 

In 1966 Chevrolet released this C.O.P.O. Corvette with the 1st L-88-427 to Roger Penske Chevrolet. Besides the L-88 option the car had the factory competition race package which included:

1. J-56 brakes
2. 36 gallon tank
3. F-41 suspension
4. Prototype 2:73 posi rear end
5. TI ignition
6. M-22 trans
7. off road exhaust
8. radio and heater delete
9. teakwood steering wheel
10. special cowl induction hood

The car was released to Dick Guldstrand in mid-January of 1966 at the St. Louis Plant..
Guldstrand drove the car back to Penske's Newton Square Garage in
Penn. and began prep work for the Daytona Race.

The car was raced in it's original Red at Daytona... then painted
dark blue at the request of sponsor Sunoco.

The L-88/66 finished 1st in GT class......... 11th overall



the 1st L-88 Corvette.... Penske-Daytona winner 1966

 

My understanding is that though a race prepped L-88 from Traco
was installed in this car the day before the race... it WAS factory delivered with an L-88 under the hood... the documentation I have for this
is an article from Corvette Enthusiast magazine...this car is generally
acknowledged as the 1st factory equipped L-88 Corvette.
In fact... with the Factory equipped motor... and not the Traco full race
mill.... the 66 turned one of Daytona's fastest laps ever during practice.

I have struggled to find a date for you on the Corvette Enthusiast Article but I don't think I'm going to have success.... my copy is on a pdf file and the edges are skewed....

 

January 14th, 1966 was the date of delivery to Guldstrand in St. Louis..
another article was written on the car .. this time in
Corvette News... Volume 9 Number 5...

One of the articles I read mentioned a meeting between Penske, Sunoco
and Chevrolet representatives..... one of the Chevrolet attendees was
Vince Piggins.... John Z's old boss...

 

Anyone know the VIN # of this car?

 

Article says that Duntov contacted Penske in October of 1965 by phone
on the availability of the L-88.... I don't know if an official memo to all
dealers was released at this time..
There was a mention of Penske being involved in the L-88's field testing..

official dealer notification could have come..
1. about the same time as the Duntov/Penske phone call
2. or AFTER field testing was completed
3. or anytime..

the car... at the time of the article.. was owned by Kevin Mackay of
Valley Stream, NY..

 

Agree that this was the first L 88 race car sold to a special "client" but it was not a car released to the general public through a dealer.

I still go back to my original question - what was the date that dealers were notified the L 88 could be ordered in a production car.

 

A little more info. But, still don't know, when dealers were notified.

M.F. Dobbins - L88 entered production Feb. 1967

VINS of L-88 cars in Nolands book.

109097
110702
112527 1/4/66 dated heads.
117527
121550

 

http://corvetterepair.com/Penske/index.htm

 

Hey Wally, how did you, or what is the method for coupling the two motors. I have seen it many times, just wondering?

Mark

 

427 Mitch - Thanks for the info. Didn't find a VIN though. I just wanted to see how close my car was to such exhalted company.
Mine was [NCRS birthday calc.] born on the 13th. Curious, mine has a job #418 and the Penske car shows #403. Maybe mine actually popped out on the 14th.

 

Neither the cowl induction hood nor the L-88 were installed at St. Louis. No definitive documentation exists that a L-88 was installed at St. Louis, and documentation exists that the cowl induction hood was installed by Penske.

This car was the engineering development prototype for the L-88, and the only way to develop a racing engine is to race it, but given the internal GM policies at the time this could only be done by an outside contractor, not GM employees.

According to a contemporaneous Corvette News article the cowl induction hood was added at Penske's race shop and the car was qualified with the "stock" engine.

Prior to the race a specal Traco built engine was installed. Guess what that engine was and where the internal parts came from!

At that time in early 1966 the L-88 package was not released, but was in development. As is common with development cars, a COPO is generated with the appropriate RPOs, and then prototype parts are installed by engineering, or in this case, an outside contractor - Penske. Prototype parts are not installed on the production line because they disrupt production. Only after production parts are released does the plant do a "pilot build" with parts that are production spec. Pilot build parts may not be built with production tooling, but they conform to released production drawings.

Chevrolet Engineering supplied the prototype cowl induction hood parts to Penske, who installed them at his race shop prior to taking the car to Daytona. The car was then qualified with the production L-72 with the cowl induction hood, and after qualificiation the Traco built engine with L-88 prototype parts supplied by Chevrolet Engineering was installed for the race.

Duke

 

One more comment...at least it keeps your thread towards the top

I thought, I once read that you had to be REALLY connected, and in the know, to order an L-88 car. They only built and released them to SPECIAL customers..?

 

There was likely "special handling" for L-88 orders, as it was strictly a racing engine.

In fact, the '67 L-88 was not legal to register on the street because it did not have a closed PCV system as was federal law for all cars from 1963 and all cars licensed in California from 1961.

For 1968 a closed PCV system was added, the heater delete option was discontinued to meet the new FMVSS that all cars have windshield defrosters, and they had an AIR pump and supposedly it meet at least EPA emission requirements, so technically they could be licensed for street use, but this was discouraged. It was, and still is, a racing engine unsuited for normal driving on streets and highways.

Duke