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First post. I've viewed this thread many times. Sorry to bump such an old topic but this seems to be the only thread on the internet talking about this shop. I never knew Park, his story, his shop, or anything about what happened to him before I bought my 1990 Corvette. The only reason I know about Park is because of the custom Park Performance plaque on the throttle body of my car. I have had the car for about three years and have always been interested in its history. In 2017/18 I met with the owner of Corvette Care in Rancho Cordova, CA. He apparently worked in the original Milpitas shop when Park was still around. They had a corvette hood with a Park Performance logo painted on it hanging on the wall in their lobby. That shop has since closed its doors; Unsure why.
I am here to share some photos of my car and reach out to see if anyone has any more information about this shop and the cars they touched. If anyone has any information or would like to share an anecdote about Park or his shop I'm sure we would all love to listen.
Last edited by ParkPerformance90C4; 02-11-2019 at 01:47 AM.
Reason: Formatting
This thread is ancient and has no value whatsoever to guys enjoying C1s and mid-year cars today, but, you gotta love reading the dirt.
Almost like reading an issue of the Enquirer without having to go to the supermarket. Somehow I missed it all back in 2011 and 2012.
There have been plenty of articles here on Corvette history and personalities. Larry Park was a prominent man in the northern Calif. Corvette scene, and I've long heard about his personality and sad end, and I appreciate knowing about it in greater detail.
I met Larry only once, when he came by house to look at a 67 convertible I had up for sale. He didn't buy it, but as he was leaving he ran out of gas in front of my driveway in his C2 convertible. Not only did he not buy my car, but I ended up giving him a gallon of gas. Cool guy.
This is pretty extreme to offer without some more confirmation. But I think Larry is either dead or in jail.. Seems like I recall it involved his wife. One got shot and the other is in jail? Happened late 80's early 90's.
Can anyone else confirm?
Harry
(I ran against Larry at a few of the national autocross events in the 80's. He always had beautifully prepped cars. )
Yep! I knew the person who bought all of their C1 parts back in the day. As far as I know the person still has most of the parts.
1982 and 1983 I was stationed up in NorCal and had short stints with NCCA club! Raced a few times with and against them! My brother raced them out of the SoCal area with the GRA (Guldstrand group) in the latter 80’s, into the 90’s and beat him a number of times, but generally Larry beat everybody. I have a great video, of some of that autocrossing back in the day (basically full blown race cars, running the cones)! I only visited the shop once to buy some stuff! Got the tour!
Funniest exchange was he came up while the car was running, and the Octane boosters were burning the eyes, and he yelled what the hell are you putting in that dam thing!
Truly passionate about Corvettes and Corvette racing! RIP
Last edited by TCracingCA; 02-13-2019 at 12:01 AM.
Welcome to the Corvette Forum Herbie! Do you know anything about this stained glass? Like where this place is?
The stained glass is at the home of the current owner of the car pictured in the glass work ( I am the previous owner of same car-purchased from Larry p. (my former business partner) in '87
First post. I've viewed this thread many times. Sorry to bump such an old topic but this seems to be the only thread on the internet talking about this shop. I never knew Park, his story, his shop, or anything about what happened to him before I bought my 1990 Corvette. The only reason I know about Park is because of the custom Park Performance plaque on the throttle body of my car. I have had the car for about three years and have always been interested in its history. In 2017/18 I met with the owner of Corvette Care in Rancho Cordova, CA. He apparently worked in the original Milpitas shop when Park was still around. They had a corvette hood with a Park Performance logo painted on it hanging on the wall in their lobby. That shop has since closed its doors; Unsure why.
I am here to share some photos of my car and reach out to see if anyone has any more information about this shop and the cars they touched. If anyone has any information or would like to share an anecdote about Park or his shop I'm sure we would all love to listen.
I knew Larry and his wife well and most of the guys that worked for him , do you remember the guys name with Larry's old Hood ? Funny too I was visiting someone at the State Prison in Chowchilla and ran into Larry's wife there after she shot and killed him . A very tragic story You can still find the entire story on the internet a San Jose paper has it . I just looked and found it https://www.metrosiliconvalley.com/p...park-0017.html
New to this board and just saw this with the new entry. I autocrossed my '78 Trans Am at Pleasanton CA a lot and met Larry and his wife. Lots of BP C2s and C3s.They were frequent competitors there as well as Solo 1 road courses. They had a fairly gutted C3 I saw them race most of the time. I even picked up Bill Herron's(normally a BP guy) 79 Trans Am Pontiac 400 4 speed Larry changed the rear gear ratio at his shop. Pontiac started stockpiling the TA 6.6 220 HP motors mid '78 for just 78 and then 78 4 speed cars. Bill was quite the driver in it also.
02-11-2019, 01:45 AM
