Curated Content Editor

First L88 Corvette Ever Built up for Grabs
By Brett Foote

Any L88 Corvette is worth its weight in gold, but this '67 is the very first of its legendary breed.

GTs 58

So this is the car that Franklin Mint copied?

roadster65

Would look better with some Wide Body Fat Flares or maybe donor for a Restomod Project …

tobaccokid

Unfortunately it is not the first L88 Corvette built. The first one was the single 1966 Corvette built specifically for Roger Penske. For the possible haters that one always sees that cannot handle the facts in any discussion, keep in mind the following:

- It wasn't exactly built as a race car, essentially no different than '67's. Roadable, kind of. Picked by Dick Guldstrand and driven across country to LA during winter

- The fact that it was built as a one-off essentially doesn't make it much less unorderable than the '67 where you had to
know G-d to get one, which is why only twenty were built

SWCDuke

The '66 Penske Coupe was built at St. Louis with a L-72 and all the recently released HD options (F-41, J-56, M-22), and heater delete. Guldstrand picked it up at the plant in mid-January, and drove it to Penske's Pennsylvania shop for race prep, NOT Los Angeles.

Race prep included a prototype cold air induction system provided by Chevrolet, headers/open side pipes, and American Racing wheels with Goodyear racing tires among other things. According to a contemporaneous article in Corvette News the car practiced with the "stock" engine. Then for qualifying and the race a special "Traco prepared" engine was installed, and that engine had the prototype L-88 parts supplied by Chevrolet.

The first L-88 installed at the plant wasn't until the spring of '67, after it was released for production. Prototype parts are NOT installed on GM production lines. They have to go through the release system, then one or more "pilot models" are built, which are sometimes retained by GM and sometimes sold to the public, at least back then.

The '67 St. Louis-built L-88 that I helped prepare for racing in Seattle was delivered to the owner by Alan Green Chevrolet in May '67.

Duke

Sam Kalmuk

So, which is the Green '67 L88 Coupe that Bill Tower has, in Florida…..??

John BX NY

Wondering what's the history of this car ? Was it ever a racecar or was it kept as delivered all these years ?

Dr L-88

This is the car when it was restored back to its racing days livery ...............................

mikelj

OMG! So this is another Frankenstein car where most all original parts are gone and replaced?

Swept57

From what I made out going through old threads, there are two "1st" L88s. The stock version going to auction, I think, carries the original trim tag and vin plate. But from what I have read about the original car's history, there can't be any original parts on it. The other one is restored to race specs and, who knows, might have some parts that were actually used on the original race car.

Dr L-88

Race cars.....................especially race cars with significant race history like this one, typically retain few original parts.

67's

I tend to agree with you, and believe just like George Washington's axe.

mikelj

So true, a sad fact people must remember before you fall in love with one......

3JsVette

I like this version better.

Lotsacubes

Ahhhhh,.... SO much better. Gives Elwood's rear stripe some gravitas. Wicked car. I'd love to tribute that. Thx

Dr L-88

Here are a couple of short videos of the car just after restored to racing livery.

Swept57

But that is a different car than the one being auctioned, right? Is this a total recreation or does it have components from the race era "1st" L88?