Kid Vette

I just noticed this pic in Dr. Peter J. Gimenez's book "Corvette Racing Legends, The Story of the L-88 Option Package".



The caption reads, "24 Hours of Le Mans 1970 pre-race in the pits. Henri Greder took delivery of a brand new ZL-1 Corvette from Zora Arkus-Duntov only weeks before the race. The 1969 model still retained its factory yellow paint and vinyl covering on the bolt-on hard top. Greder would codrive this ZL-1 Corvette with Jean-Pierre Rouget"

This apparently is not just referring to a ZL-1 engine but a ZL-1 model car. How come we never hear about this car? Anybody know what became of it?

0Road-Race Vette

As far as the paint being original to the car, that would mean GM had installed those flares themselves at the factory.

If they did in fact do so, they did a very crappy job

I wasnt aware of factory installed flares.....

Anyone??

wer2xu

I am willing to bet Zora, had a shop in Detroit, or St Louis where he had cars built...the factories still do it to this day. So I can belive that it is indeed a ZL1 delivered by Zora, but not built by Chevrolet.

Kid Vette

I guess that must be it. The race was in June 0f 1970 so I'm thinking the factory would have actually been tooling up for the '71s at that time.

corvetteload

THEY APPARENTLY HAD FENDER EXTENSIONS, #3958683/84. LOOKs LIKE THEY SCREWeD ON. (sorry for the caps)

Budman68

4 X 4, did they not believe in cutting the springs and lowering bolts back then. The car had to handle like an suv.

parkerracing

3 of the 2 ZL1's produced are already accounted for. Whats one more? I like even numbers better anyway, besides 5 out of 4 people have a problem with fractions. /:\

wer2xu

that's 7/5 of all people.

vintage-racer

That car is chassis # 194679s706401 owned and driven by Henri Greder himself in every single LeMans from 1970-75. The car had upgraded powerplants,but was a factory L-88 ,not a zl-1. The car competed @ LeMans in 1970 yellow #2, 1971 white w/ red upper #2, 1972 white w/blue upper #29 , 1973 white w/ red upper #30, 1974 and 75 the car was blue w/ white flares running #s 51 and #42 respectively. Greder was also involved in the campaigning of a very well known 1968 L-88 coupe. All of these paint combinations are avail. in 1:43 scale from Vitesse diecasts. I have a couple ,very well made.

68L71

I am sure none of the race cars back in the day were as nice as your replicas.

Kid Vette

Thanks for posting. So I guess the "brand new ZL-1 Corvette from Zora Arkus-Duntov" was merely referring to the engine. Makes sense. Dr. Gimenez will be at Bloomington Gold. I'll try to confirm with him when I'm there.

ratmotortom

Does the car still exist today ?? If so, what paint scheme is it wearing ?

Raphiki

http://registryofcorvetteracecars.co.../view_cars/142

http://www.zl1racing.ch/index.php?lg=en&cmd=historique

Try these.

Kid Vette

Just an update. I spoke with Dr. Gimenez at Bloomington Gold. A heck of a nice guy. He said that Greder told him that he received the car from Zora with the ZL-1 installed. He (Dr. Gimenez) feels that Zora probably had the engine installed in an L-88 prior to shipping.

One interesting thing that Dr Gimenez noted was that the L-88s were faster than the Zl-1s. However Greenwood seemed to have pretty good luck with the Zl-1s once he ditched the BF Goodrich radials.

Tomi72

You can spot the yellow #2 Corvette in Steve McQueens "Le Mans" movie a couple of times (just for a few seconds though). The pieces of actual race footage used in the film were filmed at the 1970 race.

Clams Canino

I'm sure most of you know that GM is producing a limited amout (only 427) ZL-1 crate motors this year. I'll attach the link... sorry if it wraps.
http://www.gmperformanceparts.com/En...6392&engCat=bb

-W

sixcarbs

I think the ZL-1 saved somewhere between 70 and 100 lbs. up front. I can't remember the exact figure.

FWIW, Someone once told me, that the L-88 block dissipated heat better than the ZL-1 and that gave it an edge in power output. Your thoughts?

vettesbydesign

I'm toooo poor,and toooo L88/ZL1 stupid to comment on your question,but would like to know what your forum name means?sixcarbs?I have 6 dueces,so it caught my eye.
Sorry to bounce in.
I'll contribute tho....I recently posted a beautiful Lemans blue 69 convertible w/REAL ZL1 from a Camaro.

sray454

There were more than 2 ZL-1 Vettes produced ... just 2 were sold to the public ...

parkerracing

The rest of the ZL-1's produced started as L88's and were converted, either by race teams or in ZAD's skunk works. Chevy made lots of ZL-1 motors, plenty made it into Camaros, Can Am cars and more were sold over the counter to road/drag/boat racers. /:\