everyone should do with their car as they please .

Long as restamping motor changes , clones are discussed upon selling or have disclosure seems fair.

Here on this site many guys built their own cars publicly , but you have to know , cause I have seem em, there are garages out their turning out ANY car you want , if you have the money . NCRS quality work, with restamped blocks , you can have a 1965 396 car built for you. The companies building these cars are just providing a service , the end user decides if it is for his use or resale to scam others.

I have seen 1967 BB cars made out of just a pair of doors , burn firewall and not much else. Really cars that should have been crushed or destroyed. Rebuilt to perfection , for about 90 K ....... then passed off on the market a pristine originals for 145k.

Alotof you are driving these cars and don't know it .....

problem is who ever inherits these cars have no idea what they really are , the family on presumes their car was the best intentions and not a faked 1965 396.

So , everybody thinks that "Bob" was a honest dude and paid 145k for a NCRS quality car , really bought a non original motor car and never knew it......he just had lots of money and trusted the wrong people.

problem is .....just because you pay 150 grand for a car doesn't mean it is what what it is..... as Mike repeats daily , all the show quality in the world doesn't guarantee your driving the car you thought you bought. Awards don 't mean all original drive train components. The car just looks correct in every way.

 

Stan,... since I am grinning from ear to ear (shame on me), I have to say this...wait for it....drum roll, please...

An L-88 without the L-88 is not an L-88.

 

But a car that left the factory as an L-88 would be an L-88 again with the addition of an original L-88 engine. Not numbers matching, but could be legitimately advertised as a L-88 with a factory correct non numbers matching motor none the less.

 

Mike,

The sad (and very ironic) fact is, that even as a project, the car you describe (a documented L-88 without its original engine) is way out of my budget... Probably low six figures at this point in time. That's a bit more than a comparable base engine car, wouldn't you say?

Restored and with a correct engine reinstalled, probably approaching mid six figures.

The only guys truly laughing are the ones that already own one... Original engine or not.

Regards,

Stan

 

It seems that there are very few, participating in this thread, that realize this.

 

I think the Corvette community in general, and the folks in the C3 community specifically, know all 347 of the existing L-88 cars have their original engines.

 

Which is exactly why, in the long run, none of this is going to matter for a hill of beans. Too easy to fake. Documentation? Easy enough to fake that, too.

These were mass produced vehicles differentiated by relatively minor changes when fairly inexpensive option packages were included. They were not Plymouth Superbirds or Shelby Cobras that would be very hard to fake. An LT1 was a $450 option on a $5,200.00 car, and GM sold 1300 of them out of 17000 cars that year, out of well over 100,000 total production virtually idential chrome bumper cars, a huge number of which still survive because they made them out of fiberglass and were often driven very little. They just aren't rare cars. I would not get too pent up about whether it will appreciate. I think the odds of that continuing as those with boyhood dreams of that LS5 or LT1 or L36 or [name your engine package] Corvette all slowly die off.

I think the pertinent question is whether $25,000 is an okay deal for a nice convertible Corvette in good shape. So long as everything works, it probably is. Are you going to drive it and are you willing to take a hit when you sell it? Then buy it. Is it a "real" LT-1 or not? Who knows? You'll never know for sure, and neither will anyone else. BBCorv70 had it right above, when he observed that "Many would call this a clone, accepted in most muscle car circles but not so much within the world of Corvettes." Clones in other circles get good prices because people recognize that it take a lot of time, money, and effort to do one right.

In Corvetteland, enceearess induced lunacy leads some to believe a perfectly executed LT1 clone would (or should) be worth less than some clapped out numbers matching base model. I love Corvettes, but a lot of their owners are a little and, quite frankly, are probably turning off a lot of potential buyers. I'm sure my fake as the day is long NOM big block would be laughed at (particularly the nifty 435HP trim tag) by a balding 70 year old purist with a monacle (which generally seems to be how the "outside world" perceives the Corvette clique). I don't care. Neither should the OP. Go buy the LT1, slap the right sticker on the air cleaner, and have fun with it.