Third ZL-1 ?
 

Forgive me if this is old news but is it true that a third ZL-1 surfaced in the last few years?

I have three in my garage that I bought from a place in Ohio. You mean there's more? :rofl:

I did see something about that possibility in a magazine recently but can't find that article.

According to Corvette Fever, yes, a third one exists. It's an automatic, red with black vinyl top, still dressed in Drag Race decals and the like. They did an article on the car within the last year and a half I beleive. I'll have to see if I can dig it up to tell you the exact issue.

[QUOTE=sdonnelly;1562796024]I have three in my garage that I bought from a place in Ohio. :lolg: :lolg: :lolg: :lolg: :lolg: Surely you aren't implying someone would sell a corvette under false pretenses?

Two for sure are verified with factory docs. Third is questionable. Factory paperwork indicates originally equipped as L-88. Some of Corvette crowd has accepted its provenance as real, others have not.

I saw this one in person and talked to the guy. He was going to sell and had an offer over 2 million.


http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t...1806_1733a.jpg
http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t...1806_1733b.jpg

That's John Mahers Monaco orange ZL-1 TH400 convertible, Roger Judski owns the Daytona yellow ZL-1 M22 coupe. The Can Am white coupe is the questionable ZL-1 car.

Nobody in Ohio would sell you anything but an original all numbers matching creampuff.:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
Mershons or Pro Team?:D

Warren,

Why is the white ZL-1 questionable? No supporting docs? I was under the impression that this car was legit.

I read on NCRS earlier today that there might have been 8 ZL-1's and that most of them were changed to an L88 car before they left the factory and some bought from racers (where the documentatiion would have been thrown out the window).

...thought at one time there was supporting docs that said it was an "L-88 dealer converted to a ZL-1"??? ...or something to that effect???

427-390,

The factory documents this car has, show it to have been built as a L-88. The dealership docs show it as a new car and ZL-1 engine and the price supports it.

There have been several indepth articles written about this car back in the late seventies, early eighties. A very interesting read.

Originally 7 ZL-1 engines were sent from Tonawanda engine plant to Chevrolet engineering in Warren, MI. I believe the 2 test mules that Zora had, the white convertible and orange coupe that were used with various drivetrains and given to car magazines to test and write about the ZL-1 option had 2 of the 7 engines from engineering. The remaining 5 engines were sent back to Tonawanda.
A well known and respected NCRS judge once asked Zora about those cars. Zora replied, that he had signed the destruct order for those two test mules, however the look on Zora's face while he said it, gave the impression to the questioner that maybe there was more to it than what was said.

So there could be 4? Any word on what happened to the other 3 engines?

Just curious. Why does anybody care? These things are just glorified paperweights, available only to the wealthy collector. You'll never see them on the road or track. Show me one that is actually out there wearing out tires and brake pads, and then you'll get my attention. Until then, WGAS?

I've heard there is some doubt as to where those engines went...and you're not accounting for the fact that two ZL-1s were built for sale. That would put the total at at least four constructed (two mules, two production cars), with three engines unaccounted for.

And there have been a lot of things that GM officially destroyed that later turned up unscathed.

Those engines were supposedly returned to the Tonawanda engine facility. They were just part of the overall production of the ZL-1 engines. Fran Preve who worked at Tonawanda researched the number of coded ZL-1 engines produced there. I forgot the exact number, but thought it was approximately 161 engines coded either as manual or automatic.

I maybe wrong but the orange ZL-1 has documentation.I thought i read somewhere that he is the original owner.