Fun Facts for C3rs

[mxdout165]

If only it were summer. Suffering through CDS, (corvette deprivation syndrome), I have been reading about the car we all love, and interestingly enough, happened to find the baddest Corvette ever produced by GM. It is a 1969 flaming orange ZL-1 car, built by Tom Langdon and Gib Hufstader. The all aluminum ZL-1(427) in this car produced about 710hp!!! It was also lightened considerably. It ran the 1/4 in 10.89 at 130mph!!! Wouldn't that be fun!!! To bad only one was built, and never for production. Just a fun fact to pass the time and dream about for those of us who can't drive our vettes due to the weather season.

(information taken from: Sports Car Color History, Corvette 1968 - 1982)

 

[twiget]

I was under the impression there where two ZL-1 Corvettes built. One yellow, and one black. I may be wrong about the black one, but I have the yellow one sitting on my desk at home. If Im not mistaken Yenko go ahold of a few of these engines and put them in his famous Camaros.

 

[mxdout165]

actually, you're quite correct. there were 2 ZL-1's built, and one was yellow, the other was flaming orange. the reason i said to bad only one was built, is because i was referring to the orange car that had the 710hp rating, while the yellow was foolishly rated at 430hp, but was closer to 460/500, somewhere in there. i need to scan them in and make a desktop background of them sorry for the confusion. I'll have to read some more cause i think it says where some of the engines ended up, i'll let you know for sure if it says. but it's really late, so i'll do it tomorrow.

thanks for keeping me on my toes

 

[twiget]

I missed the part where you said the 'Vette was flaming orange in your first post. I dont know why I thought it was black? Oh well. At least I was right about there being 2 of these cars.

If you could post your desktop pics somewhere when you are done with them I would realy like to have them for my desk top. Not that I'm tired of looking at a pic of my car all day... But it's nice to liven things up a bit.

 

[Scott81]

I don't know who wrote that book but they didn't check their facts very well, or I have misunderstood your post. Here are the known facts about the only 2 Zl-1 Corvettes that were sold from the factory to the public.

This one, White with Black stripe belongs to the Kevin Suydam Collection in Washinton State.
http://www.sharkwerkes.com/sharktank/techinfo/whiteZL1.html

And this one, the Famous Yellow ZL-1 belongs to Roger Judski of Rogers Corvettes in Maitland Florida.
http://www.sharkwerkes.com/sharktank/techinfo/zl1.html

In 1969 there was no such color as Flaming Orange, there was however Monaco Orange. In 1969 the ZL-1 was a $3,000 option. An all aluminum block and heads, 12.5:1 compression and an 850cfm Holley carb. Advertised horsepower was 430, although it was really around 550hp, the car does 12.1 seconds in the 1/4 mile at 116mph. I have talked to Roger on several occasions and have gotten the grand tour of the yellow car, it's impressive to say the least...and Roger is a really nice guy as well. He paid $300,000 for this car at a US Marshalls auction. For more history on the yellow car go here; http://www.rogerscorvette.com/

There were other ZL-1 cars made and it is unknown where Zora's test mule went to, there is also unconfirmed speculation as to a 3rd ZL-1 in the hands of a private owner although I can't confirm this. As far as anyone knows there was "officially" only 2 released to the public.

There were many over the counter ZL-1 enginges sold to the public, as well as ZL-1's put into camaros...this may be how the author is describing this particular car.

---------------
Scott's Red 81
Sarasota, FL

<A HREF="http://www.sharkwerkes.com/sharktank/">The C 3 Shark Tank</A>

 

[twiget]

Originaly posted by Scott81
as well as ZL-1's put into camaros...

Good to see I'm not totaly crazy. Now if someone could conferm that the ZL-1 Camaros where Yenko Camaros I could sleep easy tonight...

Originaly posted by mxdout165
It is a 1969 flaming orange ZL-1 car, built by Tom Langdon and Gib Hufstader. The all aluminum ZL-1(427) in this car produced about 710hp!!!

You got me to re-read the original post Scott, and I think that the "flaming orange" '68 Corvette in question is either the unconfermed 3rd ZL-1 'Vette, or, more probabily, one of the aftermarket ZL-1's sold ended up in this car.

What ever the case may be, the Zl-1 (no mater stock or not) is a formidable engine, in an equaly beautiful car. I get thrills every time I look at the ZL-1 model (Rodger's Yellow one) I have on my computer desk. It's even got the warning sticker under the emergency brake!

[Edited by twiget on 01-26-2001 at 01:20 PM]

 

[Scott81]

Twiget,

The more I read the initial post the more I tend to think it was one of those cars that was built with an over the counter motor. Either way, the ZL-1 is to be feared. I have the 1/18th scale Yellow car too, I'm looking for one of the White ZL-1 but haven't been able to find anyone that has it in stock.

As for the Camaros, I've never really looked into how many were made. I just saw a couple perfect Yenko Camaros for sale at the Orlando NCRS show, it didn't even dawn on me to look more closely at the motor but if you like I did take some pictures, just follow the link in the update section on my site.

For anyone that doesn't know yet, GM is now selling ZL-1 motors again and they can be had from any GM Performance Parts dealer for the low-low cost of about $10,000 to $12,000

Here is a picture of a car that the owner claims to be the 3rd ZL-1; http://www.sharkwerkes.com/sharktank/techinfo/ZL1-3.jpg I tend not to believe it because if I remember correctly the Zora test mule had the big fender flares, this one doesn't.

---------------
Scott's Red 81
Sarasota, FL

<A HREF="http://www.sharkwerkes.com/sharktank/">The C 3 Shark Tank</A>

[Edited by Scott81 on 01-26-2001 at 01:58 PM]

 

[mxdout165]

one of a kind...sorry for the confusion

I apologize for the confusion created by my CDS syndrome post. The flaming orange ZL-1 I am referring to is a one of a kind, 1969 that was built specifically for a new model press introduction. The yellow car was also there. The orange car was never sold to the public, and was called "red" by the press, not orange. After it made the 10.89 1/4 mile run, they took it back to the shop and found many stress cracks where the flywheel attached to the crank. But that's only because they let a bunch of novice journalists drive the car, slamming gears etc for about 20 or 30 passes.

The Facts according to Mike Mueller

2 RPO ZL-1 cars were sold to the public

5 test cars/executive toys were built, some may have survived (some report 10-12 were built, but no one knows)

Chevrolet's Mk IV engine facility in Tonawanda NY built 154 ZL-1's, 80 intended for 4-speed vettes, 14 for auto vettes -where they ended up, no one knows

69 ZL-1 Camaros were built because of a loophole that allowed them to be installed (i don't see anything about Yenkos, but I'm not done with the book yet)

Information courtesy of: Sports Car Color History, Corvette 1968-1982 Author: Mike Mueller (book can be found at Barnes & Noble)

hope this helps clear some confusion, but I must say, isn't this what forums are for?

As of yet, I have no where to post my pics, and I haven't found time to make them. I'm still trying though.

 

[Scott81]

OK, now I'm going to have to go buy the book thank you very much! as if I don't spend too much on Corvette stuff already I thought it was just my misunderstanding, I know which car you are talking about now, I have a copy of the Road & Track article from 1969 about the ZL-1's and the media getting to play with them...lucky bastiges!

If you have pictures and want to post them send me an email and I'll try to get them up for you. (as long as no copyright laws are infringed)
redc3@earthlink.net

Scott