Chevrolet Corvette L88 Convertible 1967, Estados Unidos
Fotografia
The First L88 Corvette
The only Tuxedo Black 1967 L88 Convertible built
Campaigned by Tony DeLorenzo and Jerry Thompson in 1967
Sponsored by Owens-Corning and Hanley Dawson Chevrolet
2nd Place at the 1967 Daytona Beach SCCA Runoffs
Protect-O-Plate with Al Grenning affirmation
Original 1967 title
Bloomington Gold certified in 1984
Naber Brothers restoration
Multiple Bloomington Gold Special Collection appearances in
1985, 1988 and 1992
Multiple NCRS Top Flight awards in 1984 and 1985
MCACN Triple Diamond award in 2010
NCRS American Heritage award in 2003
Reunited with Tony DeLorenzo at the 2003 Monterey Historics
Letter of Testimony from Tony DeLorenzo
This 1967 Chevrolet Corvette Convertible was the first Corvette
produced with the RPO L88 option package. The only Tuxedo Black 1967 L88 built
in convertible form, it was driven in competition by Tony DeLorenzo Jr., one of
the most successful Corvette racers in history.
The son of GM Public Relations Executive Anthony G. DeLorenzo,
Tony’s association with high-performance GM machinery dated back to his early
youth, when the family driveway was home to an ongoing parade of factory
executive demonstrators that included 389 Tri-Power Pontiacs, a customized and
turbocharged 1963 Corvair from GM Styling Chief Bill Mitchell’s personal
collection, and Chevrolet General Manager Ed Cole’s Silver fuel-injected 1963
Corvette split-window coupe, which he loaned to DeLorenzo Sr. before production
officially began.
When Tony’s attention turned to sports-car racing, he asked his
father if he could order a new 1964 Corvette company car for the summer.
Unaware that his son planned to take the Corvette to the SCCA’s driving school
at Watkins Glen, New York, Anthony DeLorenzo Sr. agreed to place the order,
which young Tony and his older brother Peter specified as a black-on-black
coupe with fuel injection, an M20 4-speed manual transmission, heavy-duty
finned drum brakes, knock-off aluminum wheels and radio delete. Immediately
upon its arrival, the brothers prepared the Corvette for track duty, stripping
it down and installing a roll bar.
As recently recounted by Peter, one day while working at his
summer job with Chevrolet Sales Promotion, Tony received the phone call of a
lifetime. On the other end of the line was Corvette Godfather Zora
Arkus-Duntov, who after enquiring as to Tony’s plans for the Corvette, asked
him to deliver the car to Chevrolet Engineering in Warren, Michigan, to “take
care of a few things.” Arkus-Duntov soon presented Tony with his Corvette,
which had been extensively modified, including revisions to the brakes,
suspension and engine. The trip to Watkins Glen ended with the chief instructor
telling Tony he didn’t need any more instruction, and his racing career began
soon after at the wheel of a more affordable 1965 Corvair.
As Tony polished his driving skills in SCCA A Production
competition, Arkus-Duntov’s Corvette Engineering Group back in Warren began
developing the new 427 Mark IV engine for use in the Corvette as a full-bore
endurance racing engine, and in 1967, their work came to fruition as the
centerpiece of the racing-purposed RPO L88 option package. Using a reinforced
cast-iron block with 4-bolt mains and incorporating a forged and Tuftrided
steel crank, forged rods, 12.5:1 pistons, aluminum heads, a radical solid-lifter
cam, a dual-feed Holley 850 CFM 4-barrel carburetor atop a plenumed aluminum
intake manifold, and K66 transistorized ignition, the L88 was a formidable
powerplant. While what little company literature there was rated the L88 engine
at a paltry 430 HP, it could in fact be tuned to produce approximately 560 HP
at its 6,400 RPM redline and 470 lb-ft of torque at 5,200 RPM.
In addition to the mighty Mark IV engine, the L88 option could
only be had with a lightweight flywheel and heavy-duty clutch, a required M22
“Rock Crusher” 4-speed manual transmission, J50 special heavy-duty power brakes
with J56 heavy-duty calipers, F41 suspension, the bullet-proof G81 Positraction
rear end, special cross-flow radiator and radio/heater delete; it gave the
Corvette almost boundless potential in competition.
The L88 instantly established its racing dominance with the
Tuxedo Black 1967 convertible offered here, the very first regular-production
L88 Corvette built. It was delivered to Hanley Dawson Chevrolet in Detroit,
which also supplied the young DeLorenzo with all the equipment and financial
backing necessary to mount a full campaign in SCCA A Production racing.
Delivered into the Hanley shops directly from the transporter, the car was
immediately prepped to A Production specs and then entered into its first event
at Wilmot Hills, Wisconsin, which it won going away. At the next event at
Elkhart Lake, the car’s 155 MPH top speed was such a shock to Anthony DeLorenzo
Sr., who was watching from the pit straight, that it was two years before he
would attend another of his son’s races.
That successful first season qualified the car for the SCCA
Runoffs at Daytona Beach, where Tony qualified third among a snarling trio of
427 Cobras driven by pole-winner Ed Lowther, Jack Hurt and Dick Smith. Some of
Tony’s strongest competitors were eliminated in an early multi-car wreck, which
he avoided in driving to a second-place finish behind Dick Smith’s Cobra.
Tony’s performance at the Daytona Runoffs drew considerable attention, especially
after it was reported in the pages of Chevrolet’s quarterly “Corvette News.”
Teamed with Chevrolet engineer and accomplished Yenko Stinger
Corvair racer Jerry Thompson, who won the 1967 SCCA National D Production
Championship, they raced the car successfully through the 1968 season under
sponsorship from Hanley-Dawson Chevrolet and then Owens-Corning. After the 1968
season, DeLorenzo sold the L88 to Doug Hooper, who raced the car for several
years in B Production. It was subsequently campaigned by a race team in Canada
throughout the 1970s with a winning record that culminated in the 1982 Canadian
Road Race Championship. During its racing career, the DeLorenzo 1967 L88
received multiple body modifications that were typical for many extensively
campaigned Corvette race cars of the period.
In 1982, the car was purchased by Wayne Walker of Zip Products
in Virginia and expertly restored by Corvette specialists Ken and Gary Naber of
Houston, Texas. The quality of the work earned Bloomington Gold certification
and multiple NCRS Top Flight awards in 1984, National NCRS Top Flight
award, NCRS Performance Verification and an invitation to the Bloomington Gold
Special Collection in 1985. Walker featured this car on both the front cover
and back cover of Zip Product’s mail-order catalog.
Steve Hendrickson of Minnesota purchased the L88 in 1986.
During Hendrickson’s ownership, Franklin Mint produced a special L88 die-cast
model of this car and it was invited to the Bloomington Gold Special Collection
in 1988 and 1992. The car later became part of the Larry Bowman collection in
2000. In 2003, the car made a special appearance at the Monterey Historic
Automobile Races, where it was reunited with its first owner for one last race,
an event that delighted Tony DeLorenzo Jr. and an appreciative audience. Bowman
sold the L88 in 2010, and soon after, it was part of the Showcase Display at
the Corvette and Muscle Car Nationals, where it earned the Triple Diamond
award. More recently the L88 earned the NCRS American Heritage award in 2013
during the ownership of Chuck Ungurean.
The first of 20 L88s produced in 1967, this car boasts a very
impressive racing career that has made it one of the most historically
significant L88s in existence. Restored to concours-quality standards by the
Naber Brothers and documented with the original title, Protect-O-Plate with Al
Grenning affirmation and a Letter of Testimony from Tony DeLorenzo Jr., this
L88 certainly qualifies as the centerpiece of any collection, a premier example
of the most powerful and dominant production Corvette racer of its era.
