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Expert
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| Lads --
If you ever get a chance, make sure you take in the "Caffeine and Chrome" free show at Gateway Classic Cars in Englewood. It's a high-end nationwide dealership and they sponsor this free show on the last Saturday of every month from 9-12.00 AM. I took the Big Tailed Beast today and had a great time, so much so that I hope to go next month with MD2.
Not much by the way of MOPARs much less FLKs, but lots of great cars with few triple nickel Cheyys and Fords. In their showroom, I saw my first ever L88 Corvette, a blue '69 job listed at $455000.
Joe Godec
'57 Chrysler 300C, '60 Fury SonoRamic, '65 Fuelie Vette, '65 Sport Fury 426S/4-speed |
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Location: The Mile High City | What day is the next event, Joe? Wow! $455K! That's a lotta Corvette  |
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Expert
Posts: 1287
| Mike --
It's always the last Saturday of the month so the next one will June 25.
Joe |
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Veteran
Posts: 210
Location: Suwanee, GA | I enjoy this show too - the one in Alpharetta, GA. Decent cars, close to home, and easy to get in/get out if I don't feel like staying all morning. Took the Mustang Saturday. Have yet to take the Chrysler. |
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Expert
Posts: 1287
| Mike --
L-88s were made just to race and the first came out in 1967 with the last in 1969. All told, there were 216 produced, with 116 the last year. They were created to blow the doors off everything else on the tracks of the USA and Europe. Duntov worked to produce as much power as possible within the limits of the existing Chevy 427 cubic inch V-8. Aluminum heads and a number of special, heavy-duty components were added to the engine. The L-88 was intended for racing only and prone to overheating at low speeds, but it was fully street legal and came with complete emissions equipment.
The L88 was so close to being an all-out race car that Zora Arkus-Duntov (the "godfather" of the Corvette) deliberately had the engine rated at 430 horsepower at a low 5,200 rpm. The true rating was 460 horsepower at 6,400 rpm. With open headers, 103 octane gas and a few other tricks, the power was over 500hp. All creature comforts were missing. There was no A/C, heater, defroster, radio, power steering, windows, carburetor choke, or radiator shroud. The J56 brake option was required with competition-only brake pads. Also mandatory was the F41 special suspension, and the M22 "rock crusher" four-speed transmission. To further discourage the L88’s use on the street, a warning sticker glued to the center console pointed out that the radically cammed, high compression engine required fuel with a research octane number of at least 103.
Using the same four-bolt main cast iron block as the street Corvette, special parts were added. The forged steel crank was cross-drilled and tuftrided. Rods were shot-peened and magnafluxed. The forged aluminum pistons had 12.5:1-compression. The L88 used a radical camshaft and solid lifters. A huge 830-cfm Holley four-barrel sat on top of an aluminum high-rise intake manifold, flowing to aluminum heads. The entire valvetrain was heavy duty. A K66 transistor ignition was used. Also there was an aluminum radiator and a special cold-air induction, hood scoop.
It would suck my '65 Fuel Injected Vette through its hood scoop, chew it up into little pieces, and then spit it out its side exhausts -- and the Fuelie is not for the faint of heart.
Joe
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Location: The Mile High City | My great aunt Myrtle bought a L88 brand new as a special order from the dealer. She used it as a grocery-getter and Sunday to church car, as she was in her late 60s when she bought it. It had a little over 3,000 miles on the odometer when she donated it to Colorado Public Radio as part of their annual fund raiser about twenty years ago. |
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Expert
Posts: 1287
| Mike --
"The farmer hauled another load away
And you can tell by the it smelled it wasn't hay."
Seriously though, the first car my wife bought after she graduated from college was a '63 Corvette convertible. It did have a 4-speed but only the 300 HP 327 and had the rather yucky "Saddle Tan" exterior ("It's so easy to keep clean") and interior ("It goes well with my hair"). After we got married, she did use my '65 Sport Fury with the 365 horse 426S/4-speed and its successor, a '67 Dodge R/T (375 HP/4-speed), as her daily drivers as I "appropriated" the Vette. She wasn't bad with the heavy duty clutches, even when wearing heels, and wouldn't hesitate to dust off any dude who thought she was "all show and no go."
Joe |
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Location: The Mile High City | :laugh: :laugh: ...a bit of revenge for the (once that I remember) time you pulled my chain! Joe, do you ever take Shake Rattle and Roar to Grand Lake for the annual Corvette show and rally? |
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Expert
Posts: 1287
| Mike --
I don't take it very often to shows as I drive it too much for it to be compared to just about any other Corvette that turns up at a show. To a great extent, most '67 and earlier Vettes are strictly show cars while mine isn't a daily driver, it is great fun just to cruise around in on a nice summer evening. I do like to flog it occasionally out on I-25 on a jaunt on the Pueblo-Canon City-Colorado Springs triangle, but I'm starting to mellow in my old age and generally limit myself to 90-100. It is a real blast is to take it up in the mountains so I can work the gears on the twists and turns. I haven't taken it up Pikes Peak but it's been to Cripple Creek a few times. Also, there's a Corvette club in Denver that sponsors a show in Breckenridge or Steamboat and my wife and I have driven to it a couple of times. However, I tend to stay away from those affairs because the quality of the of the first- and second generation Vettes (1st: '53-'62; 2nd: '63-'67) is unbelievable. These are the guys that even have the CORRECT chalk marks on the frames and who criticize others for having scratches on the door locks! One time, mine was parked next to gorgeous Pewter/Black 427 '67 and when I talked with owner, I found out he was from the Springs. I asked if he came up over Hoosier Pass or I-70. He said I-70 because it was too hard to drive his truck over Hoosier Pass. I thought he was going to have an apoplectic fit when I said, "Oh, so that's a trailer queen."
Ol' Shake, Rattle, and Roar is best described as a "twenty-footer" and comparable in condition to the Big-Tailed Beast. One of my sons lives in Parker and has a 2018 Corvette and I've been threatening to show him up with OSRR as us old Corvette guys like to say, "Sure, they made Corvettes after 1967, but who cares?" His is black-on-black and it bugs him when I quote John Heinrici, once chief test driver for Chevrolet, "All Corvettes are red; the rest are just mistakes." Perhaps Caffeine and Chrome will be my excuse sometime.
Joe |
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Location: The Mile High City | Yeah, most of the Corvettes that show up in Grand Lake actually drive there and back. I'm less and less of a show fan too - I like rallys! |
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Expert 5K+
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Location: So. Cal | So what is a rally? I would like the cruises, but they tend to idle around 4 blocks. Not very fun. Often, my favorite part of a show is to sit back and watch all the cars leave. |
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Location: The Mile High City | It seems like a bunch of them drive to Grand Lake together, they have a show, and then a bunch drive back together. Some stay the weekend. Some do a day trip. |
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Caffeine and Chrome
