History of the L88

[Ed S.]

I'm watching a show on TV, on the Velocity channel (225 on Comcast) - The show is called, "AmeriCarna" and this particular episode is titled, "Band of Brothers" but is about the history of the L88. According to the show listing it is a new show - not previously broadcast. Will be interesting to see what they say about the L88.

[Ed S.]

Re: History of the LA8

Sorry - thread title should have been "History of the L88"

[Stuart F.]

Re: History of the LA8

Ed;

Is this to be a coming episode, or one that has been broadcast already (not clear). I've seen them advertise the show, but not about the L-88. It seems to be another show for Ray Everham (Jeff Gordon's old crew chief). He's real tight with Rick Hendricks.

Stu Fox

[Terry D.]

Re: History of the LA8

Stu

It was on last night here in Ohio at 10:30pm on the Velocity channel. Second episode of the second season. I believe the funding is from Hendricks as he is in most of the shows. Pretty interesting stuff, last season they showed part of Hendrick's collection, included the restored chassis of his first split window that they use as a conference table. The table top is all glass and the base is the 63 restored chassis.

[Kenneth H.]

Re: History of the LA8

I saw part of it last night. I checked to see if it would be rebroadcast on Velocity and it listed another showing at 12:00 pm (noon) EST today, February 18.

[Philip A.]

Re: History of the LA8

Great show on the 1968 Owens Corning race team and car. History of the L-88 it is certainly not and they should not have described it that way.

[Gary V.]

Re: History of the LA8

I liked the portion on the 1967 C2 L88 race car that finished 2nd in a race behind the Owens Corning car. He drove it to the track, raced, and they said he drove it home after the race. Pretty neat!

[Steven B.]

Re: History of the LA8

Back in the day I was fortunate to see the Owens Corning car run. It always seemed to look like a show car it was so well prepared for each race and never seemed to miss a beat. Those guys did a great job. The BFG cars and Bob Johnson's L-88 were great running and looking machines, too.

[James G.]

Re: History of the LA8

This was a great show. TONY DeLORENZO and JER THOMPSON were two of the best road race drivers in the SCCA. They teamed up with OWENS CORNING FIBERGLASS as a sponsor and raced L-88'S from 1967 thru 1972. From August 1968 thru March 1971, they had 22 straight wins in SCCA and FIA Sanctioned long distance races including SEBRING and DAYTONA. Their cars were a 67 L-88 convertible, and two 69 Corvette L-88's. The cars are all documented in the REGISTRY OF CORVETTE RACE CARS. Both men were inducted into the Corvette Museum Hall of Fame in 2009. This was a great time for Corvette and the race history of these great cars. One of the 69 L-88 cars is today in the RICK HENDRICK Collection in Charlotte, NC. The entire old team of living GM engineers, Firestone Tire engineers and the Troy Productions crew, along with Tony and Jer are featured in the one half hour film clip along with the Hendrick people.

[Tracy C.]

Re: History of the LA8

I liked the portion on the 1967 C2 L88 race car that finished 2nd in a race behind the Owens Corning car. He drove it to the track, raced, and they said he drove it home after the race. Pretty neat!

That was Cliff Gottob's car at the time. He came and spoke at one of our chapter meets last year. He had some stories to tell and had us all riveted to our chairs for a couple of hours. He had to drive the car from Arkansas City, KS to the race because he had loaned his trailer to a friend who totaled it out in a wreck a week or so before he needed it to go to Florida. He did in fact drive the car home when finished. Cliff was very well connected to the back door at Chevrolet's engineering R&D dept.

tc