One of the most important Corvette

[Joseph T.]

people most never heard of!

John Evans Chief Inspector at the St. Louis Corvette Plant.

John was in charge of moving the production line from Flint to St.Louis. He and Harvey Green and others made the move and set up the St.Louis Plant.

Bill Lacy and I interviewed John about 20 years ago.

John was fun to talk to and he told many stories. One of which was a plant pick up of a race job. ( L88 )..and it didnt make it make it very far before it overheated and had to be rescued. It was either after hours or on a weekend and John had a dealer install a passenger car radiator so the driver could get to the race.

This may have been Dick Guldstrand but am not sure.

PS..thats my old 54 he is sitting in.

Joe Trybulec

[Duke W.]

Re: One of the most important Corvette

Sometimes stories get distorted with time and travel.

How would a "passenger car radiator" help a L-88? In addition to a passenger car radiator not fitting without signficant modification, the large aluminum radiator that was used on L-88s likely has greater heat transfer capacity than any passenger car radiator. The lack of a fan shroud and vacuum advance made the L-88 subject to overheating in heavy traffic.

Guldstand drove the '66 L-72, HD optioned, heater delete coupe from St. Louis to Penske's operation in Philidelphia in January and froze his tail off.

While Penske's crew was installing the cold air hood from GM and doing other modifications IAW the FIA homologation papers including the racing exhaust system, Traco was building a 427 with L-88 prototype parts.

The Penske Corvette practiced with the cold air induction and racing exhaust on the L-72, then the L-88 was installed for qualifying and the race.

Duke

[Joseph T.]

Re: One of the most important Corvette

The detail was the car overheated shortly after leaving the plant pick up..and an oversized radiator was fitted to help make the journey. Special accomadation was made by the Chief inspector of the Corvette Plant outside the box of normal operations.

You miss the point!

No need to piss on an old mans recollection. He was only a Harvard educated engineer and surely did not have your special insight.

But I'm sure you are correct in every detail.

[Duke W.]

Re: One of the most important Corvette

The story just isn't very plausible for the reasons I stated.

Duke

[John H.]

Re: One of the most important Corvette

people most never heard of!

John Evans Chief Inspector at the St. Louis Corvette Plant.

John was in charge of moving the production line from Flint to St.Louis. He and Harvey Green and others made the move and set up the St.Louis Plant.

Joe -

John also functioned as the plant Launch Coordinator in the late 60's-late 70's when Bob Blubaugh and Dale Johnson were the Chief Inspectors; I worked with John for many years.

[Peter G.]

Re: One of the most important Corvette

Gee, this is really interesting......
I have interviewed three different people, one of which is a retired Sunoco Petroleum Engineer who was extremely active with both the L-88 Penske Corvette and the Trans Am Camaro Program that Penske ran with Sunoco's sponsorship, and he was extremely clear about the information that he gave me for my book. He was there, and so were others who were involved with the Sunoco Corvette and Sunoco Camaro program. Documents do exist, which were dated early 1966 from Sunoco, that clearly state the option name "L-88" and its unique build, and how the Sunoco lubricants were used with the L-88 Corvette and its victory at the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring back in 1966.
By the way, the Traco engine was an exact copy of the assembly line engine except for the fact that it was a "blueprinted" engine with specifications that were allowed by the rule books. These rule books were different than the rules the FIA demanded at Le Mans in 1967.

By the way, a lot of L-88 owners picked their cars up at the St. Louis factory and drove them home to break in the engine and season the engine block for future competition.

[Loren L.]

Re: One of the most important Corvette

But isn't it true that TRACO could not have made an "EXACT COPY" because Tonanwanda did not report building any? If so, it confirms the suspicion that the L88 pages in the 1966 AIM were there for reference in the event FIA cried "foul".

[Peter G.]

Re: One of the most important Corvette

I never said the engine that was installed into the Penske Sunoco Corvette was ever made at Big Block engine plant.

[Duke W.]

Re: One of the most important Corvette

Gee, this is really interesting......
I have interviewed three different people, one of which is a retired Sunoco Petroleum Engineer who was extremely active with both the L-88 Penske Corvette and the Trans Am Camaro Program that Penske ran with Sunoco's sponsorship, and he was extremely clear about the information that he gave me for my book. He was there, and so were others who were involved with the Sunoco Corvette and Sunoco Camaro program. Documents do exist, which were dated early 1966 from Sunoco, that clearly state the option name "L-88" and its unique build, and how the Sunoco lubricants were used with the L-88 Corvette and its victory at the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring back in 1966.
By the way, the Traco engine was an exact copy of the assembly line engine except for the fact that it was a "blueprinted" engine with specifications that were allowed by the rule books. These rule books were different than the rules the FIA demanded at Le Mans in 1967.

By the way, a lot of L-88 owners picked their cars up at the St. Louis factory and drove them home to break in the engine and season the engine block for future competition.

I've been through Kevin's three inch thick binder. There is no build sheet or any other unequivocal documentation of the car's original St. Louis build configuration.

Have you ever read the article about the car and race in Corvette News Vol. 9 No. 4? It tells the story.

Duke