Despite the amazing commercial success of Corvettes during the mid to late 70s – as our last article indicated – this decade was rough on America and its car industry. For many, these times were bleak. Due to the inflation set off by skyrocketing oil prices, cash from a summer job set on a dresser could lose 5-10% of its…
For a moment imagine a decade old body with fifteen year old bones that had lost a third of its quickness. Further, imagine doubling the price of this seemingly obsolete vehicle over a decade; 75% to keep up with rampant inflation and another 25% for good measure. Would sales of such a tired seemingly overpriced car be a runaway success?…
McLaren, Chevrolet, and Alloy Big-Blocks The summit of Corvette power – the "ZL1" that never appeared in sales brochures – was conceived as a crated V8 engine block for Can-Am racing. This aluminum Can-Am big-block was available through Vince Piggins and “Chevrolet Product Promotion Engineering” from the late sixties until the early seventies.[1] But in 1968, not just anyone could…
The "gross power" of the big-block L88's modestyIntended for production class racing, Chevrolet’s peak power in the sixties was inconspicuously offered to the public in extremely limited quantities. Indeed, the top engine offering did not actually appear in sales brochures from 1967 to 1969.[0] And fewer than a thousand of these untamed L88 and ZL1 racing big blocks were produced.…
Could base C8 power rival the racing engines of yesterday and today? Muscle car enthusiasts still reminisce about the sixties when Detroit’s rivalries introduced larger and more powerful engines year after year. Corvette reached its pinnacle in the late sixties. Fatefully, the seventies would see progressively restrictive regulation of emissions, noise, and fuel consumption sending horsepower trends into temporary regression.…