Missing ZL-1's

[AutoInsane]

How many of the 69 ZL-1's are not accounted for? What about other rare cars such as the COPO's are their any numbers for the 'missing' cars?

[William]

9 ZL1s have been untraceable to date. 4 of these were stolen from Merollis Chev in Detroit. One of them is titled to an insurance company and probably was never recovered. The other 3 may have been recovered. Of the non-Merollis ZL1s, one was raced and sold around 1980. Another was stolen in CA.

8 ZL1s are in limbo, showing old title and/or registration, but are nowhere to be found.

5 ZL1s are known to have been wrecked and/or salvaged including a Merollis car.

Vince Piggins has been quoted as stating one of the black & gold ZL1 show cars was sold less engine. The VIN has been checked many times, no luck.

Having spent many hours walking the pits at IRP and Route 66 Raceway, I know there are plenty of 1969 Camaro race cars without VIN tag. I'm sure there are a few unknown COPOs out there.

[Jeff H]

Was one of the Black and Gold ZL1 cars also equipped with JL8 4 wheel discs? I have a book that states that it was, but it's an older book so I don't put much stake in it.

[x44d80]

i've always been facinated with the black and gold cars. i wonder why nobody has done a clone of one. at least i've never seen any in magazines or shows. i have thought it would be pretty easy to copy one and they are really nice looking. i have only seen 2 different photos of these cars. are there any more?

[Kurt S]

Al Wallace did a clone of the RPO ZL1 car. He's in Michigan.

[William]

Don't know.

[x44d80]

thanks kurt. iv'e always taken things with a grain of salt printed in books and magazines about these two cars. i think i read in one of the books the cars were an auto and a 4-speed tranny, detuned 427, a L-72 with the aluminum block and heads, larger front spoiler, special grill, etc, etc...but i think the writer may have just looked at the photos of the cars. i think ed c. might know more facts on the cars than this.

[JoeC]

One of the black and gold prototype ZL1 Camaros showed up at a press preview of the 1970 Chevrolet line. Since the 70 Camaro and Corvette was late, Chevy brought the b&g 69 ZL1 Camaro and two 69 ZL1 Corvettes to this dog and pony show for the new 1970 line. The ZL1 Camaro had an aluminum block and heads with L72 specs. One ZL1 Corvette was a TH400 with 4:88 gears, headers, and drag slicks the other was set up for road racing. The press loved the Camaro and called it a big block Z/28. One ZL1 Corvette was set up for drag racing and ran in the 10s and the press was allowed to run the car on a drag strip that Chevy had set up. There was a LT1 Nova there that I believe was a prototype of the Yenko Deuce Nova. One writer said his lap times on road course was quicker with the LT1 F41 Nova then with the ZL1 Camaro because the Camaro would smoke the tires coming out of the corners. There was also a 70 LS6 Chevelle there. This was a fantastic day in Chevy hi po history but there was not much written about it which is very strange since it was a press preview. I have only been able to find 2 small articles about that day.

[Mr70]

JoeC
I have accumulated some incredible pictures of the 1970 Chevrolet National Sales Convention and Detroit Auto show held at Cobo hall in Detroit.
The designer of the Space Age Theme floor settings that year was so proud of his designs,he walked around and took photos of all the cars in their glory.This was the night before with no people present with the cars.
There is a Black SS Chevelle on the floor,as well as 69 Camaros and Corvettes fitting the description you describe.
I see the Black 69 Camaro in the background.I have press release papers for these shows,but no mention of ZL-1's.
All in color and very detailed.

[AutoInsane]

How can the cars with old registrations just dissapear? I am sure each one has been researched thouroughly. I mean if it goes from person to person on the reg. or title doesnt someone have to be the last one to have owned the car and should know of it's location?

Or is this reality and it just aint that easy????

[JoeC]

At the press preview....The ZL1 Corvette was Monaco Orange and the road racing one was a light color with a wide dark stripe down center maybe white with a blue stripe. Here is an article on the ZL1 drag car.

http://www.corvettearchive.com/images/1969/MTOct69/zl1a.jpg

[Casey Marks]

A 6000 RPM neutral drop !!! http://www.yenko.net/ubb/smilies/images/icons/shocked.gif http://www.yenko.net/ubb/smilies/images/icons/shocked.gif

[Denis]

That white 69 ZL1 Corvette wouldn't be Kevin's by any chance?

http://www.corvettes-musclecars.com/corvette/69ZL1/69ZL1Vette2.jpg (http://www.corvettes-musclecars.com/corvette/69ZL1)

PS: Click on the photo to see the writeup on the car.

[Jeff H]

I'm looking at a picture of the black/gold ZL1 in a book called CAMARO Three Generations of Premier Performance Cars by Martyn L. Schorr and it says that due to the 70 being late Vince Piggins built a 4 wheel disc brake equipped Camaro powered by a ZL1. The photo was taken at the GM proving grounds in June of 69. I don't know how accurate the informatio in this book is and that's why I was asking.

[Dr. Pete]

I have a color photo of the 10 second ZL-1 Corvette on one of my webpages. You can take a look at it here: http://www.zlx.com/Corvette/legends.htm I haven't posted a hyperlink here before so you guys might have to copy and paste it into the address section of your browser if you can't click on it. I talked with the engineer who built that car. He's a pretty neat guy! The press guys still talk about driving the 10 second quarter mile time slips 30 years later!!!

[x44d80]

Mr70,is there anyway you can post the picture of the black camaro? The two photos I have are the photo in the camaro book by Micheal Lamm and a small one in Dec 86 Car Craft. It's the article with Lillard's #3 car when Porterfield owned it.

[Chevy454]

Insane:

The problem is that a lot of cars were race cars and thus never registered or title after a certain point, whether it was early in the cars life, or later when the car was just another worn out Camaro. Another problem with the ZL-1s is their lack of exterior ID...most people never knew what they were looking at. Plus, it's been 30+ years...that's a LOT of water under the bridge!

[JoeC]

Pete, from what I have found, that picture on your web page is from the 1969 press preview. The car was orange not red. The same car was used at the 1970 press preview with even more modifications. It had a prototype LT2 aluminum 454. The white car is a 1968 Corvette test mule that Zora used with a ZL1 engine with the block painted orange to look like an L88. The white 68 may be the other Corvette used at the 1970 press preview with a new paint job but I can't tell for sure from the pictures. They really did do the neutral drop starts at the 1970 press preview. There is a Gib Hufstader interview in a Mike Mueller book where Gif talked about the orange ZL1 drag car. He said they did 20 or 30 runs doing 6000rpm neutral drops testing the transmission also trying to get the quickest ET which was 10.89 @ 130mph. When it was brought back to Chevy engineering it was disassembled and found to have a severely cracked flex plate. They said it looked like it would have blown up on the next run.

[Dr. Pete]

Thanks Joe, I dont put too much information up on the web. I did talk with Gib about this car and others. I'm saving all of it for my Corvette L-88 book that should go to press Spring/Summer 2002. By the way, the color was severly faded on the print that I had of that car. It was scanned from an original print that I got from my contacts at Chevrolet.

[Mr70]

Here are a few pictures from the 1970 Detroit auto show,and the National Sales Convention.The Corvette has side pipes here,not sure if it is a ZL-1.
The B/G 69 Camaro will not show clearly here.But there is a Blue 69 Z-28 and a hint of a Red Camaro in the left corner.
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[Edited by mr70 (11-30-2001 at 11:33 AM).]

[bbdon]

Thanks for posting the pictures, Mr70. Sorry to get off of the subject here, but do you have any pictures from other auto shows? I have been looking for pictures taken at the 1968 Chicago auto show. I have read that a Nova hardtop was displayed at that show. It was planned for production in 1969, but was never produced.

[Mr70]

bbdon
I have pictures from that 1968 Auto Show in Chicago.No angles with a Nova in them though.Not saying it wasn't there,just that my pictures don't show it.
The 1969 Chicago Auto Show does have a Corvette,Camaro SS,and Nova SS all in a circle.

[bbdon]

Thanks for looking. I have been wondering about the Nova hardtop since I saw it mentioned in the June and July 1968 issues of Motor Trend. It will have to remain a mystery for now.