Hemmings e news: Ex-racer Chevelle rakes in $1.2

[mockingbird812]

FYI, Hemmings take on things:

Muscle Cars
Ex-racer Chevelle rakes in $1.2 million

This original LS6 Chevelle, an ex-drag car fetched a whopping $1.15 million at the recent Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale.
By now the dust has settled after the craziness at Barrett-Jackson, but the prices paid for muscle cars remain crazy. When will it end? Nobody knows. One thing we do know is a car that once was setting record prices, then kind of fell off the cliff years ago, is back.
Several world records were set on Saturday and it seems that people with tons of money are buying muscle cars. Recently, hoopla has centered around Hemis in any form of Chrysler product, but probably the biggest surprise was what was paid for the 1970 LS6 Chevelle sponsored by Truppi and Kling, who built the engine with sponsorship from South Amboy, New Jersey’s Briggs Chevrolet.
The blue LS6 had but 61 actual miles and a very famous 322,080 feet, a quarter foot at a time. We cannot confirm whether the $1.15 million paid for this car is a world record, but it is safe to say that most likely it is the most money to ever change hands for a 1970 Chevelle, be it an LS6 or a gold-plated job.
We know of a Cranberry Red hardtop that sold a year ago for $300,000 and on Saturday witnessed a Cranberry Red LS6 convertible cross the block at Barrett-Jackson for $513,000--which would have likely been a record had the Truppi-Kling car not brought big money.
In fact, the Ray Allen car stalled at $300,000, until Craig Jackson intervened and reiterated the famous race history of the car. The car then zoomed in price faster than it could accelerate on the drag strip with the final price, including commission, reaching $1,242,000. Incredible.
- By George Mattar

[musclecarjohn]

That's about it in a nutshell...

[jfkheat]

I heard something very interesting about this car today. I stopped at one of the Chevelle parts dealers today and got to talking with an employee about this auction. He told me that the car in tha auction MAY not be the car it is supposed to be and MAY be a restamped engine. He said they were offered the car earlier last year for about 10% of what it sold for but declined. He didn't go into any details and I didn't ask a lot of questions. I don't know how much of this is true. I'm just repeating what I was told today.
James

[P.J.]

Are you suggesting that there is a fix on bidding for these cars??? http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/dunno.gif
suprss70

[musclecarjohn]

Nothing that happens at auctions surprises me...

The R&S auction in Monterey feels about as crooked as a 3 dollar bill...same cars every year,shill bidding,etc.
I'm beginning to think R&S owns most of these cars and just buys them back at their own auctions (which is legal)if they don't bring what they want.

[shor]

Wow !, what a bold and inflamatory post to make on a public forum without anything to back it up except some idle chatter down by the local parts counter. I am surprised. http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsdown.gif

[jfkheat]

This was not the local parts counter. It was one of the largest Chevelle restoration parts suppliers in the country.
James

[Charley Lillard]

I was never under the impression the car had it's orig. engine. Who cares ? It is it's history. I also heard the gossip it was a LS5 car but there was a very real LS6 build sheet with the car. One person spreading the word at the auction that the car was a LS5 car retracted the accusation when he saw the build sheet. There was then reasoning that the car won races before the LS6 was even released. Someone should be able to confirm that. Then the logic went to there must have been two cars..LS5 then LS6. I think the car brought the money because of it's race history more than anything else.

[jfkheat]

Charlie, after I made the first post here about this, I received an email stating some of the same things you mentioned. Since there seems to be so many rumors floating around about this car, it seems very possible that some of them may be true.
James

[Belair62]

It's very possible that the rumors are NOT true too ! Where is Musclecarkid ? Surprised he hasn't piped in...

[Mr70]

It's a May 1970 Build,so that rumor is totally debunked.Well into LS-6 territory by then..I've seen the paperwork & it all looks authentic to me to be a REAL LS-6 convertible built at the factory.I've never thought any different growing up, from all the years it was raced as well.
In Drag Racing Action Magazine March 06,they state Ray Allen reports Chevrolet only built 17 of these Chevelle Converts from the factory.If that isn't magazine sales hype and Ray really did indeed state this,I would like to know what he is basing this on,again,if he did in fact say this.
Remember NHRA rules required at least 50 units had to be built,for a Vehicle to qualify to run in Super Stock ...even EA class,and I am confident that at least 30 of these have been shown to be produced so far.

[Charley Lillard]

I think what was meant was that if you go look at the records, it won races before it's build date of May. I don't have the time or energy to figure that out.

[Musclecarkid]

I think I know who's spreading the LS5 rumor, but he has been silenced.

The build sheet is in fact the one for this car, which was delivered in late May of 70. The Vin and sequence numbers suggest a build date around the second week of May 1970. The dealer zone 35-027 is Briggs Chevrolet. Zip of 08897 is South Amboy NJ.

I believe the car was ordered late because Truppi-Kling wanted to race an LS6 Vette first, and orderd one, but when Chevy cancelled that RPO, they ordered the LS6 Chevelle convertible instead. The car was perfect fit in SS/EA due to its additional weight.

The car's first National Event was York Pa (July 70), where it qualified and went only two rounds. The car got its first "Natioal ink" in (August 70) with a Division One All-Star S/S win or two at Maple Grove Pa. Next was the Indy Nationals in (Sept 70), where it won SS/EA Class, then went two rounds of eliminations. Allen had a few Division One wins and finished forth in WCS points. This allowed the car to be eligble for the World Finals in Dallas (Oct 70), where it defeated Chrysler, Ford and AMC taking the win in Super Stock Eliminator. A few weeks later, (Nov 70) the Briggs-T/K-Allen team did it again at the Supernationals in Ontario Calif taking the Wally and earning $17,000 in less than four weeks time.

As far as I know the car had no National Wins in 1971 as the Chrysler camp got much stronger and won most of the events that year.

Ray moved to a Pro Stock Vega in 72 and Claude Urevig ran the Chevelle in SS/EA for a few years after. Urevig ran very low 11's and even set a record of !0.97 ET I believe.

[Musclecarkid]

[ QUOTE ]

Remember NHRA rules required at least 50 units had to be built,for a Vehicle to qualify to run in Super Stock ...even EA class,and I am confident that at least 30 of these have been shown to be produced so far.

[/ QUOTE ]

IMO, there may not have been 50 units built by May of 70, but by the end of the model year July, there certainly must have been.

This is from Feb 71 SS&DI:

"Much was said about the 454/450 Chevelle convertible combination early in the season, and most of the discussion by MoPar racers emphasized that there were very few of these Chevelles in existence. The team that built the Chevelle pointed out that the combination was a legal RPO, and NHRA backed the Truppi-Kling-Allen-Briggs car."

According to a few LS6 historians, one being Don H. from HAR in SC, he claims to have seen paperwok for at least 50-60 LS6 convertibles that he thought looked legit. He also believes there may have been closer to 100 built. With 18-30 cars known today its likely there were more that just didn't survive. Who really knows?

[StealthBird]

Interesting history. Also interesting to note that during the auction, B-J announced that the car NEVER lost a race, insinuating that it won every single round during its brief racing history in 1970.

With so many clones and rebodied cars with questionable history being sold at B-J, pretty soon we'll need DNA testing, matched to the original owner, along with the ink used on the original title being carbon dated back to year sold, and a metallurgy test on the frame matched back to the day/date the car was assembled.

Now about that 69 Trans Am RAIV column shift car.... http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif

[PhilS]

Wouldn't the fact that the engine was available in the coupes have made the car legal? My hemicuda rag ran SS/EA in 73 and 74 and there were no where near 50 of these produced.

[Belair62]

Thanks Kevin...

[Musclecarkid]

[ QUOTE ]
Wouldn't the fact that the engine was available in the coupes have made the car legal? My hemicuda rag ran SS/EA in 73 and 74 and there were no where near 50 of these produced.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, I believe you are correct. NHRA must have included Coupe/Conv production numbers for the LS6 RPO and was legal for competition. Same for the Hemi Cudas and Challengers where very few were in converts. Mopar's Dave Wren even painted "Get Ray Allen" on his 71 Hemi SS/EA 'Cuda convert. Not sure all Hemi converts competing in NHRA were factory built in 70 and 71 as most teams could just order the Hemi motor and install in a 383 car and be legal.