I bought a hood from Bill Grumpy Jenkins

[JoeC]

I thought some may like to see this hood. I bought this hood from Bill Grumpy Jenkins and picked it up at his shop in PA. Grumpy said he got it from Chevy Engineering in MI. They sent it to him in late 1969 along with a truck load of engine parts Chevy was sending him for the 1970 Pro Stock season. Grumpy wrote me a documentation letter (on Jenkins Competition letterhead) stating it is a "1970 Camaro cowl induction ZL2 all steel prototype hood designed to accommodate the LS7 and ZL2 high rise manifold engines. The project was canceled before going into production."
Grumpy said it was the only one that was left from the project. The black part of the hood is a steel insert that is formed with a 1/2 seem on the bottom and is spot welded to a 1/2 seem formed into the hood skin and another in the scoop part. The top of the scoop looks like its from a steel 69 cowl induction hood. This thing is a masterpiece of sheetmetal forming and is made up of about 6 pieces of sheetmetal welded together. I'm not sure what I am going to do with it but thought it was cool to have a part from Chevy Prototype Engineering. Grumpy said he had it on a show car he used for promotional advertising. Yenko did release some press info about a 1970 LS7 Yenko Camaro but never built it. This hood may have been a prototype for a COPO/Yenko 1970 LS7 Camaro but unfortunately the program got scrapped. Grumpy said the ZL2 was going to be a 454cu in aluminum engine similar to the ZL1.

[Mr70]

JoeC
Great picture and details,but I am curious..
The RPO code for the Chevelle cowl induction hood from 1970-72 is ZL-2.
Why would Chevrolet name the Al. 454 engine ZL-2 in this same time period also?
There was a Dealership that did install the all aluminum 454 engine into an LS-6 factory built Chevelle back in December 69 for a customer,for a fee.Ths was NOT factory installed,but over the counter.
This was not a well known dealership.
I have the paperwork for this Chevelle.Owner claims 15 were made by this dealership.I have done alot of research on this Car.

[JoeC]

Rick, I thought the same thing but this is what Bill Jenkins told me so I just quoted him. Maybe they were going to call it a ZL2 at one time (late 69) or maybe Grumpy remembers it differently. I also think they were going to call the aluminum 454 an LT2 or something close to that. Not sure but I guess there was no RPO for it since they didn't build it.

[Vern B]

Mr 70

Was that Ray Ridge Chevrolet?

[DjD]

Chevrolet used Z11 for Impalas and Camaros I believe. A few yrs apart though...

[Mr70]

Vern B
Yes.That was the same dealership.SS427 visited me recently and I showed him the documents too.
I believe RPO Z11 was on the 1963 Impalas,and was an Aluminum front end,not the complete engine.

[SS427]

I had heard the rumor for many years but ALWAYS blew it off as a hoax. All I can say is those documents stood me up better than a visit to Dream Girls on a Friday night! Neat stuff and what a find that would make a book all by itself.

Upon my return home, I dug all my info out that I had and confirmed it was definitely a possibility. Now back to the hood........

[Vern B]

Mr 70, SS427

I've heard about those cars for a number of years also. I spent a lot of time around
Detroit, Milan and Detroit Dragways and never remember seeing one. I've talked to several guys that raced at those tracks back then and no one remembers any of them either. I've seen some of the documentation and talked to a couple people that worked at Ray Ridge back then and no one remembers a
car like that. They may exist, but it seems out of 12-14 cars, at least one would have surfaced by now. That said, I haven't given up looking either!!

[Daytona Yellow 69 Z28]

Neat picture and a gret story.

[Fhakya]

That looks to be the hood off of the mysterious "Grumpy's Toy XII" (did I get the # right?). The standard bumper one on the cover of SS&DI (July '70 issue I believe). I'd attach some pics but am not sure how yet. A great acquisition!
-Mark