JL8 available first week of Nov, 68?

[Verne_Frantz]

Thanks Jeff. Interesting stuff!
Chevy seemed to be pretty intersted in racing, but sometimes their staff let things fall through the cracks. Take the '63 Z-11 for instance. NHRA required 50 production units to qualify for Super Stock, but the first list Chevy sent to their tech was only about 45 cars. When Haydon Profitt showed up at the Winternationals, they made him run "LP" Limited Production. Even though Chevy did build 50 cars, they never sent another letter and list to NHRA, so LP turned into FX, and that's where the cars ran through the season. Of course, about the time of the Winternationals, the anti-racing ban took effect and anyone in the division who supported racing activities in any way was given their last paycheck.

No doubt the JL8 was engineered for racing purposes. I suppose finding an original car that was NOT raced would be a pretty rare find!

Verne

[Jeff H]

[ QUOTE ]
No doubt the JL8 was engineered for racing purposes. I suppose finding an original car that was NOT raced would be a pretty rare find!

Verne

[/ QUOTE ]

The JL8 option was very expensive so most of the 206 cars built were not for race teams. And if you look at all the componets, the rear brakes/rotors are the same size as the front brakes/rotors and they were actually larger than the standard front disc brakes. So it really was a race developed option that most people don't realize. The 68 Camaro I had 2 years ago had one of the newer conversion kits and it used full size rotors on the rear. All I can say is that the car was the best braking car I've ever been in. And that was not race type stuff, just standard single piston calipers. There are a lot of 1 off custom components used in the JL8 setup to adapt the big brakes. The strangest thing was that you could get the JL8 setup on a 6 cyl car if you wanted to. I've heard of at least 1 car that was built that way.

[firstgenaddict]

So on the J-56 JL8 cars did they use a Corvette J-56 Caliper or was there a specific twin retaining pin caliper just for the Camaro? I have always wondered about this.
Because if I am not mistaken the standard rear Corvette 4 piston caliper will not fit on the Camaro rear ....correct?

[Jeff H]

I don't have my parts here at the house but I believe the standard JL8 setup used the single retaining pin and so the standard Corvette calipers can be used. But for racing purposes they recommended using the J56 caliper setup with the dual reataining pins for smoother pad movement.

[wundercluck]

Don't know if the actual J56 calipers will work with the Camaro, but GM released a drawing that shows how to modify the JL8 calipers for use with the flanged J56 pads.

[Jeff H]

Yes, they show how to remove that top pin retaining tab and drill the holes in each end for the 2 pin setup using the J56 pads but not J56 caliper.