IROC and ZR-1 motor question

[Terry24]

Greetings all. A guy I work with bought a few years ago, a red 1987 IROC Camaro, off of a flight attendant. She sold it to him because "it was too powerful" or something like that. She told him nothing was ever done to the car, modificationwise. After he bought it, he took it to the local Chevy dealership and they discovered it was the wrong motor. The motor that was in it was the Corvette ZR-1 motor, so he contacted the flight attendant back and she clamis that it was stock.
Ok, so assuming that everyone is telling the truth (doesnt everyone??), is is even remotely possibly for the factory, or an excutive, make such an order when ZR-1s didnt come out for a few more years?

[old5.0]

In short, no. I'm not as familiar with the late model Chevy's as the Ford's, but I'll throw in my 2 cents anyway. I doubt any of the four cam engines even existed at that point. Maybe a couple of prototypes, but that's it. What are the odds that first, if a prototype existed, it ended up on an assembly line, and second, ended up in a Camaro, and nobody ever figured it out. Maybe an exec. order, but I doubt any exec. short of the CEO would have the pull to make that happen.

I'm also not sure that the ZR-1 engine would have even physically fit in an F-Body. Additionally, there would not have been any wiring harness that would work with that engine/chassis combination. There may have also been issues with little things, brake line interference, etc.

In all likelyhood, it was the regular L-98, 350 TPI engine, which I've heard many people refer to as the "Corvette Engine".

Just my opinion

[old5.0]

With all that said, I want to add that I'm a firm believer in "Never Say Never". It's possible there may have been a Camaro engineering mule or two with this engine, and it's always a possibility that one slipped out, but in my opinion, an 87 just seems too early.

[bracketracer-78]

There was a showcar built with the ZR1 engine in the early 90's by Chevy. It was not a drop in swap. I do not remember the details but there had to be a lot of fabrication to make it fit. If the swap was easy there would be a lot more of them out there.

[camarojoe]

I agree with old5.0....

Back then people used to frequently call the 5.7 Liter option in the Iroc a "Corvette motor"... as earlier Iroc's were only available with the 5.0 Liter 305. Granted the 5.7 iron head motor in the Iroc wasn't even the same one as in the Corvette, but it didn't stop everyone who ordered the 5.7 from calling it a Corvette engine. Heck, my own dad had a 5.7 L98 Iroc and called it a corvette motor.

My guess is that it had the 5.7 TPI option and somewhere along the line the story changed from Corvette motor to ZR-1 motor. The ZR-1 didn't come out til late '89 anyhow, so it would be impossible for a 1987 Iroc to have one factory installed even if it was a direct bolt-in...it was built 2 years before the first ZR-1 vettes ever rolled off the line.

[Charley Lillard]

I was trying to buy a IROC at Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale that had one of the LT5's. They do fit but hard to believe that car had it. Somewhere I have pics.

[Charley Lillard]

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[Charley Lillard]

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[CC Rider]

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I saw this car at Carlisle back in, I think, 2001 or 2002. It was on display with many other GM-owned Camaros as part of a Camaro Heritage Tour (or something like that).

[Terry24]

Thanks guys, I sort of thought that would be the case......especially with it being 2 years prior and all, but, one never truly knows...........I would agree that the "Corvette motor" moniker would get over and/or misused....