| groovyjay |
04.02.2007 22:25 |
Mid Yearillä yli 300Kmh...
1 Attachment(s)
Onko mid yearin keulan nouseminen yli 150kmh vauhdissa pelkkä myytti...
Quote:
In 1965, Ralph Morrison, a communications supervisor at Sunray--at the time the world's sixth-largest oil company--convinced the management of his company to spread the Sunray name toward drivers, racecars and spectators who attended races. He was given a modest budget. Sunray provided advertising money, trophies, oil and gas for competitors. The program was a phenomenal success in 1965 and 1966, so in 1967, the budget grew. Morrison ran the team and a Corvette was selected. After all, it was the most competitive car at the time and what else but a fire-breathing L88 would do? Morrison called Don Yenko and outlined his plan. Sunray ordered a white-on-red 1967 L88 coupe and, through Yenko's connections, was able to get the first L88 ever built. Yenko dispatched fellow racer Dave Morgan to the St. Louis factory on March 9, 1967, and Morgan drove the beast home to Pennsylvania.
Once the car got to Yenko's dealership, the original carpet, shifter surround and some other interior pieces were removed, including the original fuel tank. In its place, Yenko installed a 42-gallon fiberglass tank. Also installed were a set of L88-specific headers and pipes, one of about five to 10 sets ever produced by Chevrolet Engineering, said Richard Prince, of Long Island, New York, who restored the car and owned it for about 15 years. Yenko and crew had three weeks to prepare the car for the 12 Hours at Sebring, but made it. The No. 8 car had Sunray DX logos on it and red and blue stripes over its factory Ermine White paint. Firestone goldline tires and American Racing Torque Thrust wheels were added, larger air extractors replaced the stock gills on the front fenders and the rear wheel arches were fitted with a larger cover to enclose the rear tires. A roll bar was installed and the stock chrome bumpers removed. Yenko and Morgan finished first in the GT class and 10th overall. The car reached speeds up to 194 mph with help from Daytona's banking and a special 2.60:1 differential ratio, obtained from Chevrolet engineering. Chevrolet never offered a ratio lower than a 2.73:1 in any production Corvette, Prince said. After Sebring, Morgan campaigned the car and won the SCCA Mid-West Division title.
"I researched this car and criss-crossed the country doing it. All the previous owners, whom I spoke with, were friends and raced the car in the Finger Lakes region of New York," Prince said. "And unlike other race cars, this one, though it lost its original engine long ago, was never inoperable its entire life. Every owner drove or raced the car. I talked to the race mechanics. They didn't think twice about replacing the engine. No one was concerned what the car might be worth some day."
Prince went to painstaking lengths to restore this car. Remarkably, Prince obtained the never-used original pieces from one of Yenko's personal mechanics, Warren Dernoshek, who today operates a repair shop in McMurray, Pennsylvania. Prince became more detective than restorer in his quest to resurrect No. 8. He traveled across the country to Sunray DX several times, interviewed a truck driver, Bob Lawson, in Oklahoma, who hauled this car to the races, found a marketing director in Kansas, and recovered the car's original dealer invoice. Prince was able to build a correct 351 casting number block, correct aluminum heads, intake, radiator and road draft tube. The car also has a correct M22 Muncie "Rock Crusher" and transistor ignition.
The hardest parts to find were the Chevrolet Engineering special headers, made specifically for the L88 engine, which were 4 inches in diameter. These were built with no blueprints or plans and called a "cobble job." Prince learned that a pair of these manifolds was owned by Bloomington Gold director Dave Burroughs. "He told me he wanted to help see the car correctly restored but he would not sell the headers to me that he had searched many years for. I asked if he would ship them to me so I could make duplicates. He refused, fearing they would get lost or damaged," Prince said.
Undaunted, Prince paid to fly Burroughs to Detroit, headers in tow, and meet with a firm that built prototype exhausts for GM. Prince had even contacted the engineer who designed the headers and still worked for GM in 1990.
Still Burroughs feared for the safety of the headers.
"Even when we met there, he would not relinquish the headers until he looked over the facility. He did, and a perfect match was replicated. It cost me between $4,000 and $5,000 just for the headers and pipes, but it was worth it to restore the car as correctly as possible."
Under Prince's ownership, he raced the car a few times. Famed Corvette racer Dr. Dick Thompson raced the car at the 1994 Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix. Morgan drove the restored car in 1999 at Daytona.
"All the times I street-drove the car it had perfect oil pressure, never overheated and just ran perfectly. It was remarkably civil for what it is. I had it restored as original with no choke, no fan shroud, and it never got hot. I had this car up to 166 mph at Sebring on the backstretch."
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Noissa kuvissa tosta autosta, en muista ainakaan nähneeni mitään isoa lumikolaa, pitämässä keulaa alhaalla. Omaan projektiin on jo etuspoileria suunniteltu, mutta jos kerran ilmankin onnistuu niin miksi sit pitäis laittaa... ;) |
