Zora's Secret Weapon: How the Corvette L88 Beat the Shelby Cobra
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- Опубликовано: 27 фев 2023
- In the late 60's, General Motors quietly greenlit a secret project. Zora Arkus-Duntov, the Corvette's chief engineer, rebuilt the Vette's standard 427 big block into a 550-horsepower racing machine. The 7-liter aluminum L88 was intended to beat Ford's new Shelby Cobra on the track- but secretly, it could also be ordered for the road. As the years went by, more and more enthusiasts began to take advantage of the upgraded option, against the wishes of Chevrolet. As the Covette L88 grew in notoriety thanks to success at the 12h of Sebring and 24h of Daytona, sales also grew for street cars. By 1969, the L88 wasn't a secret anymore: and GM had to do something about it...
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My first experience with an L88 Corvette was on the long straght at Watkins Glen. It was an SCCA National, my first, I was flat out at about 140 miles an hour with my small block C2 Stingray. About halfway down the straight, the two Owens Corning Corvettes came up behind me and passed me like I was sitting still. They were fast but going through the chicane at the end of the straight away I had to hit my brakes to keep from running into the back of Jerry Thompson's Owens-Corning car. Of course when we reach the next straight,
they disappeared in the distance not to be seen again until the end of the race in Victory Lane. A couple years later at the Charlotte IMSA GT race, I did better, with the same, now more developed, small block C2, finishing 2nd in GTO behind the now famous "Stars and Bars" L88 Corvette but way ahead of a L88 C2 car.
Cool story, thanks for sharing.
I have a 67 with an early 69 production L88, owner had local dealer install after crash in 68
@@ousley421 Were the brakes and suspension updated to L88 spec. as well?
But at least not being a factory original you can drive it and have fun...
I'm 74 years-old, and I remember the Corvette always having a great reputation for it's looks, and it's speed.
thats what a corvette is horsepower, a corvette with no horsepower is not a true corvette years 1974 to 1990 were not true corvettes.
@@BLacShirtRBjrIn name only.
That exhaust note on that yellow vett at the beginning is almost orgasmic!
Big part of a race is the driver and his skills.
It's the most important part of the equation! But as we've seen in F1, for example, the car is just as key to success. When George Russell went from last, to winning the pole on his transfer to Mercedes two years ago, it took a lot of Hamilton's claim to fame away, showing just how much it was the car being responsible for winning. It takes both to make a champion these days.
Brass doesn't hurt either.
I actually have driven one of the 16 remaining 1967 L88s back from a show, all alone. Thrilling but nervous. Lucky me!
I'm a Ford guy but this car was a good one!!!!
the real killer was the all aluminum 377 hemi head smallblock with four webbers on it that powered the five REAL grand sports
I have owned several Corvettes over the years and acknowledge their performance capabilities. The Cobra, however, stands alone it its era, it was and remains an icon.
Cobra? but its a Ford? Only thing worse is a Mopar
@@MarioSS396 are u one of those guys who would buy a Camaro for 50k with no radio no ac and no ps?🤣
I bet none of your Corvettes was an L88.
No, none were L88S, I wish. I did wheel a 1967 L71 tri-power and found that to be enough for the street. I do stand by my contention that the Cobra stands alone; its competition record speaks for itself. @@godblessamerica99
@@MarioSS396 what ford factory produced the Cobra? None. It's a Shelby product using only a ford engine in a uk built Ac ace body. So no its not a ford
“Don’t subscribe“?… You can’t tell me what to do… I’m subscribing!
The sound of the yellow one😍😍😍
You sneaky SOB, i had to rewind the video 5 times to see that "Reverse" was spelled backwards.... Great video as always, learning new things from every video you post!
L88 is a rare one indeed) But What about ZL1?? i'ts even rarer than L88 package)
All GO, AND All show!
An L88 was the most powerful car I have ever driven. Its torque and horsepower were so underrated. It was hard to shift fast enough to keep up with its power. You could bark the tires in all 4 gears between crosswalks! Shelby's were too overrated, they got a free ride in my opinion. He was a lucky man to reach the stasis he did. The cobras were a death trap.
and with all the heat blasting the Cobra driver that went unsolved, hard to drive anywhere except in Alaska..
you are right they were overated all the way to the winners circle
@@mpojr bahahaha right.
Both cars had their pros and cons in different types of racing. The big block engines also had pros and cons with cylinder head canted valves versus inline valves, where canted valves sucked in more air for straight line jaunts and inline valves had more endurance in the 24 hour La Mons type racing (NASCAR too).
@@mpojrIt's overrated, NOT overated
Gotta love the big block
I thought this was going to be about the original "Mystery Engine" that ran at Daytona, but still a good job on the video. A wild story about that race was a Pontiac (I think it was running two Powerglides to have 4 gears?) embarrassed everybody to the point that Mercedes bought it, studied it and then crushed it. That and them by proxy getting cars like the "Big Bird Skyline" crushed ("Street's closed pizza boy") with their lobbyist's paying to get "The 25 year rule" implemented in America is why I refuse to work on any Benz products. My friend actually had an L-88 as his first car back in the early '80's but the original engine was not in it and he beat the snot out of it like it was just a normal thing. I've seen the pictures and the paperwork or I wouldn't believe him. A guy he grew up with whose family owned a local newspaper has a basement garage full of Hemi engines and parts that he collected as a kid. That was mind blowing to see. You got a sub.
L88 was an option listed in the Corvette sales literature... even with 4 speed manual or automatic transmission...
You're referencing the Pontiac Tempest in the early 60's which had a transaxle. And yes it was basically two powerglides mashed together for 4 gears. Embarrassed all kinds of domestic and european cars.
For all you Corvette aficionados: Duntov was just a ‘project manager’ (as was Carol Shelby) and that’s all. People in these positions have a team of individuals working with and or for them. It’s always the project manager who gets credit for what the team has accomplished...
Ed Glowacki is a name that will never appear in any of the Corvette history or folk lore though he was the man who 1st took Corvette racing with a V8. Glowacki was a GM engineer in the early 1950’s. Purchasing a 1st year 1953 Corvette and with his insider connections he procured a not yet available to the public small-block V8 and stuffed it his Corvette’s engine bay and went road-racing. Though a V8 in the Corvette was a ‘no-brainer’ it was still under consideration at the time. Because of Glowacki’s insistence and with his proof of concept v8’s became available in the 1955 Corvette...
How do I know this? My father also a GM engineer at the time and Glowacki were work-mates. I remember ‘uncle Ed’ vividly. He was a tall slender Irishman with flaming red hair, piercing ice blue eyes, a waxed handle-bar mustache and a infectious laugh. Ed’s V8 Corvette was also his daily driver. My father told many stories of going sideways up Woodward Ave. with Ed at the wheel on their way to work...
The history that is generally known is often not the truth but just a story. As it is said: The victors write history. Project managers are generally ego-driven success seekers and Duntov was no acceptation which why no one has ever heard of Ed Glowacki...
I have to comment on Don Yenko as he was mentioned in the clip. Yenko is almost always mentioned only with his work on Camaros, Novas and such. But the first car that Don Yenko modified was the 2nd gen Chevrolet Corvair which won the SCCA championship in ‘66 and ‘67 in their division. The Yenko Corvair championships had a much larger impact on racing at the time than did Yenko’s other endeavors...
Had an L88 in my 68 Chevelle. Holy crap at 3500 rpm you better hang on. Yeehaw all the way to 7500 rpm
This is interesting to know that there was a special racing version of the Corvette made in the 1960s, where only a few of them were made and today they are extremely rare and very valuable and command prices in the millions of dollars at auctions. Also these cars had such a high compression number that they required what would today be 100 octane unleaded racing fuel to run properly. I suspect that these rare Corvettes are being run on only leaded Racing Gasoline.
I had the trailing arms of my ‘72 roadster rebuilt by a guy who owned one of James Garner’s American Racing ‘68 L88’s back in 1989.
An L88
In a Camero
That's a cobra killer
Dream on... You're not out handling A Shelby Daytona Coup.. Nothing GM was even remotely close but CUTE DREAMS
I have a 1967 C2 now with an L88 powering it. Not original L88 but it will do burn outs forever and turns the 1/4 in 12.0 seconds on street tires at 4000 ft msl . Exhaust Sounds set off the neighbors car alarms every time I take it for a ride. Some day I might put the original 427 L71 back in. Auto Cross is pretty hard to describe in it. We call the car "spooky"
Awesome video. You should do one on the only 2 ZL1s ever made.
It has always amazed me that there were ONLY 2 ZL1 Corvettes. Essentially an aluminum L88 that weighed closer to a small block would have made for a lethal road racing combo in the Corvette, so why didn't they sell like hotcakes?
@@craigcampbell8560 $$$
@@craigcampbell8560because they never marketed the L88, they just put the option on the dealership slip. With the ZL1, they didn't even put the option at all. You had to know Zora or one of the engineers personally to know that you could actually order it
The Senior Citizen's who were the Chevy Big Shots had an anti-racing mentality with the younger Heads of Engineering and Design Departments having to find inventive ways to slip special high performance engines and racing parts past the Chevy Big Shots, because there was a big market for it. An example is the COPO Camaro with the production line 427 c.i. 425 hp Corvette engine. The ZL1 was not a production line engine for Corvettes or Impalas with no Chevelles, Camaros, Novas, ect, were limited to 400 c.i., until the 1970 Chevelle SS LS6. The ZLI was a limited production counter parts order with being slipped by the Chevy Big Shots. The reason there was only two ZL1 Corvettes made is because they were specially built off the production line and completely under the table.
The Senior Citizen's who were the Chevy Big Shots had an anti-racing mentality with the younger Heads of Engineering and Design Departments having to find inventive ways to slip special high performance engines and racing parts past the Chevy Big Shots, because there was a big market for it. An example is the COPO Camaro with the production line 427 c.i. 425 hp Corvette engine. The ZL1 was not a production line engine for Corvettes or Impalas with no Chevelles, Camaros, Novas, ect, were limited to 400 c.i., until the 1970 Chevelle SS LS6. The ZLI was a limited production counter parts order with being slipped by the Chevy Big Shots. The reason there was only two ZL1 Corvettes made is because they were specially built off the production line and completely under the table.
There was this car named the Cheetah. Nothing could Touch it. Nothing. Chevrolet 🇺🇸🏁
How many races did the cheetah win? How many times did the cheetah beat Shelby in a race? Ford destroyed Ferrari's and the cheetah, well the cheetah didn't do much at all. One off toys from car Co. Don't count, on the track racing counts. FOMOCO
Absolutely agree.The cheetah was an over-inflated toy.That never did have the balance of weight, right.. They were shit handling Go carts
Yanko's first race car was the 66 Corvair Stinger.
You also forgot that L88 427 did not come with a Fan shroud, so it would overheat at a stoplight
There are no stoplights on a race track where the L88 was designed to be.
Sweet thumbnail👌
Somebody's smokin the good stuff
A lot of comments full of biased prejudice bullshit, between those who favor either the Cobra or whatever. Here’s how I see it from my 55+ years ago perspective. I do know that there were a few L-88 Corvettes back then, and the aluminum version ZL-1 that could turn consistently in the low 11s in the qtr, even the low 10s occasionally, one in particular I remember turned in the 10:30s all afternoon at a dragstrip outside of San Francisco. But these cars were obviously set up for specifically the quarter-mile. But the L-88 was also very temperamental, and didn’t run that well at all when not setup right. James Garner bought 3 new L-88 Corvette’s to race for his American International Racing Team, but he didn’t like them at all, and considered them untrustworthy.
In my opinion, probably because they don’t run well when they get overheated, and a long race, will do that for sure. But yet they all 3 also broke the one one lap record big time, and won first, second and third pole position at Daytona and Sebring. And as far as comparing the 427 Cobra, I don’t consider it all that fair of a comparison, in the sense of the enormous weight difference. But comparing engine to engine, that particular 427 Cobra engine isn’t going to produce near the power as a 427 L-88. But that’s how I see it anyway, not that important anymore in the grand scheme of things I suppose, but the nostalgic memories of perceiving reality that way is still enjoyable at 75, maybe at 95 it just won’t matter anymore.
67 L88 would be my dream car.
2019 ZR1 standard would be my first choice
The L88 was meant to be a strip / straight line dominator more than anything. It wasn't until the ZL1 came along in 1969 that true TRACK racers felt they could hold their own. POWER vs AGILITY. The Cobra was small and light, which benefitted at the track and strip. The Vette has always been larger, so it took more to make it a true contender.
Geeze I was 9 years old in 67 and probably couldn't afford one just mowing lawns. I doubt I could have talked my Dad into buying one either ... he drove a 59 Chevy Brookwood wagon. ☹☹
The gran sport had the l-88?
Most BB Cobras sold were the 428 truck engine. Car and Driver did a 1/4 mile test with a real 427 Cobra and ran a 12.8 @ 112mph. Cobras advantage was it's light weight at a twisty track.
A 427 Cobra running a 12.8@112mph 1/4 mile would be a pure turd!!! My C5 Corvette, with a 350 (much smaller than a 427!!) in a much heavier car than the Cobra ran a best of 12.50@114mph. A 427 Ford in a 2,500lb car would flat kick my ass. Anyone crowing about a 427 big block in a 2,500lb car only running 12.8s doesnt know much about drag racing. A 427 Ford in a 2,500lb car should be in the very low 11s or high 10s, NOT 12.8s!!!
Yes guys could prep them for drag racing and get lower times, but 12s on the street in late 60s was very fast in other words no one could beat you, so why try to make it faster. I can't remember the numbers but not a lot of the Cobras had the side oiler 427.@@milojanis4901
There's the 427 Cobra, then (and I say with respect) everything else.
Weii...not too accurate.
The C2 L88was by any stand a rd a fast car.And in the proper hands it could be raced successfully.
Penske Guldstrand and I bel I eve MacDonald took one to LeMans in 1966.
The only car on the track that was faster was a Ferrari prototype. Guldstrand claims the car was running in the high in180s down the Mulsanne straight... quite fast for that time.
The car lasted about 11 hours before it broke a wristpin something that Penske Guldstrand and Traco KNEW would likely happen from Tracos dyno testing of the L88.
In fact they begged Chevrolet to homologate a different wristpin set up but Chev refused probably because the car had not broken at Sebring.
But Sebring was 12 hours and Le Mans was 24 hours on a higher speed mire demanding track
The C2 L88s could in fact properly set up beat the small block Cobras and did.
They usually could not repeat not beat a 427 Cobra.The big block Cobras with a 427 sideoiler engine made north of 500 hp.
And weighed around 2400 lbs.
The Vette making around 550 weighed in at north of 3200 lbs.
Neither car habdled particularly well for several reasons. The Corvette had around 800 lbs of handicap.
The ONLY Vettes that were ever pfoduced in the 60s that COULD AND DID STOMP both big and small block Cobras were the 5 Gran Sports
They ran377 c i small blocks with aluminium heads and 4 2 bbl Weber sidedraft carbs.
They were reputed to make around550 hp and were due to tube frames and light weight glass bodies weighed between 2100 and 2200 lbs.
They crushed shelbys Cobras 289 and 427 at Nassau Speedweek.
GM got word was furious and ordered the cars destroyed. One was but 5 were backdoored out to reputedly Penske and a couple other racers.
These cars were frightenly fast and a handful to drive according to the drivers who raced them. I saw one on the track at Monterey in the late 70s. The car was spinning is rear tires exiting most of the turns. The only things running around the track faster were a couple of McLaren big block Can Am cars.
The Gran Sports with a highly developed small block were the race cars that Duntov wanted to develop to deal with the Cobras .from talking with Guldstand and him he was never a fan of putting a big block in the C2 and trying to develop it as a race car.
Which leads to what MIGHT have been. Had Duntov been allowed to continue with his Gran Sports Shelby would likely have eventually put a 427 in his Daytona coupe. This would have enabled the ciupe to have the top speed necessary to deal with the Gran Sports which the brik like Covras could not attain.
Duntov would then have gone midengine which was another thing he wanted to do with the Corvette .
Whether Shel b y could have put together a midengine competitor with little I r no Ford help is an open question. But with access to the Chev engineering talent at the time Duntovs dream Corvette would likely have surpassed Shelbys organization to keep up.
Sadly this was not to be and the world had to wait for the C8 to get a midengined small block Corvette.
Fords GT 40 program eclipsed the Shelby Cobra as a cutting edge racerand Shelby ended his days building shitbox 4 cylinder cars for Mopar.
However the organization later rebounded and began again modifying Mustangs
Duntov and Shelby in the dsy were each automotive geniuses and we are the poorer for their passing.
2:37
Is that Dave McDonald on the left?
No way this 560hp corvette could beat a 427 Paxton supercharged engine putting out 760 hp cobra
I thought the C5-R was the most winningest Corvette in racing?
every chevy guy has a better story...
He's talking about a single car, not the whole generation of cars. One Corvette vs. All C5R's.
ALSO THE BEST LOOKING VETTE TO THIS DAY was the C5 !
It may not be popular but 55+ years of technology provides one heck of a recipe for a "Tribute" of sorts. Think about what's available from the Aftermarket and any Gearhead worth his salt could come up with a Street Car that Zora could only dream of for his Race Cars.
Speaking of Shelby Cobra one of the funny things about the car is that it was discontinued because it didn't sell so well because nobody wanted a true roadster and at least the drop-top Corvette had a convertible top behind the driver.
Increasing emissions standards by then killed off the L88/ZL1 option for production cars... but engine still available over parts counters...
The POTUS has a great looking filing cabinet.. and GSD
The Sunray DX L88 Finished first in the GT Class not 10th!
It Finished 10th Overall.
Even a blind pig will find an acorn once in a while.
The problem is, it did'nt beat the Shelby Cobra. The Cobra racked up more wins, in the USA, as well as internationally, in it's short time of production.
In a flat out drag race, the L88 was no match for a 427 S/C (Street & Competition) Cobra, and would get completely slaughtered by a full competition Cobra.
And then, there several sub-levels of Cobra performance.
Bill Thomas tried creating a car to beat the Cobra.....the 'Cheetah', but that failed miserably, as no Cheetah ever won a main event national race. They won several smaller "heat" races, and that's as far as they got with that effort.
There's more to a road racer than acceleration. The corvettes wins at the long distance events show that it had greater durability than the cobra. By 69, the Corvette had continued to evolve, with the zl1 open chamber heads the l88 was pushing 600 hp. While it had a high drag coefficient, the 68 body work added over 10 mph as noted by James garners cars hitting 197 mph at the 68 sebring. The Kamm effect tail and add on front spoiler generated good downforce and the add on fender flares allowed larger tires. The special brake pads from the z28 plus engine/tran/diff oil coolers added in 69 added with the things mentioned above is why the Corvette took places 1 - 7 at the scca a production run off that year. The highest cobra finish was 8th place.
@@jimbertoch9606 They had to improve the breed, because they were getting beat every weekend. By 1969, Shelby was out of racing, at least as far as direct involvement goes. There was no more Team Shelby at that point. All Cobra's were raced by privateers. It took the Corvette all the way to the end of the decade to finally start showing performance promise. In years earlier, the Grand Sport Corvette's still could'nt bring home the trophy.
Uh, the L88 was a drag race engine, not a road racing engine, lol. The L88 was amazing but it wasn't a Cobra...
GM at this time was actively putting the brakes on racing, especially winning, because the gov't was actively working to break GM up for it's monopoly in sales. For example, 5 ultra light Corvettes were built on the sly & raced a bit, including destroying both the Cobra & Ferrari at Bermuda. Chevy ordered them destroyed & only one was saved. That's the reason GM made Chevy stop sponsoring Nascar......so Ford & Chrysler could get in the game.....
"In the 1961 NASCAR Grand National season, General Motors continued winning, taking 41 races in all. Pontiac won 30 and Chevrolet won 11, but Ford won only seven times. Chrysler managed to win four short-track events. Ned Jarrett won only one race during the 1961 season-a 100-miler at Birmingham in June-but it was good enough to walk away with the NASCAR Grand National championship.
Early in the 1962 NASCAR Grand National season, General Motors was racking up impressive numbers in the victory column. GM won 18 of the first 20 races, 12 by Pontiac."
Actually the ultra light Corvettes were called Grand Sports, and there was 100 built. GM ordered them to be destroyed and 5 were saved. I think 3 or 4 remain to this day
@@aaronvector4750 I don't believe we are talking about the same lightweight Vettes.
I thought we were talking about 1969 & 1970, where all three US Car Makers made the highest horsepower big block engines ?
Engine. Motors are electric!
@gr5382 yeah they’re internal combustion engines. The word motor originated in the 1500’s and means to keep in motion. So that’s why the word was used originally but ignorance in society began using it wrong and it spreads and our language gets changed all because we allow it as a society. People use the argument it’s in the name ford motor company etc. Any thing with word motor if you replace it with motion it fits. Furthermore if they were truly the same thing why doesn’t anyone ever say electric engine? I’ll tell you why cause it sounds ignorant and clearly isn’t correct🤣
The Vette never crushed the Cobra. Occasional win sure but the cobra and Ford owned the 60s. Alone with Chrysler. GM was always busy hiding behind their racing is bad policy.
7.4L 454 not 4.7L 286 dodge engine.
7.4=454 7.0=427
@@OneEye. yeah I know. I didn’t realize I made typo it was late. Thanks
Fun to be rich
Shelby approached GM seeking an engine to put in the AC car before he approached Ford. GM, afraid an English car with a GM engine might compete with the Corvette turned Shelby down. GM had only itself to blame. I have always been a little mystified by Corvette enthusiasts who just can't get over the success of the Cobra. The Grand Sport, though a promise at the time of its creation, did not live up to the promise in competition.
nice collector car, alot of money. You can buy that kind of performance alot cheaper tho, a 2004 z06 corvette is faster and handles better and you can buy them for 20,000
BOGUS!! Too many mistakes to enumerate here...but you might educate yourself on the SS and the Grand Sport before making some of these claims. Also, check your SCCA records before bragging about beating Cobras!
He is in la la land!🤣😂
I almost watched this, thanks for saving me the time.
No lies detected here 💥💥💥✅
Click bait 👀✅✅
My guy , " EXHAUST BURBLE " ?? Really ?? Omg dude , get real
The Corvette beating the Cobra on the track? Yeah, sure.
Basically an L-88 beating the Cobra was just a vision? Lol. There's a street legal 427 Cobra w/dual Paxton super Chargers that's got at least 800hp. I love the L-88s! I just don't see them beating a 427 Cobra with the dual 4 barrel hook up.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
There was no factory Shelby Cobra with dual Paxton superchargers.
Anyone who does not understand that there's light years more horsepower available in a Mark IV 427 Chevy than there ever has been or ever will be in a Ford FE 427 is hopelessly lost.
Ford had to put two 4 barrel Holleys on an FE to make the same HP Chevy made with a single 780. The L-88 with a single 850 has at least 50HP on the two 4 barrel 427 FE. Probably closer to 100 HP. And the 427 will do it all day, seven days a week, with a production engine.
@@AlanRoehrich9651 did he say there were factory Shelbys with Paxton superchargers?
@@duradim1 Shelby built Cobras- 2 of them.
@@markdellacqua1038 is your comment to add on to what I said or what?
If you've never driven a vehicle that doesn't help you drive then you'd have issues driving one.
With enough mods, any car can beat another. Still a great car. I have a 1970 428 SCj mustang with 15:1 comp ratio making insane power. Can pass anything 9n the road except a gas station, mine requires 140 octane, high test with octane booster. Still fun though.
I ran 12.5 to1 in my small block 400h.o.Pontiac. I used to go to the local airport for Shell airplane gas. I believe it was 107 oct.
Please explain where you can buy 140 octane fuel, and all we'll hear are crickets. E85, which is 85% straight alcohol, is only 105-110 octane!!Also, if your mythical 140 octane fuel existed, you sure as HELL wouldn't need octane booster!!!!!! Please come talk this BS at my garden. Should help it grow nice and green.....
@@milojanis4901 you cannot buy 140 9ctane any more. 140 is an old aviation fuel from WW2, but you could buy Sunoco 260 or 100 low lead aviation fuelband add an octane buster. I also think some ra ing fuel is up there, if you can afford it.
I would put up this Corvette L-88 against a
1970 Chevelle SS . But a Shelby GT 500 K
I beleive would destroy an Corvette L-88.
That's pretty back asswards. That gt500 (not some prototype) would need low rear end gears to break 14 sec in a 1/4 mile, and even with taller gearing, questionable topping 140mph. A tripower 427 would eat it alive, let alone an L88.
The Vette didn't beat the Cobra at the racetrack--the Cobras were raced from the very start, they were dominant for ten years or more, and they are still potent today. Everybody knows about Cobras, but few outside of drag racing knows about the L88.
Fanboy
The Vette did Infact beat the Cobra at the racetrack. It wasn't the L88, but it was the C2 Grand Sport. And people don't know about it because Chevy killed it, and any racing projects were kept a secret so that GM didn't know about it. And if the company who created it doesn't know about it, you know the public doesn't either.
@@aaronvector4750that’s what I love and hate about GM is how they come out of the blue ever so often and beat ford and then disappear into the shadows again since they have nothing else to prove😂
Oh, don't forget the faster L88: the ZL1
@@aaronvector4750 that’s the way I remember it
Are you kidding ! The Cobra was dominate especially when it was the 427 version.
The Gran Sport Corvette already beat the 427 Cobra with the 377 small block. 11 seconds a lap is a lifetime. The only thing the Cobra had was being light weight. The chassis couldn't handle and that much horsepower made it worse.
Hot Rod Magazine did an article showing a street L88 Corvette would destroy a street 427 Cobra...
@@BuzzLOLOL A magazine article?? How exciting!
@@gymshoe8862 - From the recognized authority on fast cars...
@@BuzzLOLOL My opinion is at least as valid as yours. I've been doing cars for a very long time.
A 67 L88 with the Z07 option is the rarest of the rare 57 L88s. 36 gallon tank. The wide ratio 4speed was good for 271+mph on the Mulsanne straight. Unfortunately, the rods were a weak point in the 67 L88 and it failed to win its clsss
271mph!!! Are you selling any of that stuff????😂😂😂😂😂
271 my ass. Lol
Kilometers
That should be 171 mph or there about.
GM was well known for cheating any way possible . So they built a 550 HP engine and clamed it only had 435 HP . You don't think Ford couldn't do the same ? Even the little 289 Cobras were beating the corvettes ! Why didn't GM try Lemans racing ? It was because they knew they couldn't beat the Cobras within the rules in Europe ! I have owned three vettes , I like them too but lets get real !
Just as Ford's 427, and Dodge's 426 Hemi the Chevy's L88 which was derrated too because of insurance rates, which were directly tied to the car's advertised horse power rating, which affected the total car sales. 435 hp was rated at more than half the monthly cost of the normal automotive loan for new car purchase. 550 hp advertised horse power would have cost more than one and a half times of the average monthly new car auto loan.
In full street trim with factory exhaust it made 430hp just like they rated it, now put open headers on it and obviously a different story and you can add an easy 100 hp.
gm was such a dumas. stack em deep n sell em cheap!!!!! ida had em easily available!
Cobra's and the GT40's dominated track racing. The Corvette never really won anything great that you can talk about. Even the new Z06 Corvette is still not good enough to win LeMans today. The 2016 Ford GT won LeMans the first time out.
The Cobras and GT40s were bought racecars. Shelby wanted a better chassis and better engine for the Cobra. Chevy wouldn't sell him engines and Austin Healey wouldn't sell him chassis. If you watched the video, they talked about the AMA agreement. GM actually honored that agreement. Duntov already made a Cobra killer. If he had the factory backing, they could've used better chassis materials. That 377 sbc destroyed those 427 Cobras. It pulled so hard that they had to make a special hood to vent pressurized air from under it. It is called the Nassau hood. That 377 would carry the front tires down the straights. It gave them an 11 second a lap advantage over the Cobra.
@@mongolordofdarkness Nice BS story, Have another Bud Light tranny woke beer.
Bla bla Chevy didn't win get over it.
The Ford GT did not win the 24 hours of Lemans in 2016, it finished 18th. It was first in class though. A feet the Corvette has achieved many times at Lemans as well as many other races. As far as major wins check the 2001 24 hours of Daytona. Sadly, Truth seldom conforms to our bias.
The Corvette dominated scca a & b production during the 70's, had imsa gto and trans am championships during the decade, continued with production class and ss victories in the 80's and 90's and since 2000 has many alms/FIA and other major American and international victories. Check the 60's even when the cobra was at its height the Corvette won several times at 24 hrs of daytona, 12 hours sebring and 6 hrs Watkins Glen. It even took 6th overall and first gt ai Lemans in 1970. The 66 24 hours of daytona win is a great story. You're assertion is simply false.
was nothing new about shelbies cobra- he simply bought the rights to th ac bristol sports car and put a motor in it, big dael
Mike Walker, give the man credit as he modified the car to handle the power.
Why are all democrats pedophiles?
Ha! Almost 600 hp? My ass... get your head out of the clouds. Aluminum doesnt make more power. Same basic engine as the 435 horse engine but with more cam and compression. Chevys always lose me when they say"estimated"... i call bs. I wann see a dyno sheet. Stock ones run 12s in the quarter. Thats about 450 hp in a 3500 lb car.
The corvettes were no match for the Cobras. Lazy video. Do your research. No more quickshift cars for me.
the L88 wasn't an aluminum engine, it used the iron block and alum heads, the ZL1 was the aluminum 427. the biggest reason gm tried to discourage sales of the L88 is because it cost them more to build than it sold for. same thing happened to ford with their 84-86 mustang svo. to be fair gm did prefer the cars go to racers instead of going on the street but the price of the l88 option could easily raise the price almost 50% if you added any other performance options, i think the base option was around a thousand dollars. lots of so called l88 and corvette "experts" around but unless you were around in that era it was hard to know exactly how things happened. i did read a while back that the l88 registry shows more cars on the list than were actually built. they were a monster for sure, in 1969 i had a well used split window that i put a 69 chevelle L89 396 in, they rated it at 375hp but most knew it was lots more, same engine as the l88 but only less cubes, iron block and alum heads.
L78/L89 and L88 way different. L88 had a much bigger camshaft, 12.5-1 compression, no plenum divider in the intake, larger carburetor, different low restriction air filter, first to receive the open chamber heads. L88s were around 560 hp where the L78/L89 were around 425 hp. 31 cubic inches didn't make that big of a difference. The bore to stroke relationship to make those heads flow DID. The ZL1 was the huge money eater in development. Jim Hall had more to do with getting the aluminium block ZL1 right than Chevrolet. Look up Jim Hall and Chapparal Racing, especiallythe 2J car. Here was a man that needed to team up with Smoky Yunich. Innovative minds indeed.
The L88 was 11.5 : 1 with closed chambered cast iron heads and the L89 was 11.5 : 1 closed chambered aluminum heads until the 2nd design aluminum L88 open chambered heads with oval ports and 12.5 : 1 pistons, which was the same heads and pistons used for the ZL1 - LS7 parts counter ordered engines. Camshafts were different for all of these engines along with induction and ignition systems. I lived the time and remembered all of these facts for my entire life with yearning to relive the times. @@thegreenerthemeaner
I didn’t subscribe brah 😐
All that power & not a turbo nor Supercharger in site. Unlike now, auto manufacturers for more power go the lazy, e z method.
This is one of those cringy videos desperately seeking relevance by posting content the narrator knows nothing about and the lonely old people come here to give it high praise.