I was asked to publicly shame myself again. Ok I'm not bashful or proud, so here goes.
I do not know the name of the person who purchased the car new from Baldwin-Motion but it had the fiberglass L-88 hood, the 2.5" in diameter S-curved pipes that fed the chambered Corvette exhaust pipes burnt my legs on more than one occasion. It had a deluxe interior with the gauge package on the console, tach in the dash, walnut three spoke brushed metal steering wheel. It had a 2.20 Muncie, and a 4.10 twelve bolt rear, along with Corvette 4 puck disc brakes, four core Harrison radiator.
I was told he blew the factory 427 engine up and put in a Yenko aftermarket block casting, Yenko prepared, L-88 crate engine in the car. He was going to put this in his race car but he needed transportation. The engine used 12.5:1 pop-up pistons with a mechanical tappet cam and an aluminum high rise with a single 850 cfm Holley sparked by a Mallory 4 lobe distributor (only thing I have left of the car is the distributor). It had steel closed chamber 2.19"-1.88" rectangular port heads.
After driving this on the road for a while he decided he need a more family friendly car so he traded the Camaro to David Canon for Canon's black 440 six-pack GTX. David kept the car as is and raced it on the street. After his third arrest in one evening, and after his wife refused to bail him out for the third time, she sold the car to John Miller. John raced it every Sunday at Tampa Drag Strip (Don Garlit's old test and tune track) where it ran consistent 10 teens.
I traded John a flawless '59 Corvette roller I had recently purchased for the Camaro. The Corvette had been stripped to bare glass to show no damage to the body. It had the interior and trim pieces in boxes but was otherwise complete.
I now owned a blue/blue '68 RS/SS Camaro that could only be described as sweet; so I removed the front sway bar and installed 90/10 shocks in the front and 50/50 Gabriel air shocks in the rear using Lakewood J-bar traction bars. I swapped in Moroso front coils and new over the counter Trans-Am multi leaf rear springs I had ordered down at Ferman Chevrolet.
I drove it to work like that at the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office every day (one tank of gas a day) until I sucked an exhaust valve on the way home one day and decided I could repair it:
"We can rebuild it, make it better than before (nah nah nah nah)."
So I bought a set of fiberglass front fenders and trunk lid, sold the deluxe interior and the Corvette four puck disk brakes (along with trading out the spindles for his 6 banger drum brakes) to Robert Lowry who put them in an old red Camaro beater he was restoring. I bought open chamber 2.25"-1.88" Chevy aluminum heads and 0.030" 13.0:1 TRW forged pistons. I bought a "huge" roller cam and lifters with Crane springs and stud girdle for the heads. I used a Vertex mag and an Edelbrock tunnel ram topped with two 660 cfm Holleys. The engine parts were all machined and balanced by Jon Zorian at Don Garlits shop. Slamed that same Yenko block with all new goodies into the car and …
Funny the hood wouldn't close, so I sawed a hole in the L-88 fiberglass hood. I used a Corvette aluminum radiator, which didn't fit my core support so I trashed that too. I reduced the car to a body in white ripping out every wire and once of caulk in every seam. I got rid of the tinted door windows (rare considering it didn't come with A/C) and put in Lexan plastic. Used an aluminum stop sign post on each side to hold up the radiator and bolt on the fenders using titanium aircraft bolts. Threw away the side pipes as I was only running uncapped now, welded in a ladder bar system and cut the floors to put in a full frame (back halved the car years before that expression ever became popular) with a ten point roll cage. Raced the car running low 9's until about '75 when I sold the body to Kenny Hahn.
Bought myself a '70 Nova and a one piece fiberglass front end, doors, trunk, and bumpers. Started the process all over again.
Larger Dave
I do not know the name of the person who purchased the car new from Baldwin-Motion but it had the fiberglass L-88 hood, the 2.5" in diameter S-curved pipes that fed the chambered Corvette exhaust pipes burnt my legs on more than one occasion. It had a deluxe interior with the gauge package on the console, tach in the dash, walnut three spoke brushed metal steering wheel. It had a 2.20 Muncie, and a 4.10 twelve bolt rear, along with Corvette 4 puck disc brakes, four core Harrison radiator.
I was told he blew the factory 427 engine up and put in a Yenko aftermarket block casting, Yenko prepared, L-88 crate engine in the car. He was going to put this in his race car but he needed transportation. The engine used 12.5:1 pop-up pistons with a mechanical tappet cam and an aluminum high rise with a single 850 cfm Holley sparked by a Mallory 4 lobe distributor (only thing I have left of the car is the distributor). It had steel closed chamber 2.19"-1.88" rectangular port heads.
After driving this on the road for a while he decided he need a more family friendly car so he traded the Camaro to David Canon for Canon's black 440 six-pack GTX. David kept the car as is and raced it on the street. After his third arrest in one evening, and after his wife refused to bail him out for the third time, she sold the car to John Miller. John raced it every Sunday at Tampa Drag Strip (Don Garlit's old test and tune track) where it ran consistent 10 teens.
I traded John a flawless '59 Corvette roller I had recently purchased for the Camaro. The Corvette had been stripped to bare glass to show no damage to the body. It had the interior and trim pieces in boxes but was otherwise complete.
I now owned a blue/blue '68 RS/SS Camaro that could only be described as sweet; so I removed the front sway bar and installed 90/10 shocks in the front and 50/50 Gabriel air shocks in the rear using Lakewood J-bar traction bars. I swapped in Moroso front coils and new over the counter Trans-Am multi leaf rear springs I had ordered down at Ferman Chevrolet.
I drove it to work like that at the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office every day (one tank of gas a day) until I sucked an exhaust valve on the way home one day and decided I could repair it:
"We can rebuild it, make it better than before (nah nah nah nah)."
So I bought a set of fiberglass front fenders and trunk lid, sold the deluxe interior and the Corvette four puck disk brakes (along with trading out the spindles for his 6 banger drum brakes) to Robert Lowry who put them in an old red Camaro beater he was restoring. I bought open chamber 2.25"-1.88" Chevy aluminum heads and 0.030" 13.0:1 TRW forged pistons. I bought a "huge" roller cam and lifters with Crane springs and stud girdle for the heads. I used a Vertex mag and an Edelbrock tunnel ram topped with two 660 cfm Holleys. The engine parts were all machined and balanced by Jon Zorian at Don Garlits shop. Slamed that same Yenko block with all new goodies into the car and …
Funny the hood wouldn't close, so I sawed a hole in the L-88 fiberglass hood. I used a Corvette aluminum radiator, which didn't fit my core support so I trashed that too. I reduced the car to a body in white ripping out every wire and once of caulk in every seam. I got rid of the tinted door windows (rare considering it didn't come with A/C) and put in Lexan plastic. Used an aluminum stop sign post on each side to hold up the radiator and bolt on the fenders using titanium aircraft bolts. Threw away the side pipes as I was only running uncapped now, welded in a ladder bar system and cut the floors to put in a full frame (back halved the car years before that expression ever became popular) with a ten point roll cage. Raced the car running low 9's until about '75 when I sold the body to Kenny Hahn.
Bought myself a '70 Nova and a one piece fiberglass front end, doors, trunk, and bumpers. Started the process all over again.
Larger Dave
Any vintage pics? Would love to see it!!!!
