Click
here to go back
Thus, the stage was set for the Black Knight. No
knight in ordinary shining armor could accomplish this task. Landholders (stock
holders) would not permit fighting (racing). They were much more concerned
about selling cars and making money. So, while Lord Zora Arkus Duntov labored
to make his Corvette more attractive on the street to please the bean counters,
he and his trusty crew sought ways to
build
a racecar disguised
as a streetcar.
This is where L88 got its chance. To disguise it, Duntov
rated it five horses less than 435-horse L71, the Tri-Power 427. He failed to
mention the 430 horses came at 5200 rpm. Above six grand, horsepower peaked
at 530. Some sources print as much as 620, which was quite a big lance for the
Black Knight, who was up against Carroll Shelby’s awesome, aluminum-bodied
427 Cobra.
For the entire ‘67 model year, Chevrolet succeeded
in keeping their L88 pretty much hushed up and out of favor to all but the racer
cognoscenti. This made Zora Arkus Duntov very happy because the L88 gave his
friends a Corvette to race.
Chevrolet’s favorite son ordered his L88 Tuxedo
Black with a blue stinger hood stripe. It had all the L88 high performance features
that you’ve heard about for years, the #3904351
