C2 '67 L-88 or L-89 question

[Tom Merkel]

In the Corvette Black Book, I see for 1967 there were just 16 L-8x made with AL heads and tri-power. Simply for my curiosity's sake, why in the world did Chevy bother? The '67 population was almost 23K cars.

Did the AL heads appeal to the racing fraternity? To the cutting edge engineering people? Or maybe it was simply because Chevy could, so they did (deliver BB with AL heads)?

Maybe it's something associated with the industry in that era I'm missing.

Anyway, thanks.

Tom

[Duke W.]

Re: C2 '67 L-88 or L-89 question

Chevrolet had been experimenting with aluminum heads since the late fifties with mixed results. Actually, they were failures as far as reliability was concerned, and the manufacturing scrap rate was very high.

By '67 they appeared to be ready to step up to the plate again and get some production and field (i.e. customer) experience, however the option price of $368.65 was nearly 10 percent of the car's base price, and they didn't make anymore advertised power. I actually don't think they wanted to generate too much demand, but they probably expected more than 16. It was basically an experiment.

In the context of today's Corvette that would be like a set of say, unobtainium alloy heads that add over $4000 to the sticker and don't make any more power than the standard LS2.

So, how many do you think they would sell?

If Chevrolet had rated the L-89 at say, 450 HP, they probably would have sold a lot more, and a higher power rating (a whopping 3.4%) could have easily been justified with a little marketing spin about "improved air flow".

Heck nowadays you get ten percent more power just by buying an aftermarket air box. Anyone who would have dared to predict that L-89s would be worth a 150 grand in 40 years would have been written off as someone who fried their brain from too many acid trips. They missed the chance for a far out prediction, but they are now the guys buying the aftermarket air boxes for their new Corvettes.

Duke

[Rob M.]

Re: C2 '67 L-88 or L-89 question

I on they produced these heads for the racing business to gain more weight reduction. Due to race regulations these parts needed to be regular production parts otherwise they were not allowed to be used. Pricing of these parts prevented to get them sold in higher volumes to the general public.

greetings,
Rob.

[Tom Merkel]

Re: C2 '67 L-88 or L-89 question

Thanks, Duke. Well said.

Tom