Big Mike Taylor�s L89-My new project
I thought I would share my new project I bought earlier this year out of New Hampshire.
It’s an interesting car with an interesting story.
Before I start, I’d like to give NCRS member Jon Herrick a big thanks as he has been a huge help with giving me direction and advice. In fact, he was the one to tell me about the car and give me the details regarding it.
Since purchasing the car back in March of this year,
I’ve been busy acquiring parts and pieces needed to bring this car back to original.
I think the car deserves it, It’s a special car with a great story.
This adventure started with an ad on the other corvette forum.
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...oject-car.html
I’m getting fairly close to finishing another unfinished project corvette I purchased off of the other forum, a 1969 tuxedo black L71. I purchased it from a great guy in Maryland. I actually drove cross country from California to Maryland to pick it up with one of my best friends from High school. We had a great road trip going there and trailering it back from Maryland.
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...finishing.html
So the story goes like this. I was given the heads up by Jon about this 1969 L89 project car that he decided to pass on (way more sense than me lol)
After getting the scoop on the L89, the next day I called the seller about the car and had about 3 pages of questions for him.
I ended up buying the car over the phone after having most of my questions answered. The original engine was long gone. I was told the car came with a 512 427 4 bolt main block (.030 over) that was casting date correct.
Also, a bunch of really hard to find parts came with the car.
The real gold mine was all the very rare, hard to find, original Motion Performance stuff that came with the car.
Stuff like a vintage Edelbrock 427X manifold and Holley 950 cfm 3 barrel ,
Rear traction bar, LeMans gas cap, Motion Phase 3 ignition, fly eye air cleaner,
Motion valve covers, bullet side mirrors, and Ansen slotted mags.
The story of this car is that Big Mike Taylor, a first round draft pick (#10 overall) by the Pittsburgh Steelers, ordered the car new from Kenny Ross Chevrolet in Pittsburgh, Penn. with his signing bonus.
Rumor has it that when Big Mike was in the dealership to order the car, he checked off every option on the order form.
L89, leather, power windows, PB, PS, side exhaust (N14), alarm, side vent grills, F41 suspension, am fm stereo, tinted glass, and the speed alarm are all that are verified as being on the car.
When the car arrived, he immediately took the car over to Joel Rosen, the owner of Motion Performance in NY and had it gone over and converted to a Motion car by Joel himself (Joel just recently passed away).
The car had bullet side mirrors, Ansen slotted mags, Lemans gas cap, and a Motion stripe down the middle. Some folks say it had black Motion graphics stripe to match the Steelers colors of black and gold.
It also had a Motion hood installed according to Big Mike’s brother.
After the car was done at Motion Performance, a teammate (Ray May) of Big Mike saw the car and had to have one just like it. So Big Mike took his teammate to NY to see Joel and Ray apparently ended up buying Joel’s personal corvette and having it painted gold to match Big Mike’s corvette.
Apparently, the car was never authenticated by Joel Rosen and I’ve been unable to get solid confirmation from Big Mike’s son and brother regarding the Motion connection.
I was able to obtain Ray May’s contact info and attempted to pay him a visit in LA on the outskirts of Crenshaw (scary!).
Mr. May wouldn’t come to the door, but I did speak to his son-in-law , who confirmed that Mr. May did use to own a corvette “back in the day”.
Another thing I did to attempt a Motion connection was to call “Gary the Brush” in NY. Gary did all of Joel’s flares and graphics back in the 60’s and 70’s and to this day, is still painting cars.
I figured someone like Big Mike would be hard to forget if he strolled into Motion Performance back in the day.
A 6’-7”, 275 pound NFL lineman would be hard to miss or forget. I asked Gary if he remembered Big Mike and he told me he had no interaction with customers, but that he did paint 2 of Joel’s corvettes gold. This would go along with the teammate wanting a gold car just like Big Mike’s.
So who really knows?
Big Mike has passed away, Jeff Lami who was in the ownership chain has passed away, and the fellow Jeff bought the car from in California has been tough to get in touch with.
According to Big Mike’s brother, Norbert, Big Mike was a car guy who liked to street race. According to Norbert, the engine was replaced under warranty fairly early with low miles.
Big Mike gave the car to Norbert in or around 1972.
Norbert proceeded to blow up the replacement L89 motor.
Norbert then bought an L88 motor from Harry Mann Chevrolet and dropped it in to continue with his street racing. The car had Goodyear blue streak tires and apparently had a fair amount of success on the streets.
Norbert said he received an offer for the L88 engine that was too good to pass on and so he sold the motor and dropped in a 350 small block which is still in the car today when I bought it. Norbert also painted the car an ugly purple color
While the L88 was in the car, Norbert blew up the original M22 transmission (Norbert insisted the car was ordered with an M22, a fact he was adamant about when I questioned it), and the original rear end with 3:70 gears.
Big Mike’s adult son (also named Mike) is also a car guy who’s restoring a 1959 Impala. Little Mike (6’-6”) is a super nice guy and I’m hoping when I eventually finish the car, he will have the chance to drive it.
Big Mike was from SF Ca and played at SF City College. Some guy named OJ Simpson was a teammate at SFCC and Little Mike told me that the college scouts were in town to watch Big Mike play and that’s how OJ Simpson was discovered!
Well, they both were recruited to USC and as they say, the rest is history.
USC won a National Championship with Big Mike and OJ under Coach John McKay.
I believe Big Mike was drafted 10th overall in 1968 and OJ was drafted #1 in 1969.
The car sat in storage for almost 23 years, and during that time someone started taking the car apart and like a lot of projects, was never finished.
I flew out to NH to inspect the car and was surprised to find a car with virtually no serious rust issues. However the trans is from a 1968 corvette and the rear end is from a 1970 small block. So much for some of the drive train being original.
And that 427 .030 block? Well, it was the wrong date, and it was .070 over.
Even with these “misunderstandings”, it’s still a documented L89 sidepipe car with a lot of options.
1 of 390 made in 1969.
I have the Protect-O-plate, the original sales invoice, and the original title.
I plan on putting the car back to original as I’m unable to authenticate the Motion connection. Without proof, it would basically be a Motion tribute car.
I’ve already picked up a standard bore, correct 512 block with the correct casting date and the car came with the 842 aluminum heads and the tri power intake and carbs ( although the carbs are incorrect dates).
I’ll be paying someone to remove the quarters and front fenders (front and back are flared) and have already picked up new correct quarter panels from Sermersheim and David Sokoloski provided me with NOS fenders (amongst so many other things).
I’ll be starting on the engine soon.
Once the fenders and quarters are done, I’ll do a a full body off restoration and take it back to the original Riverside gold color with saddle interior
Comment