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The 1967-model Corvette was not meant to be. That is, it was not supposed to appear in the guise in which it actually came to market. An entirely new body had been set for introduction that year but was postponed for a twelve-month period. In both styling and specifications the ’67 was an interim model, as reflected also by the 17.2-percent drop in production for its model year to 22,940 cars from the record set by the 1966 model.

External factors played a part in this shift in demand. The Sting Ray was no longer a sensational novelty. As well, the market was awash with afford-able sporty cars that offered big engines and thrusting performance. The founder of the “Ponycar” category in 1964, Ford’s Mustang, was soon joined by Mercury’s

Cougar. Late in 1967 American Motors would crash the party with its Javelin. Plymouth, which had been active from 1964 with its Barracuda, upgraded its entry in 1967. Dodge came aboard later with its Challenger.

Most crucial for the Corvette was its new in-house competition. Chevrolet offered not only its Camaro but also its Corvair, which would mature in 1965 with a rear suspension like the Sting Ray’s and 180 turbo-charged horsepower. Indeed, some in Design Staff’s Studio X, like engineer Tony Lapine, saw in the Corvair the nucleus of a sports car that could and should replace the Corvette.

Then there was thrusting Pontiac, next up the corporation’s ladder from Chevrolet. Pontiac, in fact, craved to challenge the Corvette’s role as GM’s only sports car. “We desperately wanted a two-passenger sports car,” admitted Bill Collins, who headed Pontiac’s hyperactive Advanced Engineering Department. “Design Staff assigned the XP-833 designation and to-gether a really neat car was designed, engineered and two driveable prototypes built.

“In those days the GM divisions were unique kingdoms of their own,” Collins explained, “and we had the freedom to do interesting things as long as it wasn’t interfering with production and we didn’t spend a lot of money on it.” First presented as a con-cept in 1964, when Pete Estes was Pontiac’s general manager and John DeLorean its chief engineer, the XP-833 would have been on the market in 1967. It

1967 AND l88 origiNs34

1967: C2 swan song

Rivalry from others including Pontiac’s lighter, smaller XP-833

AmC’s AmX

Ventilated steel “Rally” wheels appear

Triple holley carburetors for mark IV

Aluminum-head l88 engine in spring 1967

l88 entry at le mans in 1967

469

was to have Pontiac’s single-overhead-cam six as the base powerplant with an optional V-8.

The car’s proposition was a lighter, simpler, less expensive sports car than the Corvette—virtually a reversion to the original Project Opel. Its front and rear suspension were freely adapted from the A-body Tempest intermediates that Pontiac was producing, although dedicated front wishbones were designed to suit the XP-833. “We thought up a dozen different ways to put a sports car into production,” said Collins, like building it in Canada. His vision, he said, was “a neat sports car at a reasonable price—the kind of car

you could drive around Fort Lauderdale on a summer day with your arm out the window.”

The two XP-833s were built on a 90-inch wheel-base, a full foot shorter than the original C1. Styled with a chrome integral bumper that mirrored Pontiac’s trademark split grille, they were roadsters with conventional slim-pillared windscreens. An opening rear deck covered the retracted roof and allowed lug-gage access, one-upping the Corvette. Styling by Ned Nickels in his special studio was clean and edgy in Pontiac’s idiom of the time with nary a fake grille or vent. The body was GRP attached to a steel subframe.

With fixed seats and adjustable pedals, the XP-833 interior was less commodious than the Corvette’s but adequate by sports-car standards. The six-cylinder

Red-line tires complemented the look of a 1967 Sting Ray coupe with the big mark IV engine, which was offered in four different versions.

470 ChAPTeR 34

prototype was a hardtop, silver with a red interior, while the V-8 roadster was white with black trim. When powered by the six the prototype two-seater weighed only 2,200 pounds, one-quarter less than the comparable 1953 Corvette. Though it would doubtless have accrued some pounds in production form, this showed good work by Pontiac’s engineers.

Although GM’s powerful Engineering Policy Group rejected the XP-833 when Estes and DeLorean present-ed it as a concept in 1964, the charismatic DeLorean told his engineers to go ahead and build the proto-types. Even their undoubted appeal, at the second time of asking, was not enough to sway the 14th floor, as the aerie of the corporation’s top executives was known. Bunkie Knudsen certainly mounted a stout de-fense of his Corvette as GM’s one and only sports car and his sporty Corvair as a worthy stablemate.1

1 The project’s cancellation did not bring destruction of the prototypes. Bill Collins was able to buy the V-8 roadster in the 1970s. As Pontiac’s assistant chief engineer he often visited Design Staff, where a Pontiac concept car called the “Banshee” had been created. “I found two sets of chrome-plated Banshee nameplates,” Collins recalled. “As the leader on the XP-833 project I felt the right to name them ‘Banshee.’” Thus this name, now associated with these cars, came well after their creation and abandonment.

Completed in 1964, two XP-833 prototypes represented serious potential competition for the Corvette from sister Gm division Pontiac.

Though designed as a simpler vehicle to compete at a lower price point than the Corvette, Pontiac’s XP-833 had a handsome cockpit with real sports-car looks.

While one Pontiac XP-833 prototype—later dubbed the “Banshee”—had a V-8 the other was powered by the division’s pioneering overhead-cam six.

4711967 And l88 oRIGInS

Thus the Corvette dodged this internal bullet. A direct external challenge originated with—of all places—American Motors, where Richard A. “Dick” Teague was an exceptionally resourceful chief stylist and sports-car enthusiast. Introduced early in 1968, AMC’s AMX was the end result of a concept-car project that began in October of 1965. As Dick Teague de-scribed it, “The AMX was designed for automobile enthusiasts, for people who really love cars—not to satisfy statisticians.” Work on it was headed by Charles “Chuck” Mashigan’s advanced styling studio.

From a series of AMX-badged concept cars a two-seater coupe emerged that was first realized in steel by Vignale to AMC’s designs. Told to use as much of the AMC Javelin “Ponycar” as possible, said Teague, “we took twelve inches out of the wheelbase and moved the bumper, gas tank, deck lid and back light all for-ward to come up with a sleek two-passenger sports car.” The resulting 97-inch wheelbase was an inch shorter than the Corvette’s and its weight reasonable at 3,350 pounds.

Not underpowered with its choice of V-8s of 290 and 390 cubic inches, the AMX hit the market with a spectacular record-setting spree by Craig Breedlove and his wife Lee. At a Texas test track they rolled up 106 American and international speed records. With a price tag only three-quarters that of a Sting Ray, the AMX was a cheeky new entrant with impressive per-formance and sporty handling. AMX sales peaked at 8,293 in 1969, however, with a total of 19,134 made through the 1970 model year. To Dick Teague’s great frustration it was dropped because its donor vehicle, the Javelin, was being rejigged.

If fresh styling were needed to help the 1967 Corvette cope with its challengers, its supporters would be disappointed. Exterior changes in Chevrolet’s sports car for 1967 were subtle in the extreme. A cen-tral reversing lamp above the rear license plate was one hallmark. Another was a new front-fender vent design of five louvers. For the first time the optional hardtop could be ordered with a black vinyl covering. One of the features of the ’67 Sting Ray that had been specially planned for use with a new body was place-ment of the hand-brake lever on the center console, between redesigned seats.

New ventilated steel “Rally” wheels with six-inch rims and chrome “rimbellishers” were standard equip-ment, giving a purposeful look. The now-mainly-deco-rative status of the optional cast-aluminum wheels was acknowledged by making them bolt-on parts, eliminat-ing the weight and cost of knock-off hubs. This also

In 1968 AmC intro-duced its production AmX, which remained available through 1970 with a total of more than 19,000 produced.

As part of a series of concept-car exercises American motors built this appealing two-seater AmX, designed as a Javelin derivative.

472 ChAPTeR 34

responded to heightened safety concerns, the knock-off spinners’ ears being considered a hazard.

The role of the Mark IV grew in 1967, signaled by a new and aggressive-looking pseudo-scoop hood panel that covered all the 427-cubic-inch engines. The lower three engine choices remained unchanged, with the important addition of a Powerglide transmission as an option with the 390-bhp Mark IV V-8.

At the top of the ladder were two more engines. Both were topped by a triangular air cleaner covering a new manifold fitted with three Holley two-barrel carburetors. These were interconnected by a system that sensed vacuum in the venturi of the center car-buretor—not in the manifold, as with other multicarb arrangements—to open the throttles of the two end carburetors gradually as the engine’s demand for ad-ditional air and fuel increased.

This new system, reported Car and Driver, “results in an astoundingly tractable engine and uncannily

smooth engine response. As soon as it’s rolling, say at 500 rpm, you can push the throttle to the floor and the car just picks up with a turbine-like swelling surge of power that never misses a beat all the way up to its top speed of over 140 mph. And you get the same response—instantly—in any gear any time you open the tap. On the whole, the Corvette’s three deuces are as smooth and responsive as fuel injection.”

The lesser of the two 3 x 2-barrel engines was the L68, which carried a hydraulic-lifter camshaft and was rated at 400 bhp at 5,400; 460 lb-ft at 3,600 rpm. This too could be ordered with the Powerglide transmission. Only the close-ratio four-speed was fitted behind the L71, the mechanical-lifter version, which was conserva-tively rated at 435 bhp at 5,800 rpm, a $437.10 option. Popular Hot Rodding took its test car—equipped with a Positraction differential and close-ratio Muncie trans-mission—straight to the drag strip.

“We made no engine adjustments other than removal of the top of the air cleaner,” said PHR. “The best starting-line technique was to drive off at around 2,000 rpm and nail it to the wood. The first 100 feet was a wild ride, something like driving in syrup, but after the tires finally caught hold the ’Vette really showed its oats. The best time registered out of 14 runs and a combination of drivers was 13.91 seconds ET and 106.25 mph.” The L71’s time to 60 mph of 4.7 seconds in the Car and Driver test logbook was not beaten until 1975, by a Porsche Turbo.

“As to stopping ability,” Popular Hot Rodding con-tinued, “the Corvette is second to none. On each of the runs made at the strip a full stop was made at the end of the quarter-mile. Using four-wheel disc brakes is like throwing out an anchor—you stop right now. We felt that an American car had been built which put the fun back into driving. The ride is stiff, but if it were mushy the Corvette wouldn’t be a sports car.”

To the buyer of the L71 another new $368.65 op-tion could be added: aluminum cylinder heads. Cast by the Winters foundry, these chopped an important 75 pounds from the front end and offered larger ex-haust valves with heads measuring 1.84 inches. This was the production debut of the aluminum heads for the “Mark” engine that had first been tried at Sebring during practice in 1966 on the Penske-owned Grand Sport roadster.

Aluminum heads were building blocks in the con-struction of a Corvette engine that became legendary, the L88 option announced in the spring of 1967. There

delivering an unofficial 560 horsepower, the l88 engine introduced in 1967 was designed for racing. l88-equipped Corvettes were stripped of heater, defroster and radio to save weight. They featured a unique cowl-induction hood among other racing options.

4731967 And l88 oRIGInS

was no hedging on the output of this engine; Chevy said nothing at all about it. But a reliably reported power figure for the L88 was 560 bhp at 6,400 rpm on fuel of 103 research octane.2 “And with unrestricted exhaust,” said Zora Duntov, “640. I pick 430, I don’t know why. Is just a number.” It was as pure a racing engine as Chevrolet had yet offered for the Corvette.

The L88 V-8 could only be ordered with all the oth-er racing options plus the K66 transistor ignition sys-tem, the G80 Positraction differential and option C48: a credit of $97.85 for deletion of the otherwise standard heater and defroster, “to cut down on weight and dis-courage the car’s use on the street,” said Corvette News. Although the engine alone was priced at $947.90, with all the concomitant extras the package came to some $1,500. In 1967 20 buyers chose the L88.

L88 design features included a 12.5:1 compression ratio, an aluminum intake manifold modified to form

2 In 1992 Corvette Fever reported on a dynamometer test of a rebuilt L88. It produced 502 lb-ft of torque at 4,400 rpm. Horsepower at 5,200 rpm was 489 and at 6,200 rpm 514. These are likely to be net figures, inclusive of accessories, unlike the gross SAE figures used at the time by Chevrolet and others.

a plenum chamber under the single Holley 850 CFM carburetor, heavy-duty bottom end with a Tufftrided crankshaft and shot-peened connecting rods with extra-strong 0.716-inch bolts. Pistons were forged by TRW of high-silicon-alloy aluminum. Hardened pushrods and heat-treated rocker arms lifted inlet valves by 0.559 inch and exhausts by 0.580 inch with an overlap of 136 degrees before they were closed by triple springs.

The L88’s small-diameter flywheel carried a high-capacity clutch, driving Muncie’s “rock crusher” M22 transmission. Other adjuncts to the L88 were an aluminum cross-flow radiator and an engine-air intake from the grille at the base of the windshield, an area of high air pressure—the same inlet location used by Mickey Thompson at Daytona for the spectacular de-but of the Mark II engine in 1963. This was a modifi-cation of the standard Mark IV hood to provide an air-box and a built-in filter that mated with the carburetor entry when the hood was shut. No shroud surrounded the fan, controlled by a silicone clutch.

Even with this new engine the hefty Corvette was still no match for the Cobras in the short sprint events on twisty tracks that typified most SCCA competition. But it helped. Corvettes were still doing very well in B Production with a National Championship in 1964 for Frank Dominianni of Valley Stream, Long Island. Frank retrofitted his 1962 Corvette with a 283-cubic-inch V-8

With its l88 package the 1967 Sting Ray finally posed a threat to the Cobras in the SCCA’s A Production Championships. These great rivals are shown at Road America in a modern-day duel. This restored l88 is shown at its racing zenith on page 478.

474 ChAPTeR 34

With engine ally denny davis, Zora Arkus-duntov took pleasure in the potential of the l88 version of the mark IV with aluminum heads and a more robust bottom end.

to move down a class. Enjoying both an engine dyno and chassis dyno in his workshop, Dominianni made it his business to know the Ramjet fuel injection inside-out.

Frank Dominianni’s first racing Corvette was a ’57 that established a tradition of red racers bearing the number 69. One of the masters of the daunting Bridgehampton circuit, where he drove “on the edge of destruction,” Dominianni was described as “the classic overachiever who prevailed with a combination

of resourcefulness, a keen understanding of applied engineering, optimism and a never-quit attitude.” Frank and others corralled for the Corvette the SCCA’s New York and Divisional awards in duplicate in 1965, triplicate in ’66 and quintuplicate in 1967.

Against the Cobras the SCCA’s A Production Divisional Championships, the Corvettes were horses

4751967 And l88 oRIGInS

of another color. Shut out in 1964, the Corvette picked up only a single Divisional award in 1965. With the advent of the “Mark” engine, however, the outlook brightened. Two A Production Divisional cups were collected in 1966 and three in ’67.

Built in late January of 1967, the first L88 to be built reached Detroit’s Hanley Dawson Chevrolet to the order of Tony DeLorenzo, Jr., enthusiast son of Anthony G. DeLorenzo, GM’s vice president in charge of public relations. A convertible, it was race-prepared for Tony’s A Production campaign in the Midwest. This was successful enough to take him to the SCCA Runoffs at Daytona Beach, where he was beaten only by a Cobra 427. Carrying on with an L88 into 1968, Tony DeLorenzo played an important role in keeping

motor racing close to the hierarchy of General Motors.3

Of the four production L88 Sting Rays that came to Sebring in 1967 one, driven by Don Yenko and Dave Morgan, placed tenth overall and first among the GTs even though it spent the last 40 minutes of the race wedged in a sand bank after complete brake failure. Morgan drove the coupe, sponsored by oil company Sunray DX, to the SCCA Midwest A Production title. Carrying on into 1968, the coupe placed tenth overall and first in class at Daytona in the hands of Morgan and Jerry Grant.

3 This ex-DeLorenzo Corvette sold for $1,325,000 at auction on August 14, 2010.

In 1967 4,209 buyers of a total of 22,940 Corvettes ticked the box for the gorgeous RPo n14 “Side mount” exhaust system, a dream amenity for real enthusiasts.

With headlamps deployed a mark IV-equipped 1967 convert-ible showed off the substantial hood bulge and scoop that marked the big V-8 underneath.

476 ChAPTeR 34

dana Chevrolet’s entry of an l88-equipped Corvette at le mans in 1967 marked a serious incursion by an American GT car in this classic event.

In 1967 an L88 coupe was entered at Le Mans by a California dealer, Dana Chevrolet, whose Peyton Cramer nominated Dick Guldstrand to set up a Dana racing operation to rival that of Carroll Shelby. Cramer added Le Mans to Dana’s other activities, gaining sponsorship of $10,000 for the Le Mans effort from Sunray DX and Mitch Daroff’s Botany Clothing. At the French classic’s technical inspection, however, a first hurdle was the need to remove all traces of sponsorship from the car’s livery. With Shell the over-all race sponsor, Sunray DX had to step back while Botany was named as the entrant.

More serious was the need to restore the coupe’s bumpers to present the car in accord with its homolo-gation. Their weight, together with a full 36-gallon tank, had the L88 resting on its rear bump stops. Finding a Peugeot truck spring in a junkyard, they fashioned a stiffer rear transverse leaf that did the job. Power was not a problem; Traco had in fact detuned two L88 engines to 490–500 bhp in the interest of reliability on the official Le Mans gasoline. Chevrolet’s

observer was Gib Hufstader, “vacationing” in France’s Sarthe region.

During qualifying the red, white and blue coupe cut 10 seconds from the previous Grand Touring record. Taking the first stint, Bob Bondurant put the Corvette well in the category lead in spite of its being by 300 pounds the heaviest car in the race at 3,265 pounds wet. It was clocked at 171.5 mph on the Mulsanne Straight, 20 miles per hour faster than any Corvette had ever gone there and 22 mph quicker than the Ferrari that finally won the GT class.4

4 Claims are published that the Sunray DX Corvette set “an FIA track record” with a speed of “180-plus mph” on the Mulsanne Straight. The FIA did not take account of times set on the straight at Le Mans. The speed timed was as stated; the car may well have reached a higher terminal velocity past the timing trap.

4771967 And l88 oRIGInS

After eleven and a half hours of racing Dick Guldstrand was at the wheel when he heard “a mas-sive bang.” Lifting the hood, he saw parts outside the engine that should not be there. A wrist-pin failure cost them a certain victory. According to one report, Traco’s recommendation that they be replaced by higher-duty aftermarket parts was rejected by

Chevrolet, which wanted to highlight the capabilities of its factory-standard engine.

Record top speeds for Corvettes were set at Bonneville as well as at Le Mans during these years. The cars fell into a class known as A Grand Touring, which was assaulted every August during the week of speed on salt known as the Bonneville Nationals. In 1964 Bob Hirsch set the record at 155.132 mph driving a car belonging to Chicagoan Bill Scace. This was topped in 1965 by Michigander Barry Bock with his new 396 Sting Ray coupe. Bock averaged 169.654

dick Guldstrand, left, and Bob Bondurant were the drivers of the dana le mans entry in 1967, which easily led the GT category until its engine went after 11½ hours.

478 ChAPTeR 34

mph across the salt lake in his first exposure to any kind of automotive competition.

Bitten by the Bonneville bug, Bock came back the next year with his engine enlarged to 427 cubic inches and fed by Hilborn fuel injection. He overcame many tuning problems with the help of salt-lake veterans to set a fine new record of 180.138 mph. Not to be out-done, however, the Scace/Hirsch Corvette speedsters regained a solid hold on the A Grand Touring record in 1967 with a two-way average of 192.879 mph. For a basically stock-bodied Sting Ray that was really pushing the wind.

So great and so lasting was the impact of the original Sting Ray body style that it is surprising to reflect that it survived only five years. That made it the shortest-lived body design in the car’s history, if we accept that its predecessors were all variations on the theme of 1953. But it left an unforgettable legacy.

When the History Channel asked viewers about their “Dream Machine” in 1998 the Corvette Sting Ray was their choice as the Greatest Sports Car of All Time. It decisively defeated the AC Cobra as well as Ford’s Mustang and GT40.

With a total five-year production of 117,964 the C2 Sting Rays hardly qualify as rarities. However those that have survived without abuse or modification have gained increasing recognition for what they are: genuine classic sports cars, the best America could build and, as such, commanding global admiration and respect.

one of twenty l88 Corvettes built in 1967, this racer logged over 150 wins for its owner-driver Cliff Gottlob. They’re pictured after finishing second in class and 11th overall in the 1970 daytona 24 hours, dave dooley co-driving. Underscoring its display of endurance, Gottlob’s l88 was driven 1,626 miles from Kansas to daytona, raced 24 hours, then driven back home to Kansas.

479PRodUCTIon CoRVeTTeS PRoFIled: 1966 –1967

1966: Units built–27,720

1967: Units built–22,940

'66 '67

IllUSTRATIonS BY Ken RUSh

1968–1969 see page 533

established 1950Automotive Reference™

Bentley Publishers, 1734 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138-1804 USATel: 617-547-4170 • Toll Free: 800-423-4595 • Fax: 617-876-9235http://www.bentleypublishers.com/contact-us

Corvette– America’s Star-Spangled Sports CarThe Complete History — 1953-1982 by Karl Ludvigsen Price: $149.95Bentley Stock No: GCSSPublication Date: 2014-07-04ISBN: 978-0-8376-1659-9Hardcover, 9 in. x 10 1/2in.Case quantity: 1784 pages 989 photos, illustrations and diagrams

The Complete History — 1953-1982

Corvette—America’s Star-Spangled Sports Car: The Complete History, 1953-1982 takes the reader behind the scenes during the early decades of Corvette design, engineering, brand development and racing competition. Award-winning automotive historian Karl Ludvigsen weaves together a technical examination of each model year with the compelling stories of the GM staffers and privateer racers who—through equal parts talent, passion and sheer force of will—kept the Corvette program thriving against heavy odds. Ludvigsen’s up close and personal telling of the Corvette story captures the human drama and fierce rivalries that fueled the American car industry’s golden age—and resulted in some impressive Detroit muscle.

When it was published in 1973, Star-Spangled Sports Car broke new ground as the first book devoted entirely to a single car model. It has since been credited with helping to kick-start the exciting Corvette hobby. Four decades after its original publication Classic and Sports Car declared, “Karl Ludvigsen’s Corvette history remains the bible.” Now the award-winning author has fully revised, reorganized and expanded his Corvette bible, devoting 784 pages and 989 photos and illustrations to the complete history of the C1, C2 and C3 generation cars. As fast-paced and exciting as the cars it describes, this is a book for anyone who ever drove a Corvette—or wanted to.

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The author and Zora consult during test drive of CERV II in 1970.Chapter 36: Racing Four by Four

Tony Lapine airbrushes a rendering of the XP-755 in 1961.Chapter 19: Mitchell’s Motors

Available July 4, 2014

“My early education and inspiration related to Corvette history came from my original 1973 copy of “Star Spangled Sports Car”.

After 40 years of use, wrinkles, torn dust cover, and dirt stained pages, it has served as the number one source to help tell the stories of the cars and people inducted into the Great Hall®.”

David Burroughs — Founder, Bloomington Gold

Karl Ludvigsen with Corvette creators Zora Arkus-Duntov and Bill Mitchell.