One Off L-88 Chevelle
My sister had a next door neighbor in Missoula that just returned from his Army Ranger duties for two tours. This ultimate guy had some money saved up and wanted a unique and special car. My sister worked for the Chevy Dealership there called T&W Chevrolet. She was very connected with the owner. She arranged for this guy (she would remember his name) to meet with the GM District Manager. Our Vet asked for this L-88 Chevelle and the guy said no way, won't happen. After working on the guy for another month or so, this GM rep who had been a WWII vet wanted to do something special for this decorated vet so he went to work on it. He came back with a deal. They would deliver a red factory SS 396 Chevelle to the dealership (less engine) and ship the L-88 in a separate crate. The dealer would install, but NO Warranty. This car was something like $6,000 then which was pretty expensive for the day. The car was ordered. The Vet sold the car to my best friends brother about 1969. My friend's dad was a Chevrolet Mechanic at the dealership so they had the thing in the garage tweaking it for some time tuning it for performance. One thing I remember was when ever he raced it he put these longer spark plugs in it. Dad installed what we called Capacitive Discharge in (today we call it electronic ignition). Some expensive headers and modified exhaust, and as I recall a highrise manifold with a monster carb. The car was a looker and perfect. It had very low miles I am thinking around 12,000 at the time.
The killer on this car was that somehow GM provided matching serial numbers on the engine with the body, so it was incredibly unique and would be worth a fortune today if it were still around I would think.
Well, Doug (my buddies brother) was a cool cat and drove it around like an old lady. Street racing was common place then (but still illegal). We had our places to go you know. He would not race the car for less than $200 bets, and plenty took shots at it. Shelby's, Hemi-Cuda's, lots of Rat motor cars, Corvettes and so on.
The car ran a best of 10.54 at the Deer Park Dragstrip which is not in existence any more in Spokane area. The sound, the look, the reputation of that car made it king of Missoula in those days. Guys came from Spokane to try to beat the car but no one did. Finally a couple of University Students that came from Albuquerque, NM challenged him for $300. They had a serious bad *** 55 Chevy with a full race 327 (with a Holley 3 barrel believe it or not) that was built by Don's Speed center in San Diego we found out later. He beat Doug on the first run and blew his motor on the second. Doug missed a shift on the first go. That was one nasty 327. He was shifting at 9,000 RPM so...wow, pretty impressive.
Yes those were the days of open headers, lots of beer, girls and fast cars everywhere. Doug got married and sold the car to some kids in 74 like all the rest of us did when gas went from $.29 to over a buck. He lost track of the car but believes it got parted out after them crashing it. My Hemi-Roadrunner met the same fate. The guy that bought it had it three days and hit a bridge rail going 80 and totalled it. That car was absolutely perfect too. Oh I miss those days. The L-88 was a hell of a motor, that is what I remember. These rice burners today are fast but there is NOTHING like that bone crunching American Muscle eh? My dream is a Lingenfelter Corvette. I am an old fart and can afford it but my wife is not on board....yet.
bang 
