Spoke to cousin of prior owner of my ZL-1 today!!

[iluv69s]

Thought Id explain how I ended up getting this car because a few people have contacted me about "my possible original motor".....

One Sunday afternoon at summer Carlisle I was wandering around trying to buy some weatherstrips for my 69 Camaro vert and was actually really bummed that most of the vendors had already left. I could only get there one day as I worked all week. Anyway, my lil brother mentioned that a fellow had a ZL-1 motor for sale...I went and looked and it was a big block on a small engine stand all painted orange with orange tall valve covers and aftermarket intake and holley. It had ZL-1 in black marker on the valve cover. It had the offset oil pan as it had been in a circle track car. He said that it was a real ZL-1 motor, so I scraped a little paint off the back and saw that it was indeed aluminum...I was still skeptical, so i asked if he would gaurantee that it wasnt blown up inside....he said he would actually start it if I liked....I went and bought Hooper's Camaro Reference book and cash advanced on my credit card...
I went back and he started the motor with little zoomy headers and there was instantly a crowd around...I bought the motor and me and 3 friends picked it up and loaded it in my blazer....I thought it would be a great race motor for my 63 nova...

a few years go by and I hadnt touched the motor...or the nova...and I was reading the same Hoopers book one day and realized that they put the VINs down by the oil filter...and also that the ZL-1 VINS were published in the book...so I pulled the motor out of the corner of the garage and crawled down on my knees and was shocked to see a vin on the block by the oil filter....I checked the book and BINGO!!thence started my search for the car.....

I contacted Ed Cuneen, who wanted to buy the motor or sell me the owners info...(which I declined both)...and I called a few other people I could get ahold of...and really gave up on tryin after a while....

finally, I decided to sell all my Camaro stuff to buy a house(and make the wife happy)...so I placed an ad in hemmings and listed all my parts and my project cars for sale...anyway, a fellow called and asked if the ZL-1 motor I had was out of one of the cars...when I told him it was from car 34, he said..."thats my car"...he instantly offered me alot of cash for the motor...but I asked him how much for the car???

it took atleast 3 or 4 years of him calling me begging me to sell him the motor every few months until he finally sold me the car.....so thats the story....I actually had the original motor long before I owned the car.....

so "my original motor" is not out there somewhere...its right here safe and sound in my garage...ya'll can stop lookin..hehehe

But thanks to all for tryin...Ill take some old pics of the car though!!! Check your old photos!!!

Thanks again Yenko.net

[scuncio]

Great story!

[iluv69s]

So I drove to Baltimore today to talk to this mecahnic that knows about my car from back in the day. I still cant believe he still works there. He gave me some bad news and said that he hadnt seen his old friend and second owner of my car "buby" in a while because he actually died about 2 months ago.
He did say that he spoke to his cousin and that he is going to look for pics. He told me that the car was just always racing for fun..never in a class...basically match racing other guys in the area...he did say that it was raced mostly at Capitol?? is that name right? He said it never had any lettering or sponsors..He said buby wrecked the car into a guardrail 2 weeks after he had it and then put a glass nose on it...and that it ran low 11's the day after he bought it totally stock...and after they converted it to a racecar, it did 10.0's with the stock motor and a tunnel-ram...He said it was painted blue but had a silver stripe down the whole side that was located on the upper part of the fenders and doors and QP's...he said they never cut the original rear, but it had real shallow offset wide wheels... he also said they used a "hemi" 4 speed...is that possible?? also that it had all "plastic" windows eventually to lighten it up....

I also drove to the address of the original owner...with no luck...someone answered and never heard of the guy...he would be 70 now...who knows??

anyway...the good news...I have dug up some pics of the motor...the car is on the rotisserie and I am surveying "the damages" aiaiai..hehe

anyway, I will post some pics soon...

[COPO]

Here is the track you mentioned. I used to run there on occasion 30 years ago. http://www.capitolraceway.com/

[iluv69s]

Hey COPO...and all you other guys...check your old pics...Im sure someone must have a pic of my car with the wheels in the air back in the day!!!!! Thanks!!!

[iluv69s]

Finally got a pic ready...Im havin a hard time with the resizing....this was the motor before it was built....basically 90% NOS parts...besides the original block and heads...this was in my living room...my exploded view...

Ill try to post more soon...I suck at these pc's....
...the motor is totally built and will be put on the dyno next week God willing!!!! In real curious what the "real" HP will be...

...also FYI the original owner's name is Herman Robinson from Baltimore also...I have had absolutely no luck tracking him down....he would be 70 yrs old now....anyone know/remember this guy???...the car has never been registered, so Im certain he must have raced it early on....

...hopefully the pic works...

[flyingn]

great story. Amazing that someone way back then had the $$ to buy one just for fun and never registering it to drive on the street. Quite an expensive car back then..

[iluv69s]

Not as expensive as you think...although the car listed for over 7k, it sat at the dealers lot for a year before finally being sold for 4800 bucks!!! The dealer took a big hit on that car!!!...
It is really interesting on the docs that I have from Norwood to Gibb, back to Norwood and eventually to Govans Chevrolet...and when it was finally sold, some of the paperwork was filled out as a 70 Camaro, and then crossed out and written in 69, because the car finally sold in June of 1970!!! But still 4800 was a lot back then I guess!!

[PeteLeathersac]

‘

Old thread but best place I could find to land this 07/69 Govans’ ZL1 Ad.
Sorry if old news but Ad notes ZL1’s plural, did Govans ever sell more than one?

~ Pete

.

[William]

Entirely possible.

The listing Vince Piggins provided to Super Chevy in 1981 did not list all the re-assignments for the 37 returned Gibb cars. Govans was not on the list.