Didn't someone in Canada "air" register five of the cars? Like maybe 10 to 12 years ago? I believe at the time (maybe still) you could just present a VIN in some places in Canada and "register" the car without any one inspecting it.

I heard the Merollis cars are registered in Canada,

I recall hearing something like that a while back. Recall people saying how "fishy" it smelt since ALL 5 VINs were registered at the same time, same place to the same person??????

'

To clarify, Grady's car may have nothing to do w/ the Canada registered ZL1 Vins but here's a thread from '06 on that subject...
https://www.yenko.net/forum/showthread.php?t=86055
:beers:
~ Pete

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I talked to Grady a few years back and he told me he does not know what happened to the car. He had a picture of an exploded aluminum motor that was blown to pieces. Not sure if it was from that car.

I have a few metal detectors. Lets go!!

The merolis engines ended up in boats for the most part, they had no interest in the cars, just the motor and transmissions.

2 of the thief’s are still alive and still live in the metro Detroit area.this is first hand information.

Bill Porterfield posted quote,
" When I drafted the ZL-1 information for John Hooper’s book in 1990 I assumed that cars #1 and #2 were the ones being tested. The article in May Super Stock magazine that “The Street ZL-1 was later set up for Shay Nichols”. That was actually ZL-1 car #5. Phil and Shay Nichols purchased it from Fred Gibb Chevrolet on 5/7/69. Car #2 was purchased by a person in Oklahoma on 3/6/69.


here is the car he was talking about. It has black interior in this photo. Shay must have changed it to white interior if this info is correct
both #2 and #5
were Dusk Blue TH400

Car moved on in the '70s, was raced as "Lemon Drop" with the paint mostly intact. Last I heard it was so trashed by the '80s it was stripped & junked. Last owner may have kept the tags.

When searching for ZL1 info, I noticed that there were a lot more people drag racing them then I thought. Many of the factory built ones were raced and there were a bunch of home built ZL1 powered cars. The drag teams seem to be mostly running ZL1 blocks in 1969 and 1970 then seem to go more toward the iron block but a few such as Ken B ran the ZL1 engine for many years.

I found this ad for the Harrell Performance liquidation sale
Dick was killed in Sep 1971 so he had these parts at that time.

It lists "1 new ZL1 plus 60 short block"

also lists "1 396 plus 60 L88 short block"