Lyle Chevrolet
 

Does anybody have any backround on this dealer It was at 2311 Second street in Cuyahoga Falls (north of Akron), Ohio. Dealed code 348 in zone 28. Looks to have gone out in the early 70s. This dealer sold four 69 COPO Chevelles (two black-two orange), one of which was profiled by Hemmings two years back, owned by Phil Wojnarowski (Jim Walker original owner), so they had an interest in selling Hi-po cars. I have a 70 375 Nova delivered there that I been researching history on.

I sent Phil W a text to bring his attention to this post.

Ryan W31

There is nothing left of the Lyle Dealership as it was from back in the day. They had the main dealership on Second street, but also turned an old grocery store into their Sports Department, just down the road. That building is now a concrete parking garage. I’m in regular contact with my COPO’s original owner, and follow on owners who remember the dealership well. I’ve spoken on several occasions to one of the salesmen from back in the day at Lyle. He said they sold many hi perf cars to Vietnam Vets as they returned home with money in the bank. The original salesman who sold my COPO is still around, but I’ve been hesitant to contact him for reasons I can’t say on a public forum. The salesman’s name for my car was on the protectoplate. Other Lyle POPs have also had the salesman’s names just below the address of the buyer. It also had the date of sale next to the salesman’s name. My COPO was sold 5 days after being produced in Baltimore (NCRS and POP data).

Feel free to PM me with your contact info if you’d like more info on Lyle. Most of what I know about the dealership is from locals and my original owner. I’d like to know who sold your car. A friend knows about 4 Lyle salesman from that era.

Phil W.

What colors/trans is your 70 Nova? I see several newspaper ads from 1969/1970 advertising 375 horse Novas. Any other distinguishing mods done back then that you know of? I also noticed that Lyle sponsored "high performance" swap meets back then.

ZL1 #53 was sold out of Lyle.

Thanks for the reply's, nice to know Lyle sold some note-worthy cars. My car is Black/black rubber mat, radio delete, 4 speed. It was in the Cleveland area, until I bought it in 86. I have talked to all the previous owners (4) except the original owner(s) a couple that the man bought it after getting out of the service, then marrying a local Ohio woman and moving to Tenn (where he was from I'm surmising). Not to long after that they split, the wife taking the car back to Ohio (the husband egged it the night before) and leaving it in her mothers yard unmoved for 6 months until the second owner asked about buying it.

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Cool car and story!
R68GTO is exactly correct asking for your car's details as Lyle was very active w/ Newspaper advertising also lots of old Ohio newspapers have been scanned so worth cruising/looking for specific cars.
I have a few Lyle ads etc saved on my other system I can post later but for now, here's a Lyle Chev Matchbook also a '69 L78 Nova ad posted previously in the Old Newspaper thread.
:beers:
~ Pete


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Grady's 69 Burgany L78 Nova I restored about 10 years ago also came from Lyle.

Mike

Pete, I noticed that exact same L78 ad last night when I did a quick search. I'll spend a little time looking for a black/black L78 ad over the next few days.

Drivers Ed... W/ 427. :burnout:

BIG

Steve,

Very cool memorabilia!

Thanks for posting.

Phil

Awesome images. Thanks. Phil

Cool looking stuff, thanks guys. I have a ton of memoriabila from our local Chevy dealer here, but they never sold anything of note as far as HP car went. The car has a production date of 4-70 (the blue tag is still on the door) and the VIN begins with 29. The NCRS shipping report states it was delivered to Lyle, But the second owner stated he thought the car was bought at Gatton Chevrolet- Cadillac in Bristol Tenn (still open, and inquiry's there went nowhere) where the husband worked after the couple moved to Tenn from Ohio. Now, it seems unlikely that the car was shipped two states away to Gatton Chevy from Lyle for the guy to buy, when his wife lived so close to Lyle in the first place (and they had just moved from there) but that could just be the case, maybe having looked at the lot at Lyle before moving and had no time/money to do it then. Gatton seems to have no leanings towards promoting HP cars that I ever found, so there's that too.

Another small detail I just remembered was the car had a space-saver spare, with the inflator bottle, at least it did with the third owner who still has it (and all the jack stuff). I want to say the second owner told me it was in there when he bought the car, but I'd have to touch base with him to be sure.

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Cool details and definitely worth looking deeper for more ads w/ similar cars/dates.
Here's the other Lyle ads I had saved for the Old Newspaper thread, first one is close time-wise to the subject car.
Note the 70 Impala pic is actually a '69 also Lyle's Sport Shop offering 450 HP Chevelles/Camaros!
Next is a couple Lyle SS Club ads, pretty cool stuff and what a happening dealer!
Last is a Lyle sponsored '68 Hugger pic as posted here in past threads...anyone know more about it?
:beers:
~ Pete

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Good stuff Pete. Now I know what the original salesman of my COPO looks like.

Pete is like a dog on a bone! (He has given me a lesson on searching for info but I am hopeless.

Ryan W31

Finally talked to Jim Fenwick today. Nice guy, said he wished he could help me but didn't remember anything about the car other than they would bulk order them stripped (like mine) to be more attractive to drag racers.....

I didn't get much from Jim either, but he still remembered the large inventory of high perf cars. I've been meaning to meet him for lunch one of these days, shouldn't put it off much longer. He was very busy racing back then along with selling cars. I'm sure much of it was a blur.

I did send him pix of the ads posted on this thread, he was appreciative.

I'll let you know if I dig up any good Lyle info.

Thanks Phil. I never told him I talked to you, per what we discussed on the phone. I did say his name came from the ad in the paper. And he did seem amused about the husband egging the car the night before the wife left Tenn for Ohio. I also forgot to leave my number with him in case he remembered something later on.

Here's a Lyle ad featuring the ZL-1 #53 that William mentioned...

Another ad
 

From Sept 1, 1969

Another ad
 

Sept 1, 1969

My LS6 was sold new at Lyle Chevrolet.

Another ad
 

Oct 18, 1970

My LS6 was sold new at Lyle, it is now down here in New Zealand.

John