[Tuna Joe]

New guy here from So Cal.
Happy to be a part of this community.
I thought I’d share my recent purchase as it’s a pretty interesting car.
Its been discussed on this forum many years ago and an owner in the chain of ownership use to frequent this site before he passed away.

I’m a corvette guy, specifically partial to big blocks.
I have a survivor 71’ 454 LS5 and a almost restored 1969 tuxedo black L71.
I’d been looking for a project car and thought I would maybe pick up a 1968 or 69 Z/28 but a friend of mine sent me the link to this L89 for sale. My friend has the L89 registry and sent me the documentation confirming the car was a real L89 even though the original engine was long gone.

The 3rd owner bought the car from a Hemings ad in ~2000. That fellow passed away unexpectedly and a classic car dealer bought the car to restore himself and then the car sat for 12 years where finally the dealer realized he would never be restoring the car.

I ended up purchasing the car unseen and then realized I better go inventory all of the parts that come with the car.
So I managed to sucker one of my corvette friends to tag along and the next thing I know we’re flying to Boston to go see the car in NH.

The interesting thing about this car is that apparently Michael Taylor was a first round draft pick by the Steelers. He ordered the car in Riverside gold choosing almost every option. Including the L89 option.
Once the car arrived he immedialty took the car to Joel Rosen at Motion to have a Motion conversion done. Supposedly he had a black stripe painted on the car along with all the Motion upgrades. The paint scheme matched the Steelers color.
Rumor has it he paid Joel $6000 more for the conversion.

More to follow……. Plane is taking off…. Pictures to follow