Maher ZL1 in Corvette Fever: Question

[PLATINUM6BBL]

[PLATINUM6BBL]

the view to most

[Xplantdad]

Way cool pics Lon!

[PLATINUM6BBL]

[ QUOTE ]
a 1966 L88 Corvette roadster. This car of course does not show up on any of the sales sheets as it was not sold to the public.

[/ QUOTE ]
I've seen a rollbar and intakte manifold that are believed to be from one of these cars.

[PLATINUM6BBL]

Thanks, Bruce. That car definately had my full attention that day. John is an easy fellow to talk to.

[markinnaples]

I have also seen this car in person and it's awesome. After talking to Mr. Maher at a car show when I lived in Pgh and heard the story about his relationship with Don Yenko and that this car was also used as a Gulf research vehicle, I believe him.

[Pantera]

Guys you have to remember that Tulsa was a hotbed of auto racing back then. The Gulf corvettes were wrenched on here very often. I remember stoping by and drooling over them at a Gulf service station that is now a Churches fried chicken outlet at I-44 @ Peoria. Bob Creitz and his chief mechanic Mike Sizemore would also have them at their shop over on Admiral. Creitz was a well known drag racer at the time. I grew up with Mike and Pat Sizemore. Bob Creitz lived across from me back in the early 60's. There was so much to see in and around Tulsa back then.

I just figgure the Blue L-88 vette was delivered here for Gulf to prepare to race or something like that. I got to see a lot of neat stuff back then. I was always out looking for neat cars and crusing the "resless ribbon" most every night.

If it rolled on wheels and was fast I probably saw it at one time or another. I grew up on 15th st. and remember a pair of SCCA race ready new 68 Z-28's at a alignment shop less than a mile from where I lived.

When I was younger, King Dave a pin striper lived on the other side of my block. He always had some of the neatest custom cars on his driveway to pinstripe and I would ride my bike around there and watch him for hours. That is probably what built my interest in cars so much when I was not even old enough to drive yet.

Pantera

[Bill Scott]

I grew up in the same area where this car come from. I worked at "Ferrante Oldsmobile" from May of 1969 to May of 1970 before joining the military, and helped crew the owners son Anthony's F-85 coupe Ultra Stock car from Vandergrift PA. Racing mainly at "Keystone Dragway" in New Alexandrea PA., where John used to race his Blue 68 L-88. The main reason I remember the blue L-88, was because it had the Black vinyl top on it. What a pretty car it was !!! It was the first time I'd seen a Vette with a vinyl top, so it always stuck in my mind. It's my understanding that when John traded the L-88 in for this ZL-1, he kept the roof from the L-88 for this car. The first time I ever seen the ZL-1, John had come into the Olds dealership to visit with Anthony, (Drag racing buddies), and as someone else said in a earlier post, You could hear it comming way before you ever seen it show up. Not only was every window in the dealership vibrating so hard I thought they would all shatter, but the ground all around was also vibrating like a mini earth quake was happening. Quite the impressive car for a young Chevy fan to witness. What always amazed me though is the fact that he could drive this car on the streets of Pennsylvania. There is no way this car could ever pass the strict inspection laws in PA., unless it was 100% from the factory. It might have something to do with him being a PA. State Trooper, but nobody seemed to question it's legality at the time. Us nobodys on the other hand, were getting tickets for having Air Shocks that when inflated, threw our headlights out of line, and heaven forbid if you put a set of glass packs or any mods at all to the exhaust system, and here John was driving around with virtually unrestricted headers and side pipes that literally rocked the ground you were standing on. Hell, we couldn't even have tinted windows legally. If we did tint our windows, and got away with it, we had to scrape it all off again when the next inspection come due, or they wouldn't pass it. Back to the ZL-1, I seen John a couple time drive it on some local hill climb runs in the area too, and it did rather well on the hills and road course. This was the first time I ever heard the car in competition other than at the drags, and it was very noisy and impressive on the road course's too. It was my understanding too, that he had all the original needed paper work for the car too till he got divorced from his first wife, and that she had done something very wrong to it. thus destroying a very important piece of automobile history in the process. A woman scorned, go figure, but she deserves to have her ass kicked for this one !!! Another thing I remember about the ZL-1 was the first time I saw John run it at Keystone, he was up against his old L-88 4 speed car, and the old L-88 won by quite a good margin. I'm not sure John had the car quite set up for the drags yet as I think it was the first time he took it out. Although both cars were very nice,the ZL-1 just had a way of out classing the old L-88 in every way !!!! Thanks for the memories John !!!!

[agtw31]

bill,
you have a pm

[SBR]

Stan is correct, most people do not realize that there were two types of L88 motors. The first design was made from 67 to June of 69 and was replaced with the second design motor for the remainder of the 69 production run that receieved the open chamber heads and several other improvements that were implemented on the ZL1s. I spoke with John at the 04 Vettefest and he sure did seem like a good guy. Interesting that the tank sheet differs from the yellow car.