Roger Penske Blows the Competition Away with Chevy’s New Secret Weapon – the L-88 Corvette
In the late ‘50s and early ‘60s, Roger Penske was one of THE up and coming race car drivers. It was a time of rapid development, and race cars were becoming brutally fast. In ‘65 Penske decided to hang up his helmet and focus on his new Cadillac dealership. Then one day, Zora Arkus-Duntov called. Penske had been one of Duntov’s hand-picked drivers in ‘63 to drive one of the Grand Sport Corvettes. Zora asked Penske if he was interested in receiving a preproduction L-88 for a little “field testing.” Needless to say, Roger said, “Yes!”
Duntov made sure that Corvette owners had easily available racing parts to go racing. His latest racer kit was called “L-88” and would go on to become a Corvette legend. Previous racer kits could be street driven, the L-88 was NEVER intended for street use, and was deliberately underrating to just 430, 5-hp below the L71’s 435-hp rating. An accurate rating would have been at least 525-hp. Zora didn’t want customers checking off the L-88 just because it had the most power. The L-88 was a balls-out racing machine.
While the L-88 was a package deal, the star attraction was the engine. The L-88 was essentially an L72 427 on steroids. Packing 12.5:1 compression, solid lifters, a racing camshaft, a big 850 Holley carb with no cloak, an aluminum intake manifold, and a TI ignition, this was not a street-car engine. The rest of the package included J56 heavy-duty brakes, a 36-gallon fuel tank, an F41 heavy-duty suspension, a prototype Positraction differential with 2.73 gearing, an M-22 rock crusher transmission, off-road exhaust, heater and radio deletes. Penske’s L-88 had a prototype cowl-induction hood.
Roger worked out a one-race sponsorship with Sunoco and assembled a team to run in the 24 Hours at Daytona. He hired California racer Dick Guldstrand to help prep the L-88 and co-drive with George Wintersteen. When Guldstrand picked up the car at the St. Louis assembly plant in January ‘66, it wouldn’t start. Disgusted workers pushed it off the line and told him, “This is yours, kid. We don’t want anything to do with it. Just get it out of here.” Guldstrand drove the car 800 miles to Penske’s Pennsylvania shop, with no heater, and just a furniture blanket to keep warm.
Once in the shop, several hundred pounds were removed, through the use of aluminum replacement parts. Magnesium racing wheels with wide tires necessitated small aluminum flares on the wheel wells. The rear fenders were also bulged out, and the trailing arms were notched. Suspension bushings were replaced with aluminum spacers, dual electric pumps and an engine-oil cooler were added, and extra-large header side pipes were installed. The interior got a roll bar, racing gauges, and shut-off switches. Racing headlights with clear covers were added, and every nut and bolt was safety wired. The team worked around the clock up to the day of the event.
At Daytona, the Vette ran one of the quickest qualifying times ever. But it turned out to be a very tough contest. In the middle of the night, the Corvette T-boned a slower competitor, losing most of its front end. The team wired the body together and taped flashlights to the front fenders for light, leaving Guldstrand to drive by following the taillights of the leading Ferrari. Despite this handicap, the team won First in the GT class and 11th overall, hitting 168 mph on the Daytona back stretch. Sunoco was so pleased, they extended the sponsorship to cover the 12 Hours at Sebring, where the L-88 won the GT class and came in Ninth overall. Roger’s new career as a team owner had officially begun.
Penske sold the car after Sebring, and subsequently it was raced in many different forms. It was even converted into a street machine at one point. The car’s current owner, Kevin Mackay, did a total restoration in 2001 and has since earned the NCRS American Heritage Award. Today, the L-88 prototype is completely functional and considered by many to be one of the finest examples of Corvette racing history in existence. – KST
This article was written by K. Scott Teeters, an editor for Alex Schult of www.SmokinVette.com and a freelance columnist and artist with VETTE Magazine. His monthly column, “The Illustrated Corvette Series” has been running consecutively in VETTE since 1997 and can be found on the very last page of every issue. You can find reproductions of his Corvette art at: www.IllustratedCorvetteSeries.com
