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CORVETTE TODAY #194 - Tom Hil & The Legend Of The ONLY Red/Red L88 Corvette In Existence
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May 8, 2025
Tom Hill is a retired GM employee with over 35 years at the company. He is also the curator of the ONLY Red/Red C2 L88 Corvette inexistance. And it was just sold at the Mecum Auctions/Kissimmee last week. Your CORVETTE TODAY host, Steve Garrett, visits with Tom to learn more about the L88 Corvettes, what made them so special and why they are so desirable. Tom was one of the people on the management team that moved the Corvette plant for St. Louis to Bowling Green. He talks about that transition and the legend of the L88 on this episode of CORVETTE TODAY!
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[Music]
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welcome to Corvette today the show that
0:06
talks about everything Corvette with
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your host Steve Garrett lifetime member
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of the National Corvette Museum
0:13
president of the Corvette club of Kansas
0:15
City Missour and radio disc jockey at
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the number one radio station in Kansas
0:20
City for over 45
0:22
years here's Steve
0:27
Garrett thanks for listening and
0:29
watching Corvette today the show that
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talks about everything Corvette and the
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only current podcast dedicated to
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Corvette I'm your host Steve Garrett I
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appreciate you tuning in Corvette today
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from around the world my guest on
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today's show has a long career with
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General Motors and his relationship with
3:20
Corvette spans over three decades and
3:23
he's intimately familiar with the L88
3:25
Corvettes 2o we're going to talk about
3:27
both on today's show his name is Tom
3:30
Hill Tom welcome to Corvette today hey
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it's good to be here Steve thanks for
3:35
being on the show Tom first of all let's
3:37
talk about your years with General
3:38
Motors how many total years were you
3:40
with GM well I actually started in 1979
3:44
in St Louis and worked through 2014 so
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it was almost 35 years wow working with
3:50
Corvette that's amazing now let's talk
3:52
about the jobs you had with GM over
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those years because I know it took you
3:56
to a few different places didn't it I
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got to be honest I got to see all of
4:00
General Motors like I say I started in
4:03
St Louis I was able to move to Bowling
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Green and help build that assembly plant
4:08
and start up the new plant with the 1981
4:11
model Corvette but then I took some
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other opportunities and moved to Detroit
4:16
worked at the engineering center in
4:18
Warren okay I also worked up in Detroit
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at the Milford Proving Grounds for a
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little while nice got involved with
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teaching technical problem solving to
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Engineers try to teach an engineer
4:30
something I mean there's a challenge
4:32
that actually took me to just about
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every GM facility in North America wow
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as well as I spent some time in
4:40
Australia and I spent some time over at
4:43
russelsheim Germany wow with our
4:45
European contingent man that's amazing
4:48
Tom now you alluded to going from St
4:50
Louis to Bowling Green I'm kind of
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fascinated with how that transition went
4:55
talk a little bit more about that going
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from St Louis to Bowling Green well I
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started at St Louis initially they put
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me on the truck assembly line okay and
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basically I was building full-size
5:08
trucks I was an engineer every day I
5:10
went to work and I said I want to work
5:11
on Corvette and they said Corvette's a
5:13
dead end I said you don't understand I
5:16
really have no interest in working for
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General Motors I want to work for
5:19
Corvette I beat them down and in three
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months they had me moved over to
5:23
Corvette three months later they
5:25
announced they were closing the plant
5:27
and I was on the initial team to help
5:30
relocate the St Louis facility and the
5:33
process to Bowling Green wow that had to
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be a real intensive process wasn't it
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you know it's hard to believe I look
5:40
back on that do you realize in a year
5:42
and a half we took a vacated plant from
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Chrysler Corporation and turned it into
5:48
a fully functional assembly plant and
5:51
build our first Corvette that's amazing
5:53
just a year and a half huh year and a
5:55
half yeah it was phenomenal I don't
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think you can do that today I don't
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think so either I think you're
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absolutely right now when you retired
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though you were the Corvette quality
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control manager at Bowling Green weren't
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you yeah basically I was the engineering
6:08
manager for the product at Bowling Green
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I like to describe my job as the guys in
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Detroit designed it and they sent it to
6:16
Bowling Green and the guys in Bowling
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Green the manufacturing people had to
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put it together yeah well we were the
6:23
team in between because we understood
6:26
the design we also understood the
6:28
manufacturing so we had to help them put
6:31
it together in a higher level of quality
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that was really our mission I I had 16
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Engineers working for me at the time we
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were busy but I think the fruits of our
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labor showed in the quality of the
6:43
product absolutely did it go smoothly
6:46
per se nothing goes smoothly at General
6:49
Motors every day was different there was
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always a challenge it was always
6:54
something new but I got to say this the
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majority of the people that work at
6:58
Corvette whether it's in Bowling Green
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or Detroit love Corvette so it was a
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passionate position to be in for most of
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the employees when you had problems you
7:08
could get through it it wasn't as bad
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because of the passion that was around
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the product it has to be a Monumental
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task and kudos to you and your team for
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getting that move done from St Louis to
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Bowling Green yeah that was the big deal
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it really was I look back on that and I
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remember when we moved to Bowling Green
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we trained all these people from
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Kentucky Bowling Green specifically
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because we didn't think anybody from St
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Louis would want to move to Bowling
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Green Kentucky I mean why would I leave
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my family and do that right well the
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thing we didn't know is that they
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announced that they were closing the St
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Louis plant so everybody from St Louis
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moved to Bowling Green no kidding they
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were all transplants yeah wow that's
7:49
amazing that has obviously changed since
7:52
then but that group that came and
7:54
Corvette was primarily the low seniority
7:57
UAW people but those those people that
8:00
moved from St Louis to Bowling Green
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literally spent the rest of their career
8:04
in bowling grein so it took about 25
8:07
years before that last person from St
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Louis retired that's amazing well Tom
8:12
let's take our first break and when we
8:14
come back in segment number two you know
8:16
I alluded to you're intimately aware of
8:18
the L88 Corvettes let's talk about that
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today on podcast and YouTube it's the
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4231 I'm your host Steve Garrett with me
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is former GM exec Tom Hill Tom has got
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an L88 that just sold at the meum
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auction that is pretty dog on legendary
11:36
Tom this is a rare car so first off how
11:38
did you acquire it how long have you had
11:40
it and why did you sell it well here's
11:44
the rest of the story in
11:46
2014 I ended my career with General
11:49
Motors I retired because I had another
11:51
opportunity I moved to windamir Florida
11:54
which is just outside Orlando and I
11:57
currently manage a PR private car
11:59
collection oh in January of
12:03
2014 we made a trip to Barrett Jackson
12:06
out in Scottdale Arizona and that was
12:09
the day that we bought the 1967 L88
12:12
Corvette and we added it to the
12:14
collection at that point I thought I
12:16
knew a lot about L88 but you don't
12:19
really learn about these cars until you
12:22
have one so I went to town doing the
12:25
research to find out everything I could
12:27
about these cars for the past 10 years I
12:30
have had the luxury of being able to
12:33
share that car with Corvette people at
12:35
many different car events not just
12:37
Corvette events but just regular concore
12:40
events nice it's been a wonderful car I
12:43
really am sad to see that car leave the
12:46
collection like every collection you got
12:48
to keep rotating the inventory and keep
12:50
it interesting I understand that that's
12:52
for sure let's talk about the Rarity of
12:55
this L88 because I know there's a
12:57
laundry list of stuff that makes it a
12:59
one of one doesn't it oh yeah yeah the
13:01
big standout on this car is the fact
13:03
that it's a red car on top of that it's
13:05
got a red interior of the 2067 L88 that
13:09
were built there was only one that was
13:11
red with a red interior there's another
13:13
thing that most people don't think about
13:15
but this particular car is an L88 with a
13:17
456 rear axle ratio oh and most Corvette
13:22
people don't even realize that they even
13:24
offered a 456 rear axle ratio and
13:27
there's a reason for that 1967 only five
13:30
cars had it wow the only reason that you
13:32
would get a 456 rear axle ratio is you
13:35
were going to the drag strip definitely
13:37
this particular car didn't necessarily
13:40
go to the drag strip it actually was
13:43
delivered to Birmingham Michigan I
13:45
actually lived in Birmingham Michigan
13:47
about a mile from this dealership when I
13:49
worked at the engineering center if you
13:51
were going to buy a 1967 L88 with a 456
13:55
rear axle ratio and you lived in
13:57
Birmingham Michigan I know exactly where
14:00
this car was headed Woodward Avenue yes
14:03
because it was gonna go out to Woodward
14:05
Avenue and that's where it was probably
14:08
going to spend most of its energy trying
14:11
to beat Fords and Chryslers and all the
14:13
other hot rods of the day definitely
14:16
let's talk about the legend of the L88
14:18
engine because like you said there was
14:20
only 20 of those cars built in 1967 and
14:23
a lot of people might not know about L88
14:25
engines but give us an overview of why
14:27
these cars are so special
14:29
it's interesting the 1963 Z6 was a
14:33
factory based race car and they did that
14:35
in 1963 and then they stopped and they
14:38
didn't do it again until
14:40
1967 when they brought out the L88
14:43
package now the L88 package is not a car
14:48
package it's an engine right however you
14:52
could not get it without getting all the
14:54
other extras to go with it so an L88 was
14:58
9 50 bucks but you had to spend another
15:01
$700 to get brakes suspension radio
15:05
delete several other things that were
15:07
required so by the time you got all done
15:09
you had about $1,600 invested in this
15:12
car wow what's interesting to me is they
15:15
derated the car they rated it at 430
15:17
horsepower so no one would buy the car
15:20
because they wanted this to be a target
15:22
audience that was specifically focused
15:25
towards Automotive Racers people that
15:27
would go out and compete with a car I
15:29
think they kind of shot themselves in
15:31
the foot in the fact that they only
15:32
Built 20 cars right they hit it so well
15:35
that no one found it and the actual
15:37
horsepower is really about 650 wasn't it
15:40
well it's like five five and a half okay
15:43
depending upon the tune of the car yeah
15:45
this was basically a 427 cubic inch four
15:49
bolt main cast iron big block engine
15:52
that it had aluminum heads on it with 12
15:54
1/2 to one compression so you basically
15:57
got the 7 l or 427 cubic inch
16:00
displacement with the weight of a small
16:02
block that was really a big deal but the
16:05
other thing that's hidden in there is
16:07
this car used a lightweight flywheel the
16:10
reason they put the lightweight flywheel
16:12
on there is that the engine was more
16:13
responsive the problem with a
16:15
lightweight flywheel it's also easier to
16:18
blow up oh and that's exactly why a lot
16:20
of these engines didn't survive and in
16:23
fact this particular car what do you
16:25
think happened with a 427 L88 with a 456
16:29
re axle ratio it was racing almost all
16:31
of its life I bet you bet and they
16:33
demolished the block so this has a
16:35
replacement block that is a period
16:38
correct block for the car but not the
16:40
original one with the car I'd say of the
16:43
16 remaining cars there's 16 of the 20
16:46
that still exists I'd say probably half
16:48
of them maybe less than that still have
16:50
their original engine oh yeah nobody
16:52
thought these things were going to be
16:53
collectible they thought they were just
16:54
hot rods from the factory right that's
16:57
amazing gosh so the extra $1,500 that it
17:00
took to get the L88 engine that's really
17:03
like $113,000 in today's money isn't it
17:06
oh yeah I'm looking at the sticker for
17:08
this car and it was
17:11
$6,193 which was a lot of money in 1967
17:14
that was a lot of money yeah when you
17:16
consider the base price of the car was
17:19
$4,300 talk about the awards that this
17:21
L88 is one Tom first I want to give
17:24
credit to the neighbor Brothers down in
17:26
Houston Texas that saved the car it was
17:29
an old worn out drag car if you would
17:32
Street racer M someone discovered what
17:34
it was they got it to the neighbor
17:36
Brothers in Houston and they completely
17:38
redid the car the car is absolutely
17:41
stunning in its restoration basically
17:44
one all the awards it's got the
17:45
Bloomington gold certification ncrs Top
17:48
Flight Awards but most importantly it's
17:50
got the dun pill Mark of Excellence
17:51
award wow and it gets invited to
17:53
everything because a 67 L88 a redwin I
17:57
mean if you're putting on a car event
17:58
especially a Corvette event that car
18:00
will always be invited to come yeah
18:03
because it's so special that's amazing
18:05
well Tom let's take our final break when
18:06
we come back we're going to talk about
18:08
the Driving Experience of an L88
18:10
Corvette coming up next here on Corvette
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docomo Steve Garrett with me is Tom Hill
21:23
Corvette's former quality control
21:25
manager at Bowling Green in this final
21:27
segment we've been talking an L88 we're
21:29
going to talk about the Driving
21:30
Experience of an L88 Tom when you start
21:33
this car up the exhaust note is like no
21:35
other isn't that right that's true in
21:38
fact this is an under the- car exhaust a
21:40
lot of people love the side exhaust I
21:42
personally love the side exhaust I love
21:44
way they look this is an open exhaust
21:46
system which was the off-road exhaust
21:49
system that was available with these
21:50
cars and it's got a different note but
21:52
what you really notice is the engine's
21:54
just a little bit noisier because it's a
21:56
solid lifter big block and they
21:58
typically make that little clattering
22:00
noise that initially you think
22:02
something's wrong and then you realize
22:03
oh no that's something good it's just
22:05
getting warmed up isn't it absolutely
22:07
and we talked about this a little
22:08
earlier in segment number two but the
22:10
horsepower was greatly understated
22:12
wasn't it it was it was they did that
22:14
intentionally I mean it's probably
22:16
between 500 and 550 horsepower it's
22:19
relatively radical cam shaft in the car
22:23
once it's warmed up and it sits there
22:24
and idle it'll Rock the car back and
22:27
forth on that cam shaft wow that sounds
22:29
like fun though I mean if it's rocking
22:31
it sounds like a good time you know oh
22:34
yeah yeah it's just waiting to PP and
22:37
speaking of waiting to pop if you don't
22:39
get this car running and moving it
22:41
overheats doesn't it yeah it was
22:43
intended to be a race car it was not
22:45
intended to be a street car so when they
22:48
do that they remove things from the car
22:51
that you need for the street but you
22:52
don't necessarily want on a racetrack
22:54
and probably the most significant thing
22:56
is the fan trout that fans in there to
22:58
help pull air across the radiator and
23:00
when you take the Shroud away it's not
23:03
pulling air from the radiator it's
23:04
pulling it from everywhere so if the car
23:07
sits in idles for very long it's
23:09
definitely going to overheat in addition
23:11
to that they put a smaller Radiator in
23:14
the car it has the small block radiator
23:16
huh so it's not even as much capacity as
23:20
what the big block would have but they
23:22
did that because you don't want extra
23:24
weight in the car you don't need that
23:25
and as long as the car is moving you're
23:27
just fine now this thing has no power
23:29
steering and some other deletes as well
23:31
doesn't it well yeah there's no power
23:34
steering in the car with the thin tires
23:36
that they had back then didn't really
23:38
matter that much again at speed you
23:41
don't need power steering right it also
23:43
doesn't have a radio and doesn't have a
23:45
heater you couldn't get a heater with an
23:48
L88 again you don't need a heater when
23:50
you're on the racetrack exactly you're
23:52
going to drive it on the street might
23:53
want to have that the other noise that
23:56
you get when you're driving the car is
23:58
this grinding noise coming from the
24:00
tunnel huh that is because these cars
24:03
and actually only the 20 L88 in 1967 had
24:07
the M22 manual transmission the M22
24:10
manual transmission makes noise because
24:13
it has the Harden square cut gears in it
24:16
which are stronger but they're noisy
24:19
yeah so they got the name Rock Crusher
24:21
but it's because of the noise from these
24:23
gears basically coming around and
24:26
smashing against each other once you
24:28
realize what it is again it's one of
24:30
those great noises and there's the
24:31
legend in the story of the rockcrusher
24:33
rear end isn't it yeah the rear axle
24:36
these cars required that you had to have
24:38
posy traction and most of them got 411
24:41
rear axles I think I mentioned earlier
24:43
that this car has got a 456 axle so this
24:46
was a real Tire smoker yeah absolutely
24:49
right and you talked about the
24:51
restoration of this car but you've got
24:52
full documentation too don't you yeah in
24:55
fact let me tell you just a little bit
24:57
about the restoration the neighbor Bros
24:59
I mean they did everything to the
25:01
extreme on this car to make sure that it
25:02
was right they've done a lot of mid
25:04
years that's what they're famous for one
25:06
of the things they did they sprayed this
25:08
car in lacquer and so it still has that
25:11
lacquer that is now gone on 30 years old
25:14
wow it still looks great in fact it's
25:18
one of the things that the judges don't
25:20
like because it's too shiny it doesn't
25:23
look as crappy as it did when it came
25:25
out of the plant as a quality man
25:27
manager I'm offended by that right you
25:30
know our goal at Bowling Green was to
25:32
make the cars so good you can't over
25:34
restore them but not back in 1967 in St
25:37
Louis I always referred to it as a loved
25:40
lacquer paint job in other words the
25:43
owner has polished this car over the
25:45
years and made it smooth so it doesn't
25:47
have the dry spray on it that it would
25:49
have originally had yeah that's the only
25:52
thing the judges can find fault with
25:53
everything else in the car is fantastic
25:56
one little detail this is kind kind of
25:57
that little Insider thing the car has
26:00
j56 brakes everybody when they hear of
26:03
j56 brakes they go oh that's the one
26:05
with the front calipers that have two
26:06
pins in them instead of the one center
26:08
pin that's true what people don't
26:12
realize is that the master brake
26:14
cylinder on a j56 car is unique and it's
26:18
Unique in the fact the part number that
26:21
is cast into the brake housing is upside
26:24
down on a j56 Model H it's the same part
26:28
number on a power brake car as it is on
26:31
a j56 except on that car it's right side
26:34
up that's interesting I don't know why
26:36
they did that all I know is they did how
26:40
about that and also you've got
26:41
documentation like the build sheet and
26:43
the tank sticker too yeah 67 was the
26:46
first year that the tank sticker went
26:48
into place and a lot of people don't
26:50
realize why they did that I'll tell you
26:52
exactly why they did it they did it
26:53
because they were misb building too many
26:55
cars in St Louis and so down the chassis
26:58
line with numerous combinations of
27:00
engines and transmissions and
27:02
suspensions they decided to put an
27:04
identifier on the car as it went down
27:06
the line so they could double check and
27:08
make sure the car was built right 1967
27:10
was the first year they did that I have
27:13
the actual sticker that came off of this
27:15
car that identifies everything about the
27:18
suspension the engine and basically the
27:20
build of that particular vehicle wow
27:23
that's amazing Tom thank you so much for
27:25
taking the time to be on Corvette today
27:27
I would love to see this L88 sometime
27:30
well hopefully you can hear it that's
27:31
the best part seeing it's pretty good
27:33
but hearing it is the true Joy thanks
27:35
again for listening and watching
27:37
Corvette today and be sure to tell your
27:39
family friends and other Corvette
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enthusiasts about the Corvette Today
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