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I thought I would create this post for any owners that want to list their 1966 L72 cars here.
I will start with a format as to how to list them, here is my car.
V.I.N. 194676S115365 this is optional as some don’t like to show their V.I.N.
Nassua blue with bright blue interior convertible A O Smith built body so no SE available from the factory.
OPTIONS: L72, TI (required option) leather seats, teak, tele, power steering, power brakes, radio, repo KOs—-ps, pb, teak added by me.
Car came to me with an installed 1969 427 AND the ORIGINAL block as well.
NCRS shipping date report shows the car with production date of 3/1/1966 delivered to VV Cooke in Louisville , KY.
It was restored about 15 years ago but seldom driven.
Still working on it and as of this date and putting 3.73 gears and original solid lifter cam in as well as several other things.
No real documentation other than the original block proving it as an original L72 car from the factory.
ORIGINAL BLOCK STAMPING
If you were provided with a listing of possibly hundreds of, 1966, L72 Corvettes for sale over the past 35 to 40 years, including VIN #'s, is that something that you could use to expand the information on this site?
If you were provided with a listing of possibly hundreds of, 1966, L72 Corvettes for sale over the past 35 to 40 years, including VIN #'s, is that something that you could use to expand the information on this site?
Somewhat. MOST of them have changed hands over all those years, some may certainly have been totaled, some may be off the road sitting in storage. I am interested in what survives today, colors, equipment, etc.
CERTAINLY your list could not hurt. Feel free to list it here in this thread. Likely some of the participants may recognize their car for sale long ago and MAY help them in tracing down info for their cars.
Thanks,
Darryl
I would be willing to spend the hours required to pull the information and send it to you. But, in my opinion, the raw data would then need to have names, address, phone number, email, and any other personal information redacted. Then put into a matrix format by VIN #, date, $, color,
engine, other RPOs, etc, for presentation on the site. That's one idea on how it could be presented. But I'm not willing to spend the time to do this additional work. Providing you the raw data, that would be it! This could be a great resource. Let me know.
I would be willing to spend the hours required to pull the information and send it to you. But, in my opinion, the raw data would then need to have names, address, phone number, email, and any other personal information redacted. Then put into a matrix format by VIN #, date, $, color,
engine, other RPOs, etc, for presentation on the site. That's one idea on how it could be presented. But I'm not willing to spend the time to do this additional work. Providing you the raw data, that would be it! This could be a great resource. Let me know.
Glen - A couple years ago, a fellow Forum Member, Gary Cowans, and I got to talking about a list of 1965 396 Corvettes and he set up an xls spreadsheet over on the NCRS site as well as added 65 Bigblocks we came across to the public C2Registry.org site, filtered into the 1965 Corvette listings, so they would be available to anyone interested. We have had L78 owners contact us to be included and have found 65 L78s on various auction house sites and added them too...as long as they had the VIN listed.
We're currently up to 342 65 L78s out of the original 2157 made.
Having that list of 65 Bigblocks is nice but without the pics and background history like we see in this thread started by Darryl, it's not nearly as interesting. I think what makes this thread unique goes beyond the statistics like VIN, colors in and out and options, it also includes the history of the car, whether it was a highly optioned totally bone stock example or a car that had seen a lot of mods and work over the years. They are all interesting reading. After the thread got going, there was a lull in the participation so I rummaged through the
1966 listings on the C2Registry site and emailed about 170-180 owners of L72's to see if they might join us on this thread. Some have already contributed to it, others will in time.
By the way, I saw your profile mentioning you own what looks to be a very loaded 66 L72, hope you jump in with pics and the background story on it.
Thanks,
Mike T - Prescott AZ
Glen - A couple years ago, a fellow Forum Member, Gary Cowans, and I got to talking about a list of 1965 396 Corvettes and he set up an xls spreadsheet over on the NCRS site as well as added 65 Bigblocks we came across to the public C2Registry.org site, filtered into the 1965 Corvette listings, so they would be available to anyone interested. We have had L78 owners contact us to be included and have found 65 L78s on various auction house sites and added them too...as long as they had the VIN listed.
We're currently up to 342 65 L78s out of the original 2157 made.
Having that list of 65 Bigblocks is nice but without the pics and background history like we see in this thread started by Darryl, it's not nearly as interesting. I think what makes this thread unique goes beyond the statistics like VIN, colors in and out and option, it also includes the history of the car, whether it was a highly optioned totally bone stock example or a car that had seen a lot of work over the years. They are all interesting reading. After the thread got going, there was a lull in the participation so I rummaged through the
1966 listings on the C2Registry site and emailed about 170-180 owners of L72's to see if they might join us on this thread. Some have already contributed to it, others will in time. By the way, I saw your profile mentioning you own what looks to be a very loaded 66 L72, hope you jump in with pics and the background story on it.
Thanks,
Mike T - Prescott AZ
Good catch on this Mike, I missed it. Yes, we would certainly LOVE to see and hear about his car.
For those of you that are not aware Mike has done more for the continuation of this thread than I have with his reaching out to other L72 owners. KUDOS TO YOU MIKE.
2020 Corvette of the Year Finalist (track prepared))
2019 C1 of Year Finalist (track prepared)
Darryl, is this thread mainly for L72's that are owned today, or is mine from 40 years ago of interest? I don't want to post material that this thread is not intended for.
Darryl, is this thread mainly for L72's that are owned today, or is mine from 40 years ago of interest? I don't want to post material that this thread is not intended for.
I don’t see a problem with it especially if you have a V.I.N. as it may lead to connecting dots for the current owner in tracking the history of the car.
2020 Corvette of the Year Finalist (track prepared))
2019 C1 of Year Finalist (track prepared)
I think this was my third Corvette. I sold it in 1982, but I wish I wouldn't have. It was a J56/F41 L72 that had been originally Mosport Green/black vinyl, but it had been painted silver long before I got it. No other options. It sure would have been fun to put it back to Mosport. I don't have the VIN, but I sold it through a friend who is a Corvette dealer and he would probably have it. I hope it's still out there!
I think this was my third Corvette. I sold it in 1982, but I wish I wouldn't have. It was a J56/F41 L72 that had been originally Mosport Green/black vinyl, but it had been painted silver long before I got it. No other options. It sure would have been fun to put it back to Mosport. I don't have the VIN, but I sold it through a friend who is a Corvette dealer and he would probably have it. I hope it's still out there!
Here is the next L72. I bought this one 2 years ago.
Trophy Blue
Dark Blue Leather
MN orig. drivetrain
Telesteering
Air conditioning 1st gen. Vintage Air
Drives very well, even long distance.
The previous owner from NC had it for over 35 years. Unfortunately he passed away so I have no further info on the history.
A photo from the early 80s.
Matthias - Welcome to the L72 Thread, that's a great looking Coupe. Are you by chance an NCRS member? If so, you could send away for the Shipping Report which would tell you where your Coupe was originally sold. They have the selling dealership info for a lot of the 62-75 Chevrolets.
Mike T - Prescott AZ
Matthias - you mentioned you bought your L72 when it was in North Carolina. Per the shipping report, was it originally sold new in NC?
Mike T - Prescott AZ
Thank you Mike for inviting me to this great Thread. This is my L72, his name is Rumblee. Here's Rumblee looking over his debut on the Corvette Central 2023 calendar Unmachined and date correct L72 heads. Loading the date correct, stock L72.
I’ve wanted a 427 C2 Corvette since I was about 8 years old. Fast forward almost 50 years to 2016. My wife, Lisa, told me to “pick one out” for my 56th birthday. My 427 Corvette had to be a black convertible without power robbers like ac and power steering. Also, why add the weight and complexity of power brakes? It also had to have side exhausts and knock-off wheels, they just add to the look.
A short but intense internet search turned up just what I was looking for in western Iowa. I am unapologetic Corvette originalist but I didn’t know how to verify the color on the trim tag and was so taken with the car I talked myself into believing the engine was a ’68 427/435 modified with a 4 barrel carb. This was even though the gentleman that sold it to me made no such claim. I didn’t even try to verify what the original engine was other than a big block. None of this mattered. I went on to tell myself I would only repair what broke and not try to restore it.
Fortunately, my wife Lisa saw the restoration coming. She wanted to discuss the deal before finalizing. “What’s there to discuss??” was my retort. After a brief negotiation the deal was made.
Two months of blissful Corvette ownership, an NCRS membership, and realization that I didn’t have a 435 hp engine later I became convinced Rumblee had to be restored to his original 427/425 hp glory. It started with the courtesy lights. The engine bay wiring harness had to be replaced anyway due to failed wiring, and with that the courtesy lights were restored. It looked even better than before, sitting under the moonlight in the driveway with the doors open and the interior illuminated. How great would it be if some of the other items were fixed? So I began the quest for the correct engine. Obviously, I couldn’t expect to find the original. The one in the car was from 1968 and it was a 390 hp. I had to start from scratch.
I was tempted to go the “all original” route but since Rumblee would be a weekend driver I certainly wasn’t going to use things like original valve springs that liked to break. So I opted for an engine that would perform, look and sound like a 1966 427/425. By far the hardest part to get using this criteria was the block. I looked for date correct 427/425 blocks in 4 states and the stories I heard about some of the prospective blocks were “interesting”. I finally found one in Illinois. It was a beauty, bored only 0.025 inches and no sleeves. Every bolt thread was intact. Still had the original broach marks and was date correct in every way. Long story short, if your block doesn’t have the IP code stamped on the original pad then there’s no telling what it is. Buyer beware!
The rest was just a matter of finding some great NCRS members that were selling what I was buying. I did have at least one person suggest I couldn’t find date correct heads that have never had metal removed, but a trip to Indiana proved him wrong.
That’s the compressed version of the story. Rumblee is primarily a weekend driver but the restoration is ongoing.
68hemi (01-15-2023),Factoid (01-15-2023),Lotsacubes (01-15-2023),norway66 (02-26-2023),nutt (01-15-2023),Vet65te (01-15-2023) and 1 others liked this post. (Show less...)
This is my car, VIN# 194376S116546, purchased in 2015 from Grand Rapids MI, and imported to Switzerland. The car followed me to my new home near Perth, Scotland 4 years ago. I have no history or documentation on the vehicle, except a handful of invoices from just before I purchased it, and the NCRS document that states what dealership the car was originally delivered to (Council Bluffs, Iowa).
It is a Trophy blue Coupe with black interior
Options on the car: L72 (more on that below), Transistor ignition, leather seats, headrests, telescopic steering column, teak steering wheel, side pipes (probably not original), and I added the power brakes (with a period-correct master cylinder). The teak wheel that came with the car had seen better days and had probably been varnished, so I treated myself to a much prettier teak wheel reproduction.
The "IP" stamped block that is in the car is not original, and although it has the correct cast number, it is a 2-bolt block, so not an actual "IP" block. Heads, intake manifold, fuel lines and carburetor are all correct for L72, the alternator is a reproduction.
Mike T (Vet65te), who kindly sent me a PM about this thread which I had missed, took quite some time to help me go through the possible clues to an original big block car: Some point in the right direction (differential bolts, angle of the fuel pipe from frame to pump, thicker front anti-sway bar and rear anti-sway bar, 6500 rpm red line on the tach and "80 lbs" oil pressure gauge), even though some could have been added later. One other clue tells another story ("LC" tag on the back of the instrument cluster)... so your guess is as good as mine!
12-30-2022, 09:31 PM
1966 Corvette for sale listings.
