Big Block "A" Body Cars

[Keith Tedford]

Since the fall of 1967, I've never gone a year without owning a big block "A" body GM car, mostly Chevelles and sometimes more than one at a time. Our old COPO Chevelle shipped out yesterday heading for Alberta. The car will be with a collection of about 30 GM musclecars. I guess we are definitely Corvette people now. I do have an L34 and an L78 engine to put together so all is not lost yet.

 

[Riley P]

I'm still holding onto my "A" body. Each type of vehicle has it's own characteristics, as you know, and each put a smile on my face for different reasons. Sorry to hear you're only down to Corvettes.

Post up some pics of the Chevelle!

 

[nascar03]

Keith.. Hopefully you have full visitation rights!
We are just caretakers of these fine automobiles.
The next generation can now do their part just as you have done yours.
thanx graham
And I 'second' the request for pics!!!!

 

[Keith Tedford]

These shots were withing one month of new. Note bigger tires already. The restoration will take 1 1/2 - 2 years. A good friend and I each bought COPO Chevelles new in '69. He sold his car in the early '70s and it sort of disappeared. It had gone to the US and eventually was restored and ended up in Calgary and they will end up being store one building away from each other. The owners would like Ken and I to be there for a visit and get pictures of us driving the cars again. The cars are at an airport and there is a very nice runway. Just saying........ If that happens, the guys may need crow bars to pry us out.

 

[Keith Tedford]

This was Ken's car when brand new. The black stripes and 427 emblems on the hood were dealer added when the car was new. We had a lot of fun in those two cars. I always joke that the two of use caused the 1973 gas crisis.

 

[Riley P]

That must have been AWESOME! Very cool! Glad to hear they are being taken care of properly and going to a good home.

 

[buckhorn76]

back in 71 or 72 a friend of mine here in buckhorn had a 70 ls7 [ hope i remembered the code right ] the 450 hp 454. he was working in scarborough at the time and coming home on weekends. he had run ad's in newspapers looking for one. his mother called him and said there was one for sale in the peterborough examiner maybe it's what you're looking for. he thought ,yeah right , in peterborough. that weekend he went to take a look and lo and behold a red ss with black striping. it had tri-power from a 427, an inline vertical gate 4 spd and bench seat 2500 bucks [those were the days eh ]. that thing was a monster. after a couple of years of mind numbing fun he fried the motor and got rid of the car. don't know what became of it after that and now sadly my friend is very ill and hasn't much time left. but oh the memories.

 

[Keith Tedford]

The LS6 was the 450 hp 454. There was and LS7 crate engine that I don't believe was ever installed on the assembly line. The L72 427 and the LS6 were great, reliable street engines. We put close to 200K miles on our 427 and the only thing that broke was a valve spring. As I always said, you could take grandma to church or scare the devil out of her. Either way it was a win situation.
I don't remember the red '70. I boarded in Oshawa during my apprenticeship then I got married in '71 and wasn't roaming the streets much after that. I'll ask some of my Peterborough buddies. Some of them would probably remember the car. It's not the kind of car you would forget.

 

[67HEAVEN]

back in 71 or 72 a friend of mine here in buckhorn had a 70 ls7 [ hope i remembered the code right ] the 450 hp 454. he was working in scarborough at the time and coming home on weekends. he had run ad's in newspapers looking for one. his mother called him and said there was one for sale in the peterborough examiner maybe it's what you're looking for. he thought ,yeah right , in peterborough. that weekend he went to take a look and lo and behold a red ss with black striping. it had tri-power from a 427, an inline vertical gate 4 spd and bench seat 2500 bucks [those were the days eh ]. that thing was a monster. after a couple of years of mind numbing fun he fried the motor and got rid of the car. don't know what became of it after that and now sadly my friend is very ill and hasn't much time left. but oh the memories.

Keith is correct. The LS-7 big block was never installed in a Chevy product by the factory. This version of the 454 was to be rated at 465 hp and 490 lb

 

[Keith Tedford]

GM did put some low compression LS6 425 hp engines in '71 Corvettes. I worked with an older guy at the time and he bought one. In his mid life crisis I guess. He said about buying some special Corvette and then it came up about the aluminum heads. Bingo. That would be the LS6 for that year. Never saw the car or any other '71 LS6 Corvettes for that matter, but he seemed to know exactly what he had. When you are 24, 50 is old and you know how senile old guys can get.

 

[67HEAVEN]

I looked through my stash of goodies, and found this from a 1970 Corvette Assembly Manual.
NO....THE LS-7 NEVER MADE IT TO PRODUCTION.

 

[Keith Tedford]

1970 LS6 Camaro

Look in the old 1970 Camaro parts catalogue and there is LS6 stuff listed. A lot of stuff such as literature, and parts books are printed way early and things change at the last minute. Still, a '70 LS6 Camaro would have been one sweet ride. Insurance rates and tighter emissions standards pretty well were the reason that musclecars died off so quickly.

 

[67HEAVEN]

Anyone interested in more Corvette history in an 'A' body thread?

This Corvette mule was used on Chevy press day (late 1969), by Duntov, to demonstrate the capabilities of the highest iteration of big block high performance development to that time - 1970.

Is it a LS-7? LS-6? L-88? ZL-1? No, it's none of those. But a turbo-hydramatic, combined with the slicks you see on the rear, launched this puppy to a 10.89 / 130 mph / 7,100 rpm 1/4 mile run in front of a ton of reporters.

Sadly, like the LS-7, this one never reached buyers in 1970 either. I've said it before. Had GM stayed with BBC development, the 638 hp ZR1 would most certainly not be the current king. But, for emissions and mileage reasons, GM had no choice....development swung back to the SBC. But look at the performance out of this puppy, with a single 4bbl Holley. Imagine with supercharging.

Oh, I guess I didn't mention the proposed RPO, did I? Maybe later.

 

[67HEAVEN]

Look in the old 1970 Camaro parts catalogue and there is LS6 stuff listed. A lot of stuff such as literature, and parts books are printed way early and things change at the last minute.

Very true.

Here's the engine page out of a 1970 Corvette owner's manual.

That 12.25:1 compression, 465 hp, solid-lifter LS-7 listed never made it into the showrooms.

 

[buckhorn76]

i did get my codes confused, it was the ls6. my friend always had cars that were the last word in cool. cars that could be considered rare even back then. i remember his 66 grande parisienne [ canadian version of the grand prix ], blue with white interior, a 396 4 spd car.

 

[Keith Tedford]

There was a guy in Oshawa with a '66 Parisienne Convertible with a 427 425 hp engine and four speed. Talk about rare. His name may have been Wally but I don't recall for sure.

 

[Keith Tedford]

Anyone interested in more Corvette history in an 'A' body thread?

This Corvette mule was used on Chevy press day (late 1969), by Duntov, to demonstrate the capabilities of the highest iteration of big block high performance development to that time - 1970.

Is it a LS-7? LS-6? L-88? ZL-1? No, it's none of those. But a turbo-hydramatic, combined with the slicks you see on the rear, launched this puppy to a 10.89 / 130 mph / 7,100 rpm 1/4 mile run in front of a ton of reporters.

Sadly, like the LS-7, this one never reached buyers in 1970 either. I've said it before. Had GM stayed with BBC development, the 638 hp ZR1 would most certainly not be the current king. But, for emissions and mileage reasons, GM had no choice....development swung back to the SBC. But look at the performance out of this puppy, with a single 4bbl Holley. Imagine with supercharging.

Oh, I guess I didn't mention the proposed RPO, did I? Maybe later.

I thought this car was a full on done up for drag racing ZL1. I think I have that old magazine and article around here somewhere. I'll dig it out if I can even find it.

 

[buckhorn76]

i think the car that i owned that i would most like to have back today has to be my 71 demon 340 4 spd. got it when it was a year old, had a lot of fun racing that car. a few minor mods and some slapper bars, it was a real sleeper but downright scary at times. too bad electronic ignition wasn,t around then, those mopar dual point ignitions could be frustrating to tune. sometimes when i didn't get it right she'd backfire huge and open up the mufflers like sardine cans.

 

[67HEAVEN]

There was a guy in Oshawa with a '66 Parisienne Convertible with a 427 425 hp engine and four speed. Talk about rare. His name may have been Wally but I don't recall for sure.

Probably the only L-72 Parisienne convertible ever built. Silver with a Madeira Maroon bench-seat interior. Muncie 4-speed, with of course no console due to the bench seat and it was built in Oshawa. This car was a standard Parisienne, not even a Custom Sport. It was a sleeper, of sorts, as no one expected a big old Parisienne convertible to run a solid-lifter 425 hp big block Chevy. How do I know all this? That's easy. I rode in, and ran against this car, many times. It was ordered by and driven by Gord Wadley, a sweeper at GM South Plant, who later moved on to Corvettes.

 

[buckhorn76]

i remember back in the late 60's there was a dealer in london involved in racing and they would order a handful of laurentians for super stock guys. bare bones 2 dr sedans 427 4 spd cars. i have heard that a couple still exist. sure did make the yankee boys do some noggin scratchin,but they were legal because they technically were pontiacs.