04
When the
December 1968
issue of Hot Rod maga-
zine hit the newsstand,
heads spun faster than
the fan on the beauti-
ful 427 ZL1 engine photo
on the cover. Duntov
started seeding alumi-
num engine compo-
nents in 1956 with an
aluminum intake man-
ifold for the optional
dual-quad 225-horse-
power 265ci engine.05
The actual number of produced 1969 Corvette ZL1s is a
sticky topic. The Corvette Black Book claims only two.
Roger Judski, owner of Roger’s Corvette Center in Maitland, Flor-
ida, states clearly in red text on his website “This rare Corvette is
NOT for sale!” The car was originally ordered with all available
options and had a sticker price of $10,771. Judski’s ZL1 is Bloom-
ington Gold Certified.
PHOTO: ROGER JUDSKI06
Kevin Suydam’s Corvette ZL1 was drag raced by its first owner, Jack Cheskaty
and was called Predator. The second owner road raced the car and outfitted
it with L88 flares, fuel cell and all of the required racing hardware. The car has since
been restored to original showroom condition and has been Bloomington Gold
Certified. PHOTO KEVIN SUYDAM COLLECTION07
Bruce Perone’s ZL1 was originally owned by John Mahler and for many years
was drag raced and competed in hill climb and autocross events. Kevin Mack-
ay’s Corvette Repair team restored the car to showroom condition in 2013. Perone’s
ZL1 is also Bloomington Gold Certified.eventually became the L88 in 1967 that
saved about 65 pounds.
An iron SBC weighs around 575 pounds
and an iron BBC weighs around 685
pounds. The SBC was capable of impres-
sive power, but the BBC produced mon-
ster levels of power. Duntov wanted the
BBC’s horsepower and torque, but with the
weight of a SBC. By mid-1967, Chevrolet
started feeding all-aluminum big-block
engines to Jim Hall for his Chaparral 2F
Can-Am car and to Bruce McLaren for his
M8A Can-Am car in 1968. Chevrolet quickly
made the all-aluminum 427 available to all
of the Can-Am teams through Chevrolet
Product Promotion. Thus began the total
domination of aluminum big-block 427
Chevy-powered McLarens that lasted for
five years.
The Can-Am aluminum 427s were modi-
fied versions of the L88 Corvette engines
and included the following special parts:
roller timing chain; Chevrolet-supplied per-
formance camshaft; Forgedtrue pistons;
Carrillo rods; Weaver Brothers dry-sump
oil system; shallow magnesium oil pan;
ported, enlarged and recontoured heads
and Crane aluminum roller-tipped, needle
bearing rocker arms with studs on top.
The induction system used a magnesium
manifold with a 2.9-inch bore vertical throt-
tle body for each cylinder. The injectors
sprayed fuel into each of the curves of the
tuned-length stainless steel velocity stacks.
Jim Hall’s Chaparrals used a Lucas-based
fuel-injection system and eventually went
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