On the left is
the 1967 Sun-
ray DX entry
at the 24
Hours of Le
Mans. On the
right is a dif-
ferent L88 sponsored by Dana Chevrolet
and Sunray DX at Daytona.
BILL TOWER PHOTO COLLECTION
AND CORVETTEFORUMN.COMsold it to a local dairy farmer. While the
farmer’s son had the car, the L88 engine
broke and was replaced with a normal
big-block. Around 1972, after the farm-
er’s son was done with the car, Tower
learned of a big-block ’67 Corvette
that was available. At first Tower didn’t
know it was the R&D car until he talked
with Rathman who told him how he
acquired the car. Tower worked a deal
with the farmer to buy the car, plus the
broken L88.
After Tower got the car home, it sat
in his garage for a while until he got
around to repairing the L88. Aside from
the broken engine and racetrack mis-
hap, the car was in good condition. It is
still every bit as much as the beast it was
in 1967, so Tower never drove the car
on the street. “Why have it then?”
you wonder. Tower explains, “I just like
preserving history when I can. I didn’t
buy any of the unique cars in my
collection as investments. I was just
lucky enough to be able to get them
when I could.” VETTE
The unique headers and side pipes
were made available to L88 customers
through Chevrolet.This style of header side pipes was only
used in 1967 and 1968 and can be seen
on the 1967 Sunray DX L88, 1968 Sunray
DX L88 and the 1968 James Garner A.I.R.
Corvettes.L88 Corvettes sold to the public had the
octane requirement sticker in the cen-
ter console, just to the rear of the park-
ing brake lever slot. The round sticker is
proper tire inflation pressure.
The Chevrolet-engineered unique
header-side pipes were the same design
as those on the small-block Grand Sports
and made by an outside vendor.Look closely at the Rally Wheels. 1967
Corvettes came with 15x6 pressed-steel
wheels shod with 7.75x15 bias-ply tires.
The L88 needed more tire and a wider
stance. Engineers worked with Kelsey
Hayes to make a 7-inch wide wheel with
the correct offset so that the inner fender
lip would not have to be trimmed.Master technical illustrator David Kimble
has created cut-away illustrations of all of
Chevrolet’s important engines.
GM ARCHIVESGRUMPY
SP
ER
FORMANCE.COMGRUMPY
SP
ER
FORMANCE.COM