The 10-Second Drag Vette Built For the 1969 Long Lead Press Journalists to Have Fun With!

Photos by K. Scott Teeters, except where noted. This story was first published in the July 2023 issue of Vette Vues Magazine.

This story has two distinctive parts: Here’s the first part

The 70-year history of the Corvette is peppered with astonishing production cars, race cars, concept cars, and a few cars that never left the confines of the Chevrolet Tech Center. In one of many configurations, the 1960 CERV-I was clocked at over 200 mph! Race-prepared, but mostly stock Corvettes, won their class in 1960 at Le Mans (one of the three Briggs Cunningham Corvettes) and in 1966 at the 24 Hours of Daytona (the Penske 1966 L88 Corvette).

Harley Earl conceived the Corvette as a sports car, but Corvettes also made excellent drag cars, especially the 1963 to 1982 cars. While sports car racers did not like the C2-C3 rear end “squat,”; for drag racers, that “squat” meant weight transfer that, when set up with tall 4.88 gears and slicks, made for some severely quick small-block Corvettes. Big-block Corvettes with manual transmissions were on borrowed time with stock half-shafts and a driveshaft.

But why would they build a Corvette such as this?

Drag racing was never the Corvette’s official purpose. That’s why it was so stunning when the October 1969 issue of Motor Trend published the story about the surprise the automotive press received when they attended the Long Lead press event in July of 1969 at the GM Proving Grounds. The Long Lead press events are a thing of the past, thanks to the nearly instant publishing of breaking stories via the internet. Times are different.

Back in the day, “New Car Season” was September and October. To make sure that the car magazines came out around the same time as the new cars, all the car companies staged private press debuts. Automotive writers soaked up all of what was new, and photographers went through lots of Kodachrome film. It was exciting stuff to read about.

When the magazine guys got with the Chevy guys, they got to see all the regular Chevys, plus the new SS 454 Chevelle, the SS Nova, the restyled 1970 Camaro SS and Z28, and the refreshed Corvette in the small-block LT-1 and the big-block LS5 454.

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What they did not expect to see was a bright orange 1969 Corvette with very long chrome collectors, American Racing Wheels shod with fat 9-inch drag slicks in the back, skinny front tires, and a unique engine. The car looked like an unlettered NHRA Super Stocker! Under the hood was a hogged-out, 454 version of the all-aluminum 427 ZL-1, only built for serious quarter-mile timed acceleration contests!

But here’s the seriously crazy part.

The Chevy guys set up a 1320-foot “drag strip”, outfitted with Chrondek Timers to measure elapsed time and top speed – just like NHRA! All of the journalists (that dared!) were invited to “take a few runs”, and NOT in the passenger seat! They were allowed to drive the car. The LT-2 and 3-speed Turbo-Hydramatic was set up with a hi-stall torque converter, just like a Super Stocker. But no neutral starts. Other than that, “Have fun!”

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The Monaco Orange Corvette wasn’t a poser

Under the hood was a 454 version of the 1969 427 ZL-1. Designated as an “LT-2”, for a brief time, the LT-2 was an official RPO option for 1970 Corvettes. To demonstrate the potential of the 454 LT-2, Duntov instructed his team (Gib Hufstader and Tom Langdon) to build a demonstration car, set up “as if” it were an NHRA Super Stocker. So, that’s exactly what Hufstader and Langdon did.

The car was actually a pre-production “evaluation” 1968 Corvette, updated to ’69 visual standards. Then the guys tore into the car, removing anything not needed for drag racing. The objective was to make the car as light as possible. Of course, having an all-aluminum big-block that weighed as much as a cast-iron small-block was a good start.

Tom Langdon built the LT-2 strictly as a racing engine. One of the most unique features of the engine build (besides the all-aluminum 454 version of a ZL-1) was the “180-degree tube headers” that Tom Langdon built. The two center tubes of each bank of headers crossed over to the opposite side long tube collector. According to Langdon, the 180-degree headers were good for around 12 horsepower. The headers also made a distinctive “ripping” sound, especially when revved to the engine’s 9,000-rpm redline!

The rest of the engine was built tough. The 4.00-inch stroke crankshaft was Tufftrided hardened, the compression was 12.5:1, there was a hot cam, and solid lifters. The intake and exhaust ports on the ZL-1 heads were revised, and the water pump was aluminum. On top of the aluminum intake manifold was a huge NASCAR Holley 1200 CFM Dominator 4500 double-pump four-barrel carb that drank 123-octane aviation fuel. According to Langdon, “The big Holley didn’t make any more than 2 or 3 more horsepower, but it was different, and they wanted it on there because it was different.” On the dyno, the LT-2 pulled 588 horsepower and made 542 lb/ft of torque.

Gib Hufstader was the Project Engineer who oversaw and delegated functions and work.  On a copy of the 6-5-69 Chevrolet Build Order, it reads: “Install Hydramatic with special converter (11″) and 7000-7100 up-shift, supplied by R. Weaton.”

The “built” Turbo-Hydramatic three-speed transmission had a 4000 rpm high-stall torque converter, just like lots of GM Super Stockers. As this was a demonstration car, Hufstader and Langdon didn’t want the car manually shifted and possibly over-revved, so a plate was secured to keep the shift selector in “Drive” when running the car.

Another reason for building the car with an automatic was that automatic Super Stockers are easier on drivetrains than four-speed manual cars. The torque converter nature of the automatic makes it softer on the drivetrain and easier to drive consistently. The rear differential was stuffed with 4.88:1 gears.

The design of the independent rear suspension on all C2 and C3 Corvettes will naturally make the car squat, which is troublesome for road racers, but great for drag racing, where “squat” means weight-transfer to the slicks for more traction. Since drag cars thrive on weight transfer, another Super Stocker trick was deployed. According to chassis release engineer, Dan Crawford, the F41 Special Front and Rear Suspension received 90/10 shocks that allowed the front suspension travel to lift up quickly upon acceleration to aid weight transfer. On the rear suspension, large rubber snubbers limited wheel-hop, acting like traction bars.

Let’s talk about the LT-2’s weight-loss diet

When building a race car out of a production car, anything not needed is removed. The power window motors were removed. The pop-up headlight mechanism and heater were removed. The car’s stock windshield was replaced with a lighter version, and the glass side windows were replaced with Plexiglas. The steering wheel cast bracket was lightened with holes drilled into the casting. The stock front and rear bumpers were replaced with chrome-plated fiberglass replicas. With all of the non-essentials removed, the car weighed just over 2,800 pounds.

So, how much fun was it to drive the LT-2?

While it is not known how many journalists and engineers got to drive the car, officially, 71 runs were made in the car. The average ET was 12.13, but the best run was a 10.89 @130-mph by Motor Trend editor Eric Dahlquist. “Speed” through the traps is an indicator of horsepower. In 1969, Car Life Magazine tested every version of small and big-block Corvettes in a massive Corvette road test story. The 427/435 L71 Corvette with 4.11:1 gears ran the quarter-mile in 13.94 @105.63-mph. The LT-2 was A LOT more powerful!

Proving Grounds PR man, Bob Cliff, had this to say about the LT-2. “We all enjoyed driving it. That was back in the good ‘ol days. Zora used to keep us all excited back then. We would rev it up to 6,000 rpm, then dump it into gear! (Neutral starts were illegal in drag racing back then.) It took off like a striped-ass ape!”

After the press had gone home and everyone was through having their fun, the engine was pulled and disassembled. Many stress cracks where the crankshaft attaches to the flywheel were discovered, meaning the engine was about to let go!

And what became of Zora’s drag racer? Well, it was never seen again, except for a short article in the October 1969 issue of Motor Trend. It’s safe to assume that the car was stripped of its useful parts, and the hulk went off to the crusher. (More on that later) As time went on, the car was pretty much forgotten, except for at least one person, Dave Miller.

Here’s the second part: Meet Dave Miller

In 2010, Dave purchased a 427 ZL-1 engine from his friend, Kevin Lambert, in Detroit, with plans to build a Super Stock Camaro. Kevin is the owner of a 1969 L88 Corvette, so he was urging Dave to put the ZL-1 into a Corvette.

One evening in 2010, while on a visit, Kevin invited Dave to dinner, not knowing what was in store. When the guys got to the restaurant, Dave was surprised to see four men sitting at Kevin and Dave’s reserved table: Gib Hufstader, Tom Langdon, Bill Howell, and Kevin Lambert. The men were GM retirees who worked on a special project back in the day. After pleasantries and introductions were made, Gib placed a sizable pile of documents on the table. Pointing at the papers, Gib said, “Use your ZL-1 engine to build this car.”

What Dave was presented with was official Chevrolet documentation and photographs for the build of the LT-2 Long Lead Corvette. Plus, he had the guys who actually built the original LT-2 as advisors! With the best experts, plus documentation and reference photos, Werner Meier’s Masterworks did the build.

Interestingly, Werner Meier is a younger, but retired GM employee, and he didn’t know about the Long Lead LT-2 Corvette. Once the Long Lead Press Review event was over and GM decided not to make the LT-2 an option for 1970 Corvettes, everyone moved on, and the car was pretty much forgotten.

According to Gib Hufstader, the LT-2 was built on the cheap with mostly off-the-shelf and some aftermarket parts, then assembled and tested on the proving ground by motivated engineers on their own time. Back in the day, “drag racing” was the “everyman’s” motorsport, so there was a lot of staff interest in the LT-2. Tom Langdon had two NHRA national championships to his credit. There were more drag racers within the Corvette engineering team than there were road racers. Their attitude about the LT-2 project was, “This is our Corvette!”

Gib has repeatedly said the original was built for one purpose only, and that was, “…to entertain the guys who wrote about our cars.” I once asked him if it had been driven out on the streets, for example, Woodward Avenue, and he smiled and said, “No comment.” Then he smiled again and said, “Everyone at the tech center and the proving grounds loved the car, and many came around and volunteered after hours to help with it.  They were the ones who started referring to it as the Saturday Night Special.”

While “unofficially”, the LT-2 “might” have participated in some “Stoplight Grand Prix” action on Woodward Avenue. Accounts of such behavior are strictly hearsay!

The build of the original LT-2 was not prettified, like a typical Chevrolet show car. It looked like the guys built it in their home garage. It was a little rough around the edges. So, when Werner Meier’s team built the car, their build matched the rough parts, as described by Hufstader and Langdon.

The donor car for the re-creation was a Chevrolet public relations 1968 Corvette, not terribly unlike the original. The build was not unlike any restoration of an early C3 Corvette, but with attention to the unique details of the original LT-2. However, the drivers are a few details that are not spot on from the original LT-2.

First is the quality of the Monaco Orange paint, which is much better than the original. The side windows on the LLC are lightweight like the originals, but of Lexan, and yes, they retained the regulators. The factory headlights function, whereas the original LT-2s did not. And lastly, the front and rear bumpers are steel, not chrome-plated fiberglass. Consequently, the re-creation isn’t as light as the original LT-2, weighing 2,975 pounds.

However, the original LT-2 engine dyno at 588 horsepower, whereas the re-creation’s ZL-1 dynoed at 625 horsepower with 545 lb/ft of torque. A quick slide rule calculation shows both the original and the re-creation LT-2 have the same power-to-weight ratio, 4.8 lb/hp.

How does the re-creation compare to the original LT-2?

According to Gil Hufstader, the documented best run on the original LT-2 was a 10.60@132-mph. Brock Yates’ run (according to the October 1969 issue of Motor Trend) was a “neutral start,”; meaning with the transmission in neutral, revved the LT-2 up the 7,000-rpm redline, and dropped into Drive! This was a “NO-NO” in NHRA drag racing for automatic transmission cars, for obvious reasons. In 2021, Dave ran his re-creation LT-2 at the Supercar Reunion, where he ran five back-to-back 10.6 et’s @ ???-mph, without neutral starting the car..

So, what do we have in the comparison? The original LT-2 dynoed at 588 hp with 542-lb/ft and the re-creation’s LT-2 dynoed at 625 hp with 455-lb/ft – plus 37-horsepower and 13-lb/ft. But the re-creation weighs 175 pounds more than the original LT-2. So, it just about balances out.

The major difference isn’t the hardware, it’s the times.

The “1/4-mile” at the proving grounds was just a long straightaway, not a seasoned, sticky drag strip starting line with a thick layer of rubber from thousands of passes by race cars. The other factor is the slicks. While the re-creation’s slicks are the same size, the compound of the modern M&H slicks is far superior to the Racemaster slicks on the original LT-2.

What Hufstader, Langdon, and the rest of the Chevy engineers did was build an NHRA-style Super Stock Corvette. There were probably a few things on the car that might not have passed Tech Inspection, but it was close enough to show the LT-2’s potential.

A few years later, in 1973, in real NHRA Super Stock racing, Bayonne, New Jersey, racer Bernie Agaman built a 1971 454 LS6 (cast-iron engine) for Super Stock C/Automatic. Running on the then-class national record of 11.15, Agaman’s first pass was a 10.72 et! By 1975, Agman won the NHRA Super Stock World Championship.

When the original LT-2 Long Lead Corvette was built, Chevrolet was planning to offer the LT-2 as the top performance option for 1970 Corvettes, as the replacement for the 427 ZL-1 option. However, GM product planners saw the storm clouds on the horizon; called, including emissions, safety regulations, and pressure from insurance companies. Their fallback position for the 1970 Corvette engine options was the 390-hp LT5 454. This didn’t go unnoticed by the Corvette faithful because in 1969, customers could get the L71 427 with 435 horsepower.

There are three things that are utterly amazing about this story

First, was that the original 454 LT-2 mule Corvette was even built, let alone be available for any press journalist at the Long Lead event, could “have at it!” Some stock 427 Corvettes were running high 13s in the quarter-mile, but not high 10s, like the LT-2. And what of the liability concerns? I’m sure everyone had to sign a waiver, but the car was much quicker than anything most had ever driven on the street.

Second is that anyone even remembers the Long Lead 454 LT-2 “Super Stocker”. The car got a two-page article in the October issue of Motor Trend and was never seen or heard of afterward. Hufstader, Langdon, Bob Cliff, and a few others definitely remembered the car, they were there.

A re-creation project, such as this, depends on forensics. Since the actual car was long gone, photographic reference was essential. Special credit has to go to Thomas Voehringer, who was the Petersen Publishing Archivist at the time of the LLC build. Thomas found a trove of unpublished photos from the original Motor Trend/Dahlquist article in 1969. Ironically, they were tucked away in a folder titled: “Long Lead Event”.

Without those photos, no one, not even GM, could have incorporated the level of detail of the original onto the re-creation. If you look at the sheet metal exhaust outlet covers fabricated for the original, the re-creation has the same number of screws securing its covers as did the original thanks to the photos Thomas found. He was an essential member of the team.

Another man who recalled the car was Joe Van Dusen. Joe was a co-op student at Kettering University, in Flint, Michigan, formerly GMI, and totally into Corvettes. In the early ’70s, Joe built a very stout 1968 427 Corvette.

While working for Chevrolet as part of his co-op education, Joe crushed a few cars and recalls an unusual Monaco Orange Corvette that was “probably” the Long Lead LT-2. It’s too bad Gib Hufstader couldn’t let the car out the door and over to Joel Rosen’s Motion Performance shop on Long Island. Joel had an A/Modified Production Camaro in 1969 that was a thorn in Bill “Grumpy” Jenkins‘ side for over a year. After all, all five 1963 Grand Sports got loose; why not the LT-2? Oh well, I put that in the “Could Have Been Cool!” file.

And third, that anyone, forty years after the fact, would have the passion to recreate what could have been a champion Corvette Super Stocker. While Corvettes are mainly thought of as “sports cars”, the C1, C2, and C3 Corvettes could be terrors on the 1320. Drag racing in the late ’60s and early ’70s was very exciting, heady stuff.

If you go to a Nostalgia Shoot Out or watch videos from the day, you’ll know, “Yea, it was that good!” As a Corvette historian, a big “THANKS” to Dave Miller, Gib Hufstader, Tom Langdon, Werner Meier, the rest of the crew, and George Haddad for keeping the passion alive. – Scott

This story was first published in the July 2023 issue of Vette Vues Magazine.

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