New Assignment

[tricky lugnuts]

Alright guys -- a little forewarning that this post centers on Corvettes...

I work for a weekly newspaper here in Marietta, Ohio. Lo and Behold, who walks in the door earlier this week but Doug Bergen, a late 60s Corvette builder whose early cars, including 8 Ball, were driven by local racer "Marietta" Bob Johnson in a number of prestigious events like LeMans, Watkins Glen, Sebring, and Daytona.

Mr. Bergen wanted to know if we would do a story on his attempts to get Mr. Johnson inducted into the Corvette Museum Hall of Fame in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Naturally -- being a gearhead -- I was assigned the story and happily accepted.

I met both of them this Saturday at Mr. Bergen's house here in Marietta. Both are very nice guys, now in retirement. I toured the garage, with an '07 Z06 Vette parked in there and memorabilia all over the walls. Sounds like they were very successful with the 427 in their heyday and were in a dealership parts program with Gib Hufferstader, ( I think spelling is correct ) and Zora someone -- supposedly the godfather of the Corvette.

I could only talk to them in analogies about AAR Cuda's and Challenger TAs and Superbirds and such -- being exclusively a Dodge nut. They raced about the same time, and even in some of the same races, as Don Yenko.

I guess they later received 68 and 69 factory L-88 cars through an over-inflated number of homologated factory race cars and a bunch of race parts for free -- given that they would send them back with a report when they broke. Bergen built the first cars in his garage. Johnson raced the 8-Ball, the Rebel Corvette, and some others. I guess he's a pretty big name.

Anyways, it's the first automotive story in my news career and I'm excited, even if it does center around Corvettes...

If anybody knows anything feel free to let me know...   

[Brock Samson]

start here..

the genisis of the corvette was the la sabre supercar
  http://www.carofthecentury.com/the_star_buster.htm
the n on to the corvette
  http://www.carofthecentury.com/the_real_corvette_story.htm
then about Duntov
  http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=zora+corvette&btnG=Search
dick thompson most successful corvette racer
http://www.corvettemuseum.com/library-archives/hof/thompson.shtml

the 1959 Stingray Racer was to the Sting Ray what the Mako Shark was to the Stingray


progression of the Stingray to Mako Shark


How many inches (of copy) ya' got to play with?..

my favorite car that was never built..
http://images.google.com/images?gbv=2&svnum=10&hl=en&safe=off&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=aerovette&spell=1
or was it this one?.. 
http://images.google.com/images?gbv=2&svnum=10&hl=en&safe=off&q=corvette+mako+shark&btnG=Search+Images

the innovative SS
http://images.google.com/images?gbv=2&svnum=10&hl=en&safe=off&q=1957+corvette+SS&btnG=Search+Images

the corvette's distinctive up turned shark's mouth led to alot of areo problems just as the  second Gen. Chargers gapeing grill did, resulting in wild areo fixes similar to the Charger Daytona and at the same approx. time, only on the Europian straightaways like Le mans where the ZL-1s would top 200 MPH while begining to popp wheelies.
the '68 L-88

the BFG Stars and stripes.




the flush rear window was slicker then the tunnel roof.
good reading here..

"The 1968-69 Greder car was sold to Jean-Claude Aubriet and entered by Aubriet's "Ecurie Leopard" a further four times at Le Mans from 1970-73, finishing as high as 18th overall and 2nd in class, as well as an active schedule of other races including the Tour de France in 1970 and 1971. In 1973 this old war wagon, still drawn by the same L88 horse as in 1968, was timed at 213 mph at Mulsanne"...
from:http://www.rickcarey.com/Catalog%20Descriptions/Christie's%20L88%20Le%20Mans%

here's an interesting side bar about the emergence of street radials."

from...

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.a2zracer.com/img518.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.a2zracer.com/page63.html&h=326&w=545&sz=35&hl=en&start=68&tbnid=TJap-7mzhx3awM:&tbnh=80&tbnw=133&prev=/images%3Fq%3DGreenwood%2BCorvette%26start%3D60%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D20%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DN

I could go on..

[Troy]

That would be "Zora Arkus-Duntov". Cool assignment!

Mr Johnson is in some esteemed company:
http://www.greenwoodcorvettes.com/Profile.html

Neat:
Thirty-two years ago, a privately entered, showroom stock '69 Corvette finished Fourth overall and First in GT at Sebring. The thundering red L88 completed 221 laps and 1,149 miles around the old 5.2-mile circuit. The English Racing Corvette, driven by Dave Heinz and Bob Johnson, finished behind three factory prototypes (two Ferraris 312s and one Alfa T-33). Mario Andretti and Jackie Ickx drove the winning Ferrari.
http://www.vetteweb.com/events/0408vet_2004_corvette_racing_sebring/index.html

1972 - Dave Heinz and Bob Johnson become the first Corvette team to take the unofficial "36 Hours of Florida," winning the GT class in both the 24 Hours of Daytona and the Sebring 12 Hours of Endurance.
http://www.corvettethunder.com/chron-corv.htm

To tie it in with a familiar Mopar...
Don Yenko would co-drive with Dave Heinz in the # 57 Corvette at many of the newly formed IMSA events. Dave was the driver of one of the first '69 open chamber headed competition L-88's.  From 1969-1972, Dave and this Corvette finished many races in the top ranks.  It wasn't until 1972 that Dave and this L-88 Corvette would achieve their greatest success. This L-88 Corvette was given a new paint scheme........ a very controversial confederate flag paint scheme.  Dave Heinz co-drove with Bob Johnson, to two big victories in 1972. 1st in GT both at the shortened 6 Hours of Daytona and also at the 12 Hours of Sebring.
http://www.corvettelegends.com/sunray.htm
More:
http://www.corvettelegends.com/l88.htm

Troy

[69_500]

Man for once I knew the answer to a GM question and Troy beats me to asnwering it. 

[bull]

I don't believe I've heard where you work and what kind of writing you typically do. I worked for short time as a reporter for a local newspaper so I'm curious. At any rate, it sounds like a fun assignment.

[Troy]

Man for once I knew the answer to a GM question and Troy beats me to asnwering it. 

I answered then edited a couple of times. For whatever reason that name is so distinctive that I can't forget it. I'm not really into Corvettes but there's a few things I know. I like the Cobras better and that's what they were competing against. Of course, it appears that the Cobra was long gone by the time Bob Johnson got involved and won some races.

Troy

[tricky lugnuts]

Thanks for all the feedback guys...

The Corvette is certainly an American icon worthy of discussion --- I got about 50 minutes with Johnson and Bergen on tape, from their early heydey -- they threatened to quit after blowing a head gasket in Daytona and falling from second to seventh, and wound up with a deal that landed them homologated factory L-88 Corvettes in '68 and '69 -- or at least the paperwork for the FIA Paris that the cars they were running were being sold to the public.... and free parts...I saw non-cost invoices for everything from transmisssion parts to rear axles, third-members, and engine parts. Not to mention the radial deal apparently earned them coverage in the national papers, from the Wall Street Journal to Sports Illustrated. And I have contact info for both the men, who now live here in Marietta.

We all know how long bias-ply tires lingered on factory cars... Apparently Mr. Johnson is the only Corvette driver with two distinct write ups in the recently released Corvette Masterpiece -- one for the 8-ball car and another for the Rebel Red Corvette.

He, or they, really, have a bunch of paperwork proving that they were one of the few racing teams getting free -- and experimental -- factory parts for free at the time, in the entire country. He has the paperwork, the window stickers, for all the cars he worked on and raced -- the new owners don't have them yet and I'm betting they'd pay a pretty penny for all that documentation. Apparently it was the Gib fellow who worked the deal for them...

As far as column inches go, I'm managing editor so we could theoretically write about it for quite some time. We're the Marietta Register, online at mariettaregister.com -- though I prefer to maintain some breathing room between work and time off.... We don't mind running letters to the Editor -- U.S. Congressman Charlie Wilson has one running in next week's paper about the Iraq War...

This is my first real car story, though I have already planned a short story on old Mopars stuck in a barn together -- I normally cover local politics and a good majority of any in-depth reporting that our paper -- reportedly -- does. You all likely know about the news hole -- it's no different for free local papers-- though they are apparently the only growing segment of the newspaper industry nowadays.

At first I couldn't believe that he walked in the door like that looking for a local story. The vast majority of folks here in town have a disinclination to read -- or help in any way -- the Ogden-owned daily paper here in town -- so that works out well for us...as we're a local start-up paper that has been frequently beating the living crap out of a multi-billion dollar news corporation with daily papers spread around from Pittsburth to Florida...But crap, the guys were behind the first Corvette to finish LeMans!!!

Have you seen pictures of the 8-ball Corvette? It's a pretty sweet unit -- 427, 4-speed, positraction, all the heavy duty stuff. Apparently one of the cars -- not sure which off hand -- is for sale for over $1 million. All the other cars he raced were 427 4-speeds, too.

Apparently Kevin Mackay owns a couple of the cars -- they say he is one of the pre-eminent Corvette restorers in the U.S. -- kind of like the Roger Gibson for us mopar-heads...And he also wrote a letter of recommendation in their bid for the Hall of Fame. (Is that so surprising, to be cynicial?)

Brock -- very interesting topics that I cannot do justice at this point in time... Imagine the creation of an American sports car in the height of the Cold War -- and then the creators boosting its international appeal... I'm 27 so all of this is a bit before my time -- but the Mako shark is a very bad-ass fish, and therefore should be a very cool car. They gave the racers free parts for a reason, I'm sure -- and apparently International renown is  a factor in who gets selected to the Hall of Fame...

He told me all about his '66 8-ball Corvette, and how at 176 mph at Daytona it wanted to go airborne, instead of turn as it was supposed to. I guess the class requirements prevented them from adding any spoilers or air dams that were not available on a factory car.

I've thought about teasing the folks at Corvetteforum.com -- a quick search revealed the Rebel Red Corvette Johnson raced as the topic of several online conversations... One poor Chevy admirer noted that it was his favorite Corvette of all time...

Anyways to all a good night for now -- Go Marietta!! ANd nonetheless, All Hail the CHARGER!!!!

[71ChallengeHer]

http://corvetterepair.com/ Here is a link to Kevin's site. You can see some of his cars and some he has restored. He is a very nice guy and knows his stuff about Vettes.

[Brock Samson]

my best friend's dad had an L-88... he gave it to his son for his 13th birthday, when dad bought a new LT-1 convert. my buddy Perry ended up with both cars, but the L-88 burned to the ground. He still has the LT-1 however. and is currently building/testing/dialing in a 8 sec Vega panel...
perhaps your article can be a multi-part series?.. 
Corvettes sell magazines, why not papers?.. 

[70charger_boy]

I'm on the hunt for a '90's LT-1, right now.

Off the subject, I ran across these pics on another forum I belong too.  Whoa!!