This is the 1971 Corvette LT1 that Chevrolet never built. What I mean by that is this car has an automatic transmission and air conditioning... and we ALL know that LT1s had 4 speeds and except for the '72s, no air. So how DID this car come to be?
The first several pics are from the Craigslist ad when I found the car. A "dealer" in the Pittsburgh area was advertising the car as a numbers matching roadster that he acquired from a Fire Chief in Ohio as part of a package deal with another Corvette, a '61 as I remember it. The Ontario orange '71 still had some original paint, 76k miles, had been sitting since the mid-seventies and was the Chief's daily driver back in the day, even taking it to fires. No wonder he was usually the first one at the scene.
I saw that the VIN on the windshield post matched the title but being a novice Corvette owner, it wasn't until I got the car home and purchased the necessary reference manuals that I really started to check the car out. The first thing that I saw out of place, and I addressed this with the dealer before purchasing, was that the air cleaner had the 330 HP sticker. The dealer told me that was just a replacement air cleaner cover - wrong. Then I noticed the aluminum valve covers - Hmmm... Next I checked the engine vin derivative number which has the CGZ suffix - LTI. The excitement built. Off with the valve covers - solid lifters.. off with the oil pan - 4-bolt main... maybe there's a tank sticker... no luck. Perhaps there was a mistake at the factory... the LT1 VIN and date code matched the drivers door tag perfectly and the car (or the engine at least) was caught-up in a strike at the plant in the fall of 70. Hmm, that's really wierd.
That's when I hired Bill from Auto Ancestry to find out what I had. Within a short period of time and for not a lot of dough, I had my answers. Apparently the chassis started out at a dealership in Florida, however that fact is unverifiable because I don't know that VIN. Those marks were expertly wiped from the chassis and transmission. The engine's LT1 VIN along with the windshield post and title said that the car was delivered to a dealer in Cleveland. So I surmise that someone switched the LT1 engine into the 71 chassis, changed the intake and carburetor to a base model (so that it would fit under the hood) and went on using the title for the wrecked (I suppose) LT1. I replaced the intake with a proper LT1 intake, bought a Holly double pumper, and found a '70 LT1 hood to get her back on the road... So that's how I got the LT1 that Chevy never built, my buddy in Cleveland did it for me. Thanks!
