ZLP955 Racing BITD

[ZLP955]

Well after years of searching, I have finally been able to track down some photos of my Z when it was a race car. I am delighted, to say the least.
It also allowed me to learn more about the car's race history; it was bought new in late June 1969 and began to run at Lions Dragstrip. By early January 1971, when the photos below were shot by photographers for Hot Rod magazine, the car was still the original silver with black stripes, but had some dark (probably black) infills added down both sides, plus race decals and lettering, in addition to the Cragar S/S wheels. The flat hood appears to have had the hinges removed, as it sits high at the cowl, and there is an interesting curved tube in front of the driver, probably a tach or a fuel pressure gauge.
Note the original California black front plate (the username I chose when I signed up here years ago - as I got both original plates with the car), the Clippinger Covina plate frame (which backs up the NCRS Shipper info) and the VE3 front bumper still on it today.
These photos are from the 1971 AHRA Grand American series at Long Beach (Lions) CA and the car ran in the Formula Stock class.
Some time after January, but still during 1971, the car had a full repaint by renowned pinstriper Bob Kovacs in Fresno, and ended up switching to E/MP class, presumably under IHRA or NHRA rules. I'm not sure at what point the hood was cut out, or when it was mini-tubbed for wider rear rubber, but that is how I bought it. The car's name also changed from 'Fiasco' in 1971 to 'Home-Grown Fiasco' when it was repainted. The home-grown part could be a reference to the owner's father and son auto parts business in LA at the time.
The copyright and ownership of the photos below must be credited to TEN (The Enthusiast Network) and the Petersen Publishing/SEMA Digitization Project. I have made contact with them to seek access to the hi-res and non-watermarked versions of these, but have not yet heard back. In the meantime, I hope it is OK to post the publicly-available Lo-res versions, along with an acknowledgement of copyright.
Just wanted to share my delight at finding these pictures with the many friends I have made on this forum!

[69Z28-RS]

Well, I've wondered what the ZLP was all about...        and it's so very neat to have those early photos of your car~   
Good luck getting the high res originals... 

[PURESS]

awesome...I like the pictures...Could you add a picture what your car looks like now(full size)

[Kelley W King]

Nice pics. That elbow in the hood is something new to me. Good to have pics of your car from back in the day. Your born with engine make it through that?

[BillOhio]

That is great Tim. The tube out the hood is weird

[BULLITT65]

Awesome pics Tim! (those are priceless)

Love the license frames. Confirms the orientation of having to mount them with the bottom Covina screw holes.

Will finding these vintage pics change how you restore the car paint wise, or adding stickers?

[cook_dw]

Congrats Tim!  Awesome photos.

[ZLP955]

Thanks for all your comments! I've been searching for such a long time, that I actually thought I was imagining things when I stumbled on these pictures a couple of nights ago - plus it was about 1:00am.....
Got to say, if the original owner hadn't left the front plate on there, I may not have recognised the car.
To address some of your comments:

Gary - the hi-res photos can be purchased from the copyright owner so stay tuned!

PureSS - car is mostly apart at the moment, so no current pictures. My avatar picture is the only shot of it in the full race paint, but I've added some pictures from when the car was found and bought from the late Merle Duprey 20 years ago. At the time, the car had sat in Merle's desert yard since 1974 when it was retired from racing. Looked pretty sorry and a lot of the race 'goodies' had been picked over, but the car actually came with a lot of original stuff - including the original seat belts and sun visors, 12-bolt rear, etc.

Kelley and Bill - the car had a 1969-dated CE 302 in it when I got it, was told the original block was scattered on a track (and can believe it!) but if it was replaced under warranty, it must've been early on, before the car looked like it did above! That curved tube is certainly different, never seen any period race car with one of those before. And the hood isn't cut locally in that spot, I think there were a couple of small holes though, probably for screws and a cable/tube.

Austin - yes, nice to see the plate frame on there! My current plans were based on not having any photographic evidence of how the car looked or was set up.... although now I do. Going to keep moving, while considering options.....

Here are the as-found pictures from 1999. Unfortunately someone started to strip the race paint and took the quarters back to bare metal while it sat, but that is only surface rust and the car was solid.

[ZLP955]

PS: There is another thread going on about VE3 bumpers, note the fit of this one in those 1971 pictures!

[Tx-Z 302]

Thats awesome. Congrats! Please share where or how you found the pics...... I'm still looking and hoping.

[PURESS]

Thanks for the reply back..awesome you found the pictures..you probably did not sleep for the rest of the night

[Danzo]

Congrats Tim! Very cool keep us updated.

[JKZ27]

Nice to see some pics of that car, Tim! The vintage shots are awesome! Congrats.

[Mike S]

 That's a very neat history. And...as others have mentioned, I now know what your screen name means.

Mike

[firstgenaddict]

I like the early race trim... rear of the hood elevated with the VE3 and style trim...
AWESOME! WOW, SO FREAKING KILLER TO HAVE THOSE PHOTOS!!!! Congrats!

I have searched for photos on the internet and have found some really killer early corvette race photos from the 50's and early 60's along with some other neat pics... but to find ones of your own car, incredible... you must have thought it was a mirage...lol