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Chevrolet dropped its first real big-block into the Corvette in 1966, and the numbers on paper barely tell the whole story. The 427 arrived in two versions, a 390-horsepower hydraulic-lifter L36 and a 425-horsepower solid-lifter L72 that Chevrolet had briefly advertised at 450. Nearly one in five of the 27,720 Corvettes built that year carried the top engine. Read on to find out what made the 427-powered ’66 Sting Ray one of the most significant Corvettes Chevrolet ever built.
Only 1,325 of the 22,229 Corvettes Chevrolet built for 1964 left the factory with the L84 fuel-injected 327 under the hood, and fewer still survive as numbers-matching convertibles. Owners Bob Atkins and Fred Haraf have kept this silver-on-black example since 2011, and they know exactly what separates a genuine fuelie from a car wearing the right badges and nothing else. Read on to find out what makes this 375-horsepower Sting Ray one of the rarest combinations Chevrolet ever built.
Chevrolet’s 1969 ZL1 option added an all-aluminum 427 to the Corvette lineup, priced high enough to nearly double the car’s cost. Only a documented handful were ever built, making it one of the rarest and most valuable factory Corvette configurations of the muscle car era. Read on to see why the option cost so much in the first place.
The 1962 Corvette closed out the original C1 body style while quietly introducing the 327 small block that would carry the nameplate for years afterward. Buyers who paid extra for the Ramjet fuel injection option got a car that could genuinely compete with much pricier machinery. Few of them realized they were also buying the last Corvette that would ever wear a wraparound windshield.
This 1988 Chevrolet Corvette pairs the fuel-injected L98 5.7-liter small-block with the smooth-shifting 4-speed automatic overdrive — a combination purists sometimes overlook but that delivered real performance for its era. Making 240 horsepower and 340 lb-ft through Tuned Port Injection, the L98-powered C4 could reportedly top 150 mph. Here’s why the automatic ’88 Corvette deserves more credit than it usually gets, and what made the L98 era of Corvettes such a turning point for the nameplate.
Three two-barrel carburetors bolted to a 427 sounds like overkill until you understand what Chevrolet was actually chasing in 1967. The L71 Tri-Power package was so demanding that GM refused to offer it with an automatic transmission or air conditioning, building a Corvette capable of embarrassing cars costing twice as much. Only 3,754 buyers, roughly 16 percent of production, checked the box. Read on to find out why the Tri-Power 427 remains the engine serious Corvette collectors chase hardest.
Long before Pontiac built the GTO and started the muscle car era in earnest, Chevrolet was already chasing serious horsepower out of a small-block V8 — and doing it with fuel injection instead of a carburetor. This 1959 Corvette from The Brothers Collection wears its rare Rochester Ramjet system under a crown sapphire hood, a full decade ahead of the cars usually credited with starting the muscle car story. Watch to see what a factory fuelie 283 actually looks like in person.
Pontiac let the Camaro launch five months first in 1966 just so Firebird engineers could fix what Chevy got wrong — better weight balance, standard traction bars, real attention to detail. Buyers had a genuine choice in 1967 between a clever overhead-cam Sprint six and GTO-sourced 400 V8 muscle, and the sales numbers make it obvious which one actually won.
A 1969 Corvette with the ultra-rare L88 427 — one of only 116 built — lines up against a 1972 Oldsmobile 442 W30, one of just 772 made, in a quarter-mile race between two factory options that were both deliberately underrated on paper. A former 442 owner in the comments insists his car’s true output was well beyond its listed 300 horsepower. Watch the run and the trap speeds that back him up.
1958 was the year the Corvette finally turned a profit for GM — 9,168 built, a 47-percent sales jump, quad headlights and a washboard hood, and a 283 small-block offered in five states of tune topping out at a fuel-injected 290 hp. It wasn’t a facelift, it was the year America’s sports car proved it belonged.
This 1969 Chevrolet Corvette still wears its original factory gold paint, but everything else has been built to be heard as much as seen — a big block V8, chrome side pipes, and a 1970s-flavored velour interior. Recent work on the brakes and front suspension means it’s set up to actually be driven, not just displayed. The walkaround and test drive show exactly why owners call this kind of build a conversation starter. Watch and listen to those side pipes in action.
Chevrolet built 21,801 Corvettes for 1971 and only 1,949 carried the LT-1 small block, split 1,306 coupes and 643 convertibles. New low-lead fuel rules cut its compression to 9.0:1 and its rating from 370 to 330 horsepower, yet it still ran to sixty in about six seconds. It could not be ordered with an automatic or air conditioning, and just eight cars got the ZR1 package. Read on for why it stayed special.
Read the phrase 1966 Corvette with a 454 big-block and any Corvette historian is going to stop and reread it, because Chevrolet did not build a 454 until 1970. That does not make the car uninteresting; it makes it a different story than the badge suggests. The real 1966 big-block news was a brand-new 427, and the numbers behind it are worth the detour. Read on to find out what was actually available.
The 1971 Corvette LT-1 lost forty horsepower on paper compared with the 1970 car, and it is the better buy because of it. Chevrolet dropped compression from 11.0:1 to 9.0:1 that year to meet a corporate low-lead fuel mandate, which is exactly why this is the last solid-lifter small block Corvette you can run on ordinary pump gas. Only 1,949 were built.
Scottie fell for this 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Custom, nicknamed ‘Split Second,’ before its hood was even open at the 2017 Detroit AutoRama, and the stack-injected 327 waiting underneath only sealed the deal. Built around Corvette’s famous one-year-only split rear window, the car blends vintage styling with a modern, iPod-integrated interior. One viewer called it the only C1 Corvette they have ever genuinely liked. See what makes ‘Split Second’ stand apart from typical Corvette customs.