Today’s barn treasures are typically unremarkable classics that aren’t necessary worth preserving. Rare vehicles do, however, occasionally appear. One of them is this 1969 Chevrolet Corvette.
The 1969 Corvette was produced in roughly 39,000 copies, therefore it is not particularly unusual. However, this production batch also contained a few extremely rare gems that were only ever released. This Corvette is not your typical sports vehicle, that much is true.
It was born with a 427-cubic-inch (7.0-liter) L88, and it’s one of only 116 cars that left the factory with this legendary mill. What’s more, it’s one of only 17 L88s fitted with an automatic transmission. In short, it’s one of the rarest Corvettes ever made, regardless of the model year.
Based on the big-block 427 that Chevrolet offered in the Corvette and its full-size cars starting in 1966, the L88 arrived in 1967. Featuring a race-spec cam, high-flow aluminum heads, and competition-grade internals, the V8 sent 430 horsepower to the rear wheels, as much as the ZL1. It was slightly less potent than the 435-horsepower L71 and L89, but the L88 was built with racing in mind.
Only 20 Corvettes were built with the enormous hump during the 1967 model year. Eighty customers chose the stronger engine in 1968, the year Chevy released the third-generation Corvette. After selling 116 units for the 1969 model year, the L88 was discontinued.
By 2023, the L88 will be one of the most costly and coveted C3 Corvettes ever produced. It ranks right up there with the ZL1, ZR1, and ZR2, all of which had little sales and were equipped with uncommon extras. So when such a rare diamond finally shines through after so many years of storage, I can’t help but be thrilled.
And this Corvette spent quite a lot of time in darkness because it was parked in the late 1970s. That’s about 45 years off the road, enough to turn any classic into a pile of junk. This one got lucky, though, as it took almost a half-century of storage like a champ.
Sure, the car has been taken apart and repainted twice, but the shell is in top-notch condition. And according to the previous owner, it was never crashed. How did it end up like this? Well, the Vette was dismantled in preparation for a new paint job. Apparently, the owner got tired of the blue paint and wanted to finish it in black. But life got in the way, and he never got around to doing it.
The second owner thought it was time to sell it about 52 years after he first did it and contacted the people at Horsepower Depot. Given that our hosts have constructed and competed in drag races with numerous L88 replicas over the years, his choice is hardly shocking.
Since then, the Chevy has been parked in their garage, where, unlike the L88 replicas kept next to it, it will undergo a rotisserie repair to return to its original condition. We’re probably looking at a future Concours d’Elegance champion because it will also be redone in its original green shade. What I want to hear about a barn-found L88 is news like that.
But until that happens, check it out in its as-found condition in the video below. The previous owner also explains what makes it special and talks about the car’s early years on the road and at the drag strip.