1989 ZR-1 Pilot #004 Thread

[Tyler Townsley]

Originally Posted by 1989ZR1#74

Yeah I know you said that and I believed you, but I needed a question to ask Edgard to break the ice. I was trying desperately to not have to repaint this car. Well he wants me to call him on Tuesday for more details...

I figured as much. One thing to remember about cars like this is if you know the story you can pick a place in time and restore/leave the car as it appeared on that date. The stint at the tech school and the paint job are part of the story and I would not repaint it. Would you want to repaint the #74 car? Its the same thing.

Tyler

[1989ZR1#74]

Yes, I thought of that, but #074 was painted by California Street Rods and appeared in magazines. And is the sister to ZR-32. Thats a little different.

[BlackWidow#2]

Originally Posted by 1989ZR1#74

Page 308, 309, & 310 are all #74. In fact the picture on 309 is what I used to identify it. If you look on the steering wheel right above the "1/2" on the fuel gauge you will see a nick. That nick was caused by the LA Times writer Paul Dean's signet ring. Paul was driving and he nicked the wheel. Randy had to take pictures of the inside of the car and there was this cut. They used a marker to color it in. Well the nick is still in the wheel.

Sorry to keep asking about 074, but I see it had 722 miles on it when the picture was taken. Roughly how many when you bought it?
That knick is very small, you did a great job on that (finding it, etc.)

I know what Tyler is saying about the paint, but I'd go with the dark red too, although the school job would be lost forever. Regardless it's a great car to own! George

[1989ZR1#74]

Originally Posted by BlackWidow#2

Sorry to keep asking about 074, but I see it had 722 miles on it when the picture was taken. Roughly how many when you bought it?
That knick is very small, you did a great job on that (finding it, etc.)

I know what Tyler is saying about the paint, but I'd go with the dark red too, although the school job would be lost forever. Regardless it's a great car to own! George

It now has 21Km. Hib Halverson drove #74 in August of 1989 ("Real Life with The King" great article) and it had 5,096 miles on it. He wrote about it in a 1990 Issue of Vette. It went to Cal Street Rods shortly after 8/89 so CHuck Lombardo jr must have put 15Kmi on it.

I studied those pictures for a long time. Most of the 1989 ZR-1s covered in liturature where the June 1988 Riverside pilots (1 Red/Red, 1 Yellow/Red) or the Europe cars. There seems to be 2 post France USA magazine cars. 1 Red/Red that was featured in ZR-1 vs Porsche, ZR-1 VS Ferrari etc. There seems to be only 1 post France Red/Black press car, #74. SO when I saw Red/black in the 50th book I wrote the author. He told me about the LA TImes article and off I went.

[BlackWidow#2]

It sounds like Chuck Jr was a lucky guy at the time! Have you been in contact with him? You'd think GM would have told him not to drive it.

Did all 15 of the cars sent to France return after the event?

Thanks, George

[Tyler Townsley]

Every car has a story and yes the 4th of the 89s is interesting so is the stint with the school and susquent paint job > Think the paint was for one of the Miami International car show events in the 90s.

Tyler

[Z51JEFF]

Years ago there was some nice stuff coming out of CSR down in L.A.

[1989ZR1#74]

Originally Posted by BlackWidow#2

It sounds like Chuck Jr was a lucky guy at the time! Have you been in contact with him? You'd think GM would have told him not to drive it.

Did all 15 of the cars sent to France return after the event?

Thanks, George

According to Heart of The Beast:

"At the end of four weeks of relentless pounding, the ZR-1s, none worse for the wear, were shipped back to Detroit"

If I had to guess these Europe cars That were built the last week of January, First Week of February 1989 fell within the #033 to #60 range. Based on my tracking I don't have any complete survivors in that range. They were the first ZR-1s to be fitted with the Phase IV engines. I assume they were all used for further durability testing.

Here is what I have accounted for:

Survivors:
003, 004, 016, 074, 078

Modified but mostly intact:
040 Conan V12, 045 NCM record car, 081 (Snake Skinner), 0?? Snake Skinner II

Crushed Recovered:
014, 080

Engines/parts:
010,028,055, 075

[1989ZR1#74]

Originally Posted by Tyler Townsley

Every car has a story and yes the 4th of the 89s is interesting so is the stint with the school and susquent paint job > Think the paint was for one of the Miami International car show events in the 90s.

Tyler

I like the paint and more then likely will repair and touch it up for now. I am looking for any pictures of the car at the Miami shows. That's another question I ask the School. It was also Bright Red at some point too.

[A26B]

I used to have the following engines. Is it possible that any of these were 89 pilot numbers?

1K5800026
1K5800029
1K5800045
1K5800062