Next week’s Santa Monica Auction in California will doubtless have the attention of Corvette collectors worldwide. A rare 1969 Corvette L88 Convertible will be offered for sale there by Auctions America. It will be a “shot heard ’round the world” for classic Corvette lovers. The L88 Corvette would never have been born if Chevrolet had ignored the challenge of the Shelby Cobras in SCCA racing. It is pretty certain that Chevrolet would never have listed an L88 Option for Corvette buyers if Zora Duntov, head of the Corvette racing program, had not wanted to go racing against the Cobras. The L88 racing option had to be available for the general Corvette buying public in order for it to quality for SCCA A-Production and FIA GT class racing. Once unleashed it has created a fascination for Corvette collectors like no other.
This rare 1969 Corvette L88 will be offered for sale at the Santa Monica Auction, June 25-26, 2016 in California. You can follow this link to see the auction listing. Auctions America has it prominently featured in their auction catalog (click here to view the catalog), and will probably have every top Corvette collector in the country watching their live video stream on Saturday, June 25, when this car will cross the auction block as Lot # 1111. Stay tuned to this page as we will be covering the auction next weekend. You can follow our postings on our Facebook and Twitter pages for the event.
Only 216 L88 Corvettes were produced between 1967 and 1969. The one you see here is one of only 116 produced in 1969. The L88 package that year cost $1,032.15 on top of the base cost of a Corvette, about $4,500. The 500-horsepower L88 package used the venerable F41 suspension and J56 Big Brakes to hold this incredible muscle car on the road. They came standard without a radio, heater or air conditioning. They were pretty much purpose built for racing. They say this car is body-off restored and presented in show condition. It has a 427/430 hp big block with a Rock Crusher M-22 4-speed transmission and factory side exhaust. It has won the Triple Crown Award for Corvettes, NCRS Top Flight, Chevy Vettefest Gold-Spinner Award and Bloomington Gold certification.
The Santa Monica Auction is gaining a reputation as being a very high profile event for Southern California. It is held at the Harbor Hanger, a choice and scenic location. Some deep pocketed collectors are expected to bid on a fine fair of collectible sports cars, including many high profile 1960’s and 1970’s classic Ferraris, Maseratis and Porsches. We’ll be paying special attention to the cars shown here below:
You are looking at a Ferrari which will be worth $1 million some day. In this market this 1969 Ferrari 365 GTC is expected to draw bids over $800,000 on Satuday, June 25, 2016 at the Santa Monica Auction by Auctions America. It will be Lot # 1099. It features a 4,390 cc V-12 motor with a 5-speed gearbox.
A 1994 Jaguar XJ220, Jaguar’s most revered exotic supercar of all time, will be in the Saturday sale. The twin-turbocharged 3.6-liter, 540-hp 6-cylinder could accelerate the car through its six manual gears to a top speed of 212-mph, making it the fastest car in the world at the time of its unveiling. It is part of the Riverside International Automotive Museum collection.
An extremely rare 1960 Dodge Polara D-500 Convertible will be offered in the sale on Saturday. This hard-to-find classic Dodge Polara has its 383 Cross Ram Wedge motor and a pushbutton automatic Torqueflite transmission. It will be lot # 1107.
The legendary 1957 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham, styled by Pinninfarina in Italy, comes with its stainless steel roof and incredible trim package with suicide rear doors. This blue chip collectible will be Lot # 1079 on Satuday. Only 400 were built by Cadillac at an exremely high cost to produce.
The modern Ford GT project is a tribute to the Ford GT-40 cars which won the 24 Hours of Lemans four years in a row from 1966-1969. In the past year they have been rapidly increasing in value at collector car auctions in the U.S. Here is a 2006 Ford GT, Lot # 2116, which will cross the auction block on Sunday, June 26.
No comments yet.