Filipinetti Corvette L88 Coupe 1968

Designed for ... GT +2.0 of Le Mans Teams Scuderia Filipinetti (1968 - 1969) Country of origin USA Introduced in 1968 Engine Type Aluminum ZL-l engine block V8 Horse Power 550 hp @ 6400rpm Torque 485 Nm @ 4000rpm Engine Displacement 7 liter (427 cubic inch) Drivetrain M-22 Close-Ratio 4-Speed Recommended Book Scuderia Filipinetti Recommended Movie La Ronde Infernale - Le Mans 1969 More Car Details

The Swiss racing team Scuderia Filipinetti has a long and very interesting history. When I first detected the auction of the 'Filipinetti Corvette L88" on RMAuctions I did not notice that it was a "Filipinetti" Racer as the name does not appear in the auction name itself... Only recently when I bought the book about Scuderia Filipinetti (see some photos of the book below), I realized that ;-)

The Scuderia Filipinetti Story:
Henri Greder from the french Greder Racing team approached Swiss racing patron Georges Filipinetti with the idea of entering a two-car Corvette team at Le Mans 1968.
Filipinetti accepted and two of the fabled L88 Corvette coupes shortly arrived from Detroit, fully race prepared for the 24 Hours under Zora Arkus-Duntov’s supervision, the father of the Corvette himself! Zora, knowing the demands of 24 hours at speed at Le Mans, fitted the gear ratio in order to take full advantage of the legendary 427 cubic inch L88 engine’s power. The combination was clocked down the Mulsanne straight at 191 mph and turned in a sub-4 minute lap in testing. The Corvettes were fast, but suffered from what the French called the “ennuis de freins”, its brakes not being strong enough to decelerate from 200 mph after the Mulsanne Straight. Race driver Henri Greder recalls having to brake for the Mulsanne turn at the 500 meter mark!! Imagine that... ;-)
Le Mans outcome: In the 1968 race Greder and Maglioli dominated the Porsche competition and led the GT category until the 6th hour when a carburetion problem melted a piston. Garant wiped out the other Corvette in the Dunlop curves in the 14th hour.


About the Engine: The Corvette L88 (based on the C3 model) was the first Corvette featuring the Aluminum-Headed Big-Block engine. Although it shared the same dimensions as its other 427 stablemates, the L88 has become legendary for its combination of stump-pulling torque and high-flying horsepower. The engine wasn't given a horsepower rating when it was introduced in mid-year 1967, but, ultimately, engineers at Chevrolet planted their tongues firmly in their collective cheeks and proclaimed its output at 430 hp at 5,200 rpm. The issue wasn't that the rating was false, it was merely skewed. L88s undoubtedly produced something on the order of 430 hp at 5,200 rpm. But left unsaid was that it also produced approximately 500 hp at 6,400 rpm (the engine speed at which most other solid-lifter-equipped big-blocks were rated). It's also been claimed that when equipped with headers and an open exhaust, actual output was in the vicinity of 550-575 hp.

The L88 was a race engine. Period. However, race engines typically find their way into street-driven cars, and the L88 was no exception.