Need more info on 91' ZR1 black motor

[witdog2020]

How, Where, can I get more info on the black motor car built before Doug Rippie started? Is there still a number around for Kim Baker Racing? Doug says this car isn't his, It's a previous black motor build, built before Doug was hooked up with Jay grundyke. Was Kim Baker the actual founder of the black motor? How many black motors were built before Rippie and Dieline hooked up? I don't see any references to black motor cars before Rippie's.

If you have the publication the heart of the beast, you will see in the pictures a black motor car with white lettering like the car we have.

Anybody with any info?

:dontknow:

[PhillipsLT5]

Did you try JVD?

[ZZZZZR1]

Did you try JVD?

I agree.

Call Jim Van Dorn... He knows these cars very well.

http://www.automastersofbg.com/

:thumbsup:

[GOLDCYLON]

If JVD doesnt know nobody does

[ZRWON]

How, Where, can I get more info on the black motor car built before Doug Rippie started? Is there still a number around for Kim Baker Racing? Doug says this car isn't his, It's a previous black motor build, built before Doug was hooked up with Jay grundyke. Was Kim Baker the actual founder of the black motor? How many black motors were built before Rippie and Dieline hooked up? I don't see any references to black motor cars before Rippie's.
If you have the publication the heart of the beast, you will see in the pictures a black motor car with white lettering like the car we have.
Anybody with any info?
:dontknow:
My BEAST2 is the late Doug Johnson's car mentioned by JVD in the Corvette Action Center story see following links
http://home.comcast.net/~bbstrow/bill3.htm
http://www.corvetteactioncenter.com/specs/c4/zr1/blackwidow.html
http://www.automastersofbg.com/Weekndr.pdf
http://home.comcast.net/~bbstrow/
and here are some pictures for you
Pic of #8, the last of the original 8 Black Widows
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v346/zrwon/JVDWEKNDR.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v346/zrwon/beast2LT5-1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v346/zrwon/IMG_5906.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v346/zrwon/BEASTINSURANCE.jpg
Copy of notes recorded when Doug Johnson got 1st BEAST from JVD and is on way back to home in FLA
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v346/zrwon/183mph2.gif

[witdog2020]

Nice car

Did you Widow car not come with front crash bars (or roll cage)? This car has large tubes. And it is all tied with the cage inside the car.

[ZRWON]

Nice car

Did you Widow car not come with front crash bars (or roll cage)? This car has large tubes. And it is all tied with the cage inside the car.

BEAST did not come with any race safety eq. BUT, with an 8k rev limit, 4:11 rear and all the other goodies JVD included it is very fast! I considered using it for Open Road Racing and make it into the 200 mph club but I'd need to get rid of about 1200 lbs and install the race gear you refer to. I decided I'm only the "current custodian" of Doug's BEAST and will keep in in the original condition. I don't know of any of the original Black Widows that the owners installed the racing gear you mention with the exception of JVD's '91 # 8 , WEEEKEDR, named because of the low miles...he used it only on weekends for racing :)
A call to JVD @ (270) 842-0454 would get you more correct info. While you are talking with Jim you might ask him for DVD he made of his presentation at Corvette Museum last Labor day weekend, if he has any copies left. The DVD is a treasure of Vette racing history and is free except Jim asks you to send a donation to one of his favorite Charities in Bowling Green (can't remember which one but I did include a donation for Jim to handle). I only know of owners of 4 of the original 8 Black Widows. I guess the rest are lost to history. I tried to locate all 8 a couple years ago with no success.

[witdog2020]

I have New info!
The car was owned by Jay Grundyke! The owner of Dieline! He had this engine built by Kim Baker Racing with 1600 miles on the car. The car was Black/Black. They had the car painted white to signify Kim Bakers racing accomplishments and to model his race vettes. This car has traveled the country it was used to show what they can do with the Corvette and modifications they are selling. The car was built to all race specifications to model the cars. The car was sold to an associate of Jay, named Bill. Senior citizen discounts on the service records. He and his wife got divorced and she got the car. The car was traded after a few years on a brand new corvette. Thats when the owner that has it now purchased the car, and garaged it, never even plated the car. This car was also featured in a magazine in the early 90's. The previous owner could not remember which magazine or what year. This car probably is built probably better than most of the widow cars, thats not for me to judge. She also stated that they had the coil overs removed. This car may be 1 of 1, I have not seen any info of any more of these cars being built between Kim Baker and Dieline like this.
I have an email sent to Kim Baker and I hope to get a response. I have another email sent to Dymag. The wheels, I am told from a Dymag Rep. that these wheels may have never went into production this wide, and that only prototypes may have been released to the vendors. I am waiting on the response from Dymag across the water. They have confirmed they will know soon. They needed the serial number.

The car was put on the track for demonstration while Dieline owned the car, I don't know any speeds, just that it performed very well. After reading the " The Heart of the Beast" It looks as though the Father of the black motor was actually Kim Baker? GM,Mercruiser, Kim Baker and Dieline were actually working together prior to the black widow cars.

I will post the new info as I get it. The history of this car is very interesting. This car is very rare, and the value of the car seems to far exceed what the owner is asking for the car.
As soon as I receive all the info from Dymag, and I want to to give Kim Baker time to return my email, hopefully with all specifications in the engine. We will put the car on ebay if we get no takers here.
If anyone knows which publication this car was shown in, please let me know which edition, what year. I want to get as much info correct as possible on the car.

Thanks

[Eric870]

I copied this off of Bakers web site..



Another testament to Kim Baker's expertise with engines is that he was one of the very few outside specialists called upon to aid in the development and testing of the ZR-1's LT5 powerplant. As far back as 1987, Baker was involved in the program, putting ZR-1 prototypes through high-speed testing at superspeedways such as Talladega, Riverside Raceway, and Mosport near Toronto, Ontario.

"We did approximately 350,000 street miles and 10,000 miles under race conditions during our work on the LT5," Baker says. "As a result of that testing, we gained incredible knowledge about the ZR-1 motor and vehicle." The crowning achievement for Baker was gaining a spot on the Morrison racing team that set new land-speed and endurance world records at Fort Stockton, Texas, in the ZR-1 he had helped to develop. Through his involvement with "The King of the Hill," Baker, too, became a legend. In 1991 he was named "One of the 10 Most Influential Men of Corvette" by Road & Track.

[zr1mom]

How, Where, can I get more info on the black motor car built before Doug Rippie started? Is there still a number around for Kim Baker Racing? Doug says this car isn't his, It's a previous black motor build, built before Doug was hooked up with Jay grundyke. Was Kim Baker the actual founder of the black motor? How many black motors were built before Rippie and Dieline hooked up? I don't see any references to black motor cars before Rippie's.

If you have the publication the heart of the beast, you will see in the pictures a black motor car with white lettering like the car we have.

Anybody with any info?

:dontknow:

http://www.zr1netregistry.com/ZR1_faq.htm#66

Mom

[vandornjim]

How, Where, can I get more info on the black motor car built before Doug Rippie started? Is there still a number around for Kim Baker Racing? Doug says this car isn't his, It's a previous black motor build, built before Doug was hooked up with Jay grundyke. Was Kim Baker the actual founder of the black motor? How many black motors were built before Rippie and Dieline hooked up? I don't see any references to black motor cars before Rippie's.

If you have the publication the heart of the beast, you will see in the pictures a black motor car with white lettering like the car we have.

Anybody with any info?

:dontknow:

Well boys, how've you been!??
Yep, a little birdy whispered i my ear there was someone needing a bit of Black info. OK< let 'er rip!
Yes, I have contact with Kim Baker and he remembers one of those cars.
Kim Baker and Morrison both raced the LT5 during it's introduction but weren't very sucessful. All of their engines were sent to Mercruiser for porting work on the heads and then painted with a black powder coat. Some of you may have seen one of these engines at the Thunder at Stillwater event.
IN Rippie's case, after he secured the blessing of Merc, Lotus and Chevy, he did an engine enhancement package which included sending the heads to the LT5 Gang for porting and powder coating. Rippie then did some special calibration and other tricks while he reassembled the engines. Only 8 of these were built. They got their "Black Widow" name after I saw mine done and noticed the color simularity of the Black Widow Spider. Tony Young came along, called me and the name stuck. There were only 8 Black Widows ever done. No spares, no extras, no one else.

We've done a dozen or so black colored engines but the color doesn't make the heritage.

Now let me offer another little tidbit. It seems when the program was shut down, I became the clearing house for LT5 related stuff. In fact, I have the original cylinder head ID's for all the Baker, Morrison and Rippie cylinder heads. Are yours real? :-D

My Black Widow, the last one, is still up for sale. The guy who was interested must be on the space station because I never heard another word from him when he was coming with the money. It's on our website.

Hope this helps!
p.s. When I was at Mercruiser for the Thunder event, somoene handed me a small box of black powder coat. He smiled and said I might need it someday for "touch up". I used it on Doug Johnson's Beast, now Bill Strowbridges. We did that engine exactly like one of our Widows...

[witdog2020]

Hey Jim, Thanks, I shall get the numbers from the heads if I can. by the way is that a Bluetick Coonhound?
Mr. Baker never returned my email requesting information other than he wanted pictures. Thanks for the info.