Update on ZR-32's lineage.

[1989ZR1#74]

Originally I thought that the original donor car for the ZR-32, Pictured here:



Was 1989 ZR-1 #055. If you attended the seminar at the Gathering you may have noted that I retracted that, and the true origins of ZR-32 where a mystery. Well I have narrowed a bit of that down.

Initially I thought that this picture:



Was of 1989 #055. I was told this by someone who was at the shop at the time of its creation. Upon further reviewing this picture and comparing it to the build sheet for #055 I determined that that could not possibly be true. In fact I thought the Z was DRM, but when you really look at the color you will realize it has more of an Orange appearance. That coupled with the apparent lack of "Corvette" on the cam covers and the smooth white expansion tank lead me to believe that this was in fact an 88 prototype. Most likely The Dark Orange EX5009 or EX5024.



It could also be the Flame Red EX5010 or EX5018 as seen here:

EX5018


But I still could not connect the picture of the stripped 1988 Prototype ZR-1 at California Street rods to ZR-32 until today. Today I found the missing link. While searching the October 1989 issue of Hot Rod I came across this picture:



And there you have it... An LT5 that has bare cam covers shown in the frame of the ZR-32 during the build. So the true source of ZR-32 was a tired 88 Prototype EX5009, EX5024, EX5010 or EX5018 . Not sure if that Phase II LT5 ended up powering the final version, but I hope to have that confirmed soon. Eric