Lingenfelter Showcasing Five Cars At National Corvette Museum
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This year marks a couple of important milestones for two big names in the auto industry. It’s the 40th Anniversary for Lingenfelter Performance Engineering, and the 60th Anniversary for the Corvette name. What better way to celebrate the two dates than to show off some of the greatest collaborations since the inception of the two. Five of these Lingenfelter-branded monsters will be on display at the National Corvette Museum. Let’s break them down for you:
- A yellow 2006 C6 Z06 Corvette. It was the Twin Turbo Motor Trend 2007 Shoot Out car. Back in ’07, this was Lingenfelter’s fastest ‘Vette, taking down the standing mile at 226mph. On street tires, by the way. It did 0-200 MPH in just 18.34 seconds on 93 octane gasoline, accomplishing the standing mile in only 25.12 seconds. It is one of three of the Corvettes on loan from owner Norm Koerner, who we assume has a large, exquisite collection.
- Next, there’s a yellow ’95 Corvette ZR-1, with the 415 cubic-inch LT5. It was featured in the August 1998 issue of Road & Track. It made C4 history when former race car driver Mario Andretti drove it at the Fort Stockton test track and achieved 202 MPH with full exhaust and 218 MPH with open headers. Mr. Koerner also owns this particular Corvette.
- Car number three from Mr. Koerner is another ’95 ZR-1 LT5. This one is a bit more extreme – it features a specially-made 368-cubic-inch motor, and twin snails under the bonnet. It was one of four built by Lingenfelter, and puts out a mild 850 horsepower. In 2000, John Lingenfelter proved the awesomeness that is this Corvette by reaching 153mph in under 10 seconds.
- Arguably the scariest one of the five is a silver C5R. To make it go, there’s a twin-turbo 427 available. It was selected to compete in the 2002 Motor Trend Shoot Out. It could do 0-60 in 1.97 seconds,and melt your face while doing it. This car’s claim to fame was going up against a US Navy Blue Angels F/A-18 jet in a quarter-mile drag race. It is one of two loaned cars that are part of the Lingenfelter Collection of Brighton, Michigan.
- Last but not least, there’s the red 2006 Z06, with a yet another twin-snail 427 combo. This car is part of the Lingenfelter Commemorative Edition series. Because of this, it features a full Lingenfelter body kit, Brembo Brakes, Koni adjustable shocks, and Michelin Pilot Sport tires, with other go-fast parts and badging.
If you can’t make it to the showcase event, no worries. You might not be able to touch anything, but there will be live streaming from the museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky. In case you didn’t know, Chevy Corvettes are manufactured literally next door.
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I got to know John a few years before he passes. He was a super guy with some super ideas.
I saw him when he brought one of his last TT Corvettes to our Christmas party and it was the one that neared 230 MPH. He said it could do more. I asked if he planned on doing it and he said he did not want to do more than he already had. He was on street tires and said if I had lost a tire it was over. I also got to talk to him about the Callaway Sledge Hammer at another meeting with him I knew the Goodyear Tire Engineer on site Reed Kryder a Racer himself and they knew it was fast on their best run just by the sound.
Off all these great Corvettes John had one toy he really liked. It was a Red GMC Sonoma with a TT LS engine in it. The truck was AWD and very easy to drive on the street . It could do 9 second 1/4 miles. He told me how it was sucking air in the tranny and he needed to fab a sump for it. I was sad to see they sold the truck to a guy in Mississippi and he lost it at the track and rolled it.
The times I got to see John and bench race in the lounge in his Race Hauler were treasures to me. He was a real car guy and racer. The last time I saw him was at Mid Ohio and even when he was NHRA racing he was there to look into doing Chevy engines for road racing. He had that grin like let see what we can do here.
John and his cars are a special part of history of the Corvette and GM and this display is well placed.
got to ride in that truck with some friends of John’s in Michigan a few years back, was my first time over 200mph and the thing felt like it was gonna leave the pavement on 696
That truck was his pet. He would grin and say isn’t that neat.
The one thing I don’t like about tuner cars is that it use to be that you had to buy a car, tear it apart, use your brain to come up with some ideas to make it fast!
Only good mechanics had fast cars, now granny can go by one!
Based on the comments on web sites I can see if that were true we would have few fast cars today.
Tuner cars are nothing new. Ever heard of a Yenko, Berger, Gibbs? How about Shelby?
Being in the performance aftermarket I see customers with these tuner cars not only buy them but buy things from my work to make them even faster.
There are ways to make tuners faster today just some people are not smart enough to think of them.