1966 Corvette L88 Penske Recreation Is One Heck of a Tribute Car

This 1966 Corvette L88 Penske recreation pays tribute to Roger Penske’s very first racer as a team owner.

It goes without saying that any L88 Corvette is a rare and special machine, and they trade for insanely high numbers these days when one does pop up for sale. However, most of those cars are restored to their original condition, understandable given their incredible collectibility and rarity. As such, we rarely get to see the racing versions of these hi-po Corvettes. Thus, Fabulous Restorations in Fort Lauderdale, Florida recently set out to create the ultimate tribute to the legendary 1966 Corvette L88 Penske racer, and the results are rather stunning, as we can see in this feature at MotorTrend.

This 1966 Corvette L88 Penske racer pays tribute to Roger Penske‘s very first race as a team owner, which took place at the 1966 24 Hours of Daytona, following his successful career as a driver. Penske racked up a number of wins behind the wheel of various Corvette Grand Sport racers and later purchased a Chevy dealership as he began his second career. The father of the Corvette, Zora Arkus-Duntov, later approached Penske about forming a new racing team that would test the automaker’s new L88 big-block prototype engine at the Daytona 24 hour race, and the rest is history.

The two managed to side-step GM’s racing ban at the time by arranging for Penske to purchase the 1966 Corvette from a dealership, and Arkus-Duntov used a factory service kit and shoehorned the prototype powerplant into the car along with an airbox hood. A small team including Dick Guldstrand then completed the race car conversion by giving it safety equipment, larger fender flares, and big sticky tires. The C2 went on to finish first in the GT class and 12th overall at Daytona, then scored another first-place class finish at the 12 Hours of Sebring.

George Haddad became interested in building a 1966 Corvette L88 Penske tribute car after meeting Gib Hufstader, who had supported the original Penske team, at the reveal of the Fabulous Restorations Corning L88 Corvette tribute. His gorgeous, true-to-the-original recreation made its debut at the Daytona HSR Historic Race Weekend and was later shown off at the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance, where it set up shop next to the very car that inspired it in the first place.

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Photos:Fabulous Restorations

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