This month’s car belongs to Gary Gerstner a 1967 L88
Gary’s 1967 SS396 Chevelle was ordered from Jack O’Donnell Chevrolet in Midlothian, IL after his 20th birthday in March of 1967 it was his first new car. Delivered in June, it was modified the day he took it home to Evergreen Park. Gary had ordered the base L35/325hp motor, power disc brakes, and the Turbo400 Trans but no power steering or anything that took engine power to operate. It was raced at Oswego that summer but it was never fast enough to beat his friend’s L78 Chevelle so he put a L88/427 in it the summer of ’69.
The picture above is behind the garage in their gravel paved alley with his Dad, brother Len, and himself (on the far right) putting in the 427. That motor is still in the car today (11.6.66 date code block). The 12.5:1 compression was a problem with gas by 1978 so the L88 came out to make it run on lower octane. It took 30 years to get it back on the street. In 2008 he finally got it together and got a feature story in Hemmings Muscle Machines using some photography February 2009. Chevelle magazine also ran his story in the fall issue that year. Gary kept pitching owner/car stories to them and has received free-lance assignments all because of his addiction to cars and his Chevelle.
To complete his Day2 drag racer look for 2014, He recently added ET vintage 5-spoke wheels to my bias-ply redlines and Hurst pie-crust cheater slicks. The car has just over 25,000 miles on it and with the 4.30:1 gears put in last year trying to break into the 11’s (best of 12.10/112mph at Rt.66), it is not a highway ride. He will drive to as many local events as time allows and trailer it to drag race.
