It’ll definitely take more than the usual $200 a day plus expenses to buy this legendary Corvette race car once owned by Hollywood legend James Garner.
In fact, the current bid on his former 1968 Corvette L88 convertible race car has already hit $125,000, and we’d hope to see that number climb much higher over the next two days on Bring a Trailer. As one person commented on the listing, if ever there was a million dollar Corvette, this is it.
Indeed, this race car is described by the seller, Corvette Mike, as “a celebrity amongst race cars and a very valuable piece indeed for anybody’s significant Corvette or race car collection.”
The new owner will receive extensive documentation accumulated over the decades, with many magazine articles, including a photo in the August 1973 Playboy magazine when the Playmate of the Year was dating the new owner after the car had been sold by Garner.
It’s one of three 1968 L88 convertibles ordered new through Fred Gledhill Chevrolet and the General Motors Central Office Production Order office by Garner’s American International Racing team.
Dick Guldstrand (L) and James Garner (R)
The three very special ‘Vettes were then picked up at Gene Jantzen Chevrolet in St. Louis by another racing legend, Dick Guldstrand, and two other team members, who drove the cars back to Culver City, California to be prepped for racing at Guldstrand’s shop there.
Following engine modifications by Travers & Coons, the trio of first-year C3s arrived at the 24 Hours of Daytona, where this car was on the front row of its class and eventually finished 29th after suffering differential problems while being driven by Guldstrand and Ed Leslie.
Once back in California again, the car was prepped for the 12 Hours of Sebring but wound up being sold instead by AIR to a former fighter pilot who raced it at Riverside Raceway – only the beginning of its extensive race history.
The head of the Zollner Corporation piston company competed with the car in SCCA before selling it to his son. Another owner, in 1973, repainted it red and raced in SCCA A-Production and IMSA events on the West Coast, eventually installing a 454 V8 under the hood.
Two more owners also competed with the car, which finally retired from racing in the late 1970s. The 1973-74 owner and his brother bought the car again and restored it back to its No. 44 Le Mans Blue AIR livery by the late 1990s. It then appeared at Laguna Seca Historics with Guldstrand again at the wheel.
Another owner took over stewardship of the car in 2008, and the current owner acquired it in 2016 with a 454 LS7 big-block V8 with aluminum heads, four-barrel carburetor, Milodon oil sump, and oil accumulator, DeWitts radiator, M22 four-speed manual transmission, 3.90:1 Positraction rear end, four-wheel disc brakes, Koni shocks, staggered-width 15-inch alloy wheels, side exhausts, color-matched hardtop, roll bar, and black vinyl buckets. Also included with the sale is the original 427 engine stamped with the number “AIR 427.003” and a Traco logo but it has a split cylinder wall.
Garner, Guldstrand, and another racing legend, Bob Bondurant, organized AIR in 1967 after working together on the 1966 film Grand Prix, starring Garner. They then competed at Daytona, using two of the Corvettes to race and one as a promotional vehicle, and planned to run the ‘Vettes at Sebring but decided instead to run two Lola T70 MKIII coupes that subsequently finished second and seventh in the 1969 24 Hours of Daytona.
A recent comment on the auction page calls this car one of the best auctions ever to appear on Bring a Trailer: Just went back and read every thread up to now. Like others have stated, this is one of the best @BaT auctions ever. Love the history and all of the first person accounts. Great job @CorvetteMike!
There is some really great racing history with this car being discussed in the comments section, and if you really want to dive in more, Corvette Mike has produced these two videos about the historic racer which we would suggest watching as well:
Source:
Bring a Trailer
Related:
Actor and Former Corvette Racer James Garner Dies at 86
Corvettes for Sale: James Garner’s 1968 A.I.R. L88 Corvette
Corvettes for Sale: ‘Best of the Best’ 1963 Corvette Split-Window Offered by Corvette Mike
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