Originally Posted by Corvette ED

Paul,

Does this mean that the L-82 engine wasn't available when production started in October 1974? It looks like for the first six months it was on hold.

My car was built on April 8th, 1975 #21902 I must have one of the early built convertibles with this engine.

What was the reason for the delay of this engine?

Originally Posted by Paul Borowski

...ED, I had the pleasure to talk to Dave McClelland(sp?)himself and asked him this very same question at Carlisle about four years ago. He told me it basically was all emission, catalytic converter, smog pump related issues on the late introduction on the '75 L-82. When I asked him about it, he described it like it was yesterday.

...yes, ED, your car is one of the earliest L-82s that I've heard of. I do have just a couple earlier than yours. , but yours is still early.

Originally Posted by Corvette ED

Paul,

Thank you for the info. I would have never known that my car was one of the first convertibles built with the L-82.

Originally Posted by AdamMeh

This is an AWESOME post. Some fantastic information here from all. Thanks for sharing this - love it!

Adam

Originally Posted by Paul Borowski

Chevy59, Several years ago I did a 1975 Corvette L-82 Survey around 1999/2000. I did it up to around 2004 then kind of slowed down due to not attending as many Corvette shows yearly as I used to. I have over 66 1975 L-82s in my Survey and did learn some interesting things about these cars. Out of 38,465 1975 Corvettes, the earliest VIN# I had was around 19,XXX. Car build date was around March 21 of 1975. Talked to and received many letters from original owners that waited 6 months or more for their car. Even though I had only 66 cars in my survey, most were heavily optioned cars. Out of the "144" Z07 cars, I believe I had four or five of them listed. Since 8007 '75 Corvettes were painted White out of 38,465 cars, probably about 40% in my survey seemed like they were White cars. Another interesting thing I found out was that it was pretty much an even split for 4spd cars vs automatic cars.

Now to the part you want to hear about. I have a letter from GM that was sent to an owner when he inquired to GM the same question you are posting. This "GM" letter is dated November 12, 1975, so, at least at that time GM did know, but, out of 2372 1975 L-82 Corvettes, 2006 were coupes, only 366 were L-82 convertibles.

...my Silver '75 L-82 coupe's VIN# is 35026 and build date is July 12, '75.

...since 3355 Millie Miglia cars made up about 8.7% of '75 Corvette production, 8.7% of "366" equals 32 Millie Miglia L-82 convertibles. This is just a "theoetical" number. Either way, ANY 1975 L-82 convertible is a "very rare" car. I would think my '75 coupe, one of 2006 L-82 coupes would be rare. It is even a factory Silver/Silver Leather car.