Mickey Thompson - 1963 Z06 Corvette #3

[@ytwhite5930]

Good stuff...It's a tragedy that M/T himself isn't with us to tell the story of this car and others.M/T changed racing forever and it's a sad story indeed about his passing...R.I.P. Mickey,you are missed...

[@brendas.1374]

I ❤ C2’s!! Got a 67 Coupe in my garage.

[@corvettesupercars902]

Very Very Very Cool thank you for sharing

[@epasternak4206]

I was so born in the wrong era , this is when GM was the best and classy , I believe the basement was in the Warren tech center , kinda like a skunk works , man I love the Corvette , what a beautiful picture of history. My Dad had a silver 1966 Vette , it was gorgeous and I was lucky to have a 77 as my first car I bought with my own money , it was a basket case but I loved it dearly , I wish I had her still.

[@specialcarchannel]

Tom's Z06 was a basket case - now it's probably better than new (and 250x the sticker price). Some people earn and deserve such great things in life. Painfully, I wish I had dozens of great cars that left my hands. My 1967 Corvette might not be one of them - overheated on every other trip...

[@heavenstomurgatroyd7033]

Eric Pasternak not to be confused with the corvette I bought with my neighbors money......

[@bonniewatch8463]

I’m still alive to own and appreciate the C8. Soon will have a Z06 next year 2023.

[@craigthescott5074]

@@bonniewatch8463me too I really love my C8 HTC Z51. I do want to get a Z06 but I’m waiting for the premiums to drop off.

[@petekambe3279]

Very interesting! I remember rumors that Mickey Thompson had built a special corvette that tested at Sebring and ran 5 seconds a lap faster than the previous years 1962 corvette. Good to see the true story.

[@stephendemyer5829]

A Great Piece of History ...

[@howabouthetruth2157]

According to Junior Johnson actually speaking on video about the '63 Impala that he ran with Ray Fox for the '63 NASCAR season, GM gave 7 of these exotic big-bore short stroke "mystery motors" to him, 7 more to Smokey Yunick, and then 3 additional motors wherein 1 was given to each of 3 competitors. 2 of those were 1 for Moody and 1 for Kiekhaefer........and I can't remember who the 3rd team was. Those 3 engines HAD TO BE given to competitors who didn't run or race Chevy, they just wanted 1 for inspection & analysis. The reason was NASCAR had a rule back then, that any engine offered to race by a manufacturer, they had to make at least 1 of those engines available to at least a few of the competitors, so they could learn what they would be racing against for that season. So according to Junior Johnson........and he should know better than anyone........there were a total of only 17 of these exotic big-bore short stroke "mystery motors" ever produced & released to the racing world: Again, that was 7 to Junior Johnson, and 7 to Smokey Yunick, with only 3 more dispersed to 3 different competitors for analysis, for a total of 17 total engines. Johnson was able to BUY BACK the 3 other motors, for a total of 10 in their possession, to ensure him & Ray Fox, who was his engine builder, had enough of these engines to last the entire racing season. Junior Johnson said that Ray Fox & Smokey Yunick were making between 700 and 800 horsepower with these mystery motors in 1963.........but the heads were plagued with valve train issues that often would not last for a 500 mile race. But while they were running, Junior Johnson at the very least led EVERY race before the engine failed.......and of the races where the engine survived, they won EVERY race, and flat out spanked everything else on the track. Johnson & Ray Fox both claim that had these mystery motors held up for every race, they would've WON every race in 1963. Don't take it from me.......go see the video for yourselves to witness Johnson making that claim. It's here on youtube: simply enter a youtube search as: "Junior Johnson/1963 NASCAR season".......the video should be at the top or very close to the top of the results page. Great video, where they displayed & spoke about the entire race car, including the "mystery motor". The car itself was ahead of its time too.

[@havnofear2764]

Juniors words are authentic.....

[@cvette79blue]

! Do to corvette racers like Dick Thompson, Dick Boo, Dick Guldstrand, Bill Sherwood and many other, the Cobra may have dominated racing from 64-68 but was not un-beatable. If anyone out there has footage for these few and rare great Mid Year victories and the Grand Sport at Nassau we'd love to see Them!

[@darrellsomers5427]

Dave despain check and see if you can get the tv series he hosted of vintage rag cars I have on DVD these cars on nsssa in the rain

[@mgn5667]

the very first L88 was delivered in a 65 vette i think Zora ordered it then it was stripped out immediately and put into a 63 race vette

[@tomupchurch4911]

The carpet was probably left in to obscure something that was going on in the floor.

[@brocluno01]

So what is the blue and white 1957 T Bird (No 99) in the background? Could it be one of the original two built to road race?

[@1BulldogBob]

I would suggest that the reason there is carpeting is because those areas gat very warm due to the exhaust being relocated and the panels being installed underneath. If that was bare metal it would have been unbearable.

[@joestephan1111]

This car was not built for NASCAR like the description says. In the early days of Daytona Speedway they were always running different races trying to make it the world capitol of speed (they even had a one-off Indy Car race). What this car ran in was an unlimited, basically run what you brung, sports car weekend. One day's race was just on the oval, while the other day's was on the combination oval and infield road course. it was never held again.

[@specialcarchannel]

Please refer to the following article in Hot Rod, detailing the NASCAR connection: www.hotrod.com/articles/mickey-thompson-z06-mystery-motor-stingray

[@MrGTO-ze7vb]

What a great piece of Mickey Thompson History..!! Was the original 427 motor dyno tested? That car has seen lots of track time.

[@specialcarchannel]

Yes - see www.hotrod.com/articles/watch-the-first-dyno-pull-of-chevys-famous-427-big-block-mystery-motor. They wrote a series on the car - still in active use in modern vintage racing.

[@barath4545]

446 hp @5600 rpm. The later L88 could go all the way to 510 hp fully dressed and "naked with water" it ran 550 on dyno.

[@joestephan1111]

I'm sorry but the Hot Rod Magazine story is in error.

[@specialcarchannel]

Your story needs a few facts to back up such a dramatic statement! You said you gave up corrections... maybe too soon.

[@brucehouze1620]

Isn't that a Zora coupe?

[@BogattheMoon]

Lol, being a Junior Johnson car, there's no telling what mods weren't known.

[@CaptainCraigKWMRZ]

Sorry, but is this the correct spelling of Mickey 's last name?

[@specialcarchannel]

Whups - good eye, thank you. I spelled the name incorrectly on the filename and never adjusted the title. Notice I did get the "p" correct in the description.

[@mgn5667]

gas tank carries almost as much as a 55 gallon drum omg

[@doginu]

I did all those mods to all my early cars

[@darrellsomers5427]

He didn't say any thing about the center section of the rear end that the real M,/T cars had ?

[@TheJagjr4450]

Magensium rear end center section... TOM has the original pattern boards and MAG rear end which was in the car when he purchased it. I remember the article from the 1980's which Hot Rod did prior to Tom buying it OR right after he bought it.

[@rogerpullin8997]

At least they did not put in a 1964 rear window

[@moboutmen]

Maybe the carpet was left in to deaden some vibration .

[@darrellsomers5427]

To keep the heat down in the car

[@DanielLopez-tb2fl]

TheseZ06's received 427 Mystery Motors . Prototypes for the production big blocks of 1965 and beyond . Memphis Dan LeLoLai

[@darrellsomers5427]

Chevy sent a few of those C2's to mickey 3 or 5 I can't remember

[@keiththompson7280]

To bad it and other cars in that race at Dayton lost to a 1963 Pontiac tempest running Super Duty 421 with the nearest car being a lap and a half behind , witch was A . J.

[@darrellsomers5427]

There were 3 different mystery motors made for different purposes one was the W engine

[@brettmacdonald6777]

Yes the W (348-409 type) was a drag race engine. I bought a pair 63 & 66 Vettes in pieces from a guy. In the 63 there sat a 427W. He claimed it "came that way" thinking it was a 409. It had a modified M/T dual quad manifold on it. The drag racer guy up the street knew what it was and arranged a sale where I got $500 more for the engine than I paid for the whole package. Wish I had kept it.

[@livewire2759]

Not exactly... The W series 427 is often confused with the "mystery motor", but that name really only applies to the Mark II 427, mentioned and shown in this video. People were very familiar with the W series engines by '63, there was nothing mysterious about them, even though they tried to keep the larger 427 inch displacement a secret for a while. Nobody knew what the Mark II was, not even when they looked at it, and that's why it was dubbed "the mystery motor". It was a new, experimental engine at the time and only about 20 of them were ever built. As for the "Mark III", there are two theories about what it was. The best known theory is that Chevy was going to make an engine based on the old Packard V8s, since GM bought the blueprints and tooling for those engines in the early '60s, but that theory has recently been debunked. A GM engineer (I can't remember his name) said that Chevy never had any intention of ever building Packard V8s, nor to modify them into a new Chevy engine. He claimed that the "Mark III" was blueprinted to be an even bigger displacement version of the Mark II, but for whatever reason the Tonawanda engine plant didn't want to, or wasn't able to, bore the blocks that large, so the project was scrapped and the Mark IV was developed instead. So, yes, three different engines have been called "mystery motors" but one wasn't a mystery, the second one earned the name, and the third never even existed.

[@rcp9763]

Jim Hall and I believe Roger Penske raced one. White one.

[@haraldaeschbach4167]

Dieses Silber ist einfach fantastisch!

[@jessieismyfriend]

why the annoying background music

[@specialcarchannel]

Well, at the time (10 years ago) it seemed ok as it was the only paid needle-drop I had left on the shelf. Come back in a few months - the video will be remastered with such improvements.

[@specialcarchannel]

also, no time for a question mark??

[@alexander1485]

seen it in real life

[@joestephan1111]

Most of what's out their today for historical "fact" is mythology. Because people see it online they think it must be right. Wikipedia is so riddled with errors I have given up sending them corrections.

[@specialcarchannel]

Really? You know what the intent was in 1962? Sounds like the Mythmaker has all rights details - please share rather than blather. History is written by the winners - stop being such a loser!

[@TheJagjr4450]

@@specialcarchannel I've seen online stories published which are NO WHERE CLOSE TO REALITY AND being ascribed to cars which I have PERSONALLY pulled out of barns and storage such a a 63 Z06 I recovered in 2016. I pulled the Z06 out, ddin't write the story and now a false story is being propagated. History is written by those who take the time to do it...

[@kustom13rods]

DAMN, STARTED OFF A PRESENTATION WITH "FILLER SOUNDS" WTF;!

[@specialcarchannel]

Yeah, at the time I was too lazy and poor to spring for paid audio tracks. I make some of my own soundtracks now - no more crack filler.

[@Brandongoheen-f3y]

I was going to watch it all but the music was horrible

[@ea327]

Very cool video. Do you realize how unnecessary that music is? It is just annoying and doesn’t belong on the video.

[@specialcarchannel]

Yes, I do - thank you for hating but you are stuck with it. If KZbin just had a bit more brains than money, they could implement a feature where you could upload a revised video without losing all of the original's viewing history.

[@specialcarchannel]

Yes I do, thank you. If youtube allowed progressive file updates like kaizen.place (for music), I could have turfed that long ago. So skip it, man - sorry to so easily annoy you.

[@rowanw1131]

yes i watched it twice so what.