Michigan Collector Seeks “Ancestry” on this 1969 L88 Corvette Convertible

Part of the fun of owning a classic Corvette is digging out the history of the car before you bought it.

For a Michigan doctor, the search for his car’s ancestry has already turned up quite a bit of information, though he is hoping to unearth even more.

“This is not just a used Corvette,” Michigan surgeon Michael Wiater says.

Definitely not. He’s the owner of six Corvettes but says his 1969 L88 is definitely the plum of his collection.

After all, only 119 L88s were made by Chevrolet that year out of nearly 40,000 Corvettes.

Wiater was able to trace back the history of the car to 1983 when he bought it, but he wanted more.

In March 2011, newly released records revealed that the Corvette was first sold at a defunct dealership outside Philadelphia, Pa., Coupe Chevrolet of Flourton. Wiater’s newspaper ad in July 2011 seeking the first owner hit paydirt when he found out that an industrious 18-year-old muscle-car buff named Ken Klinger who worked in a pizza shop and lived with his parents had saved up his money to buy the car. He raced it on Philadelphia’s streets and at Atco Speedway and other tracks before selling it in 1972 to his employer, Royal Buick of Cherry Hill, N.J..

Klinger remembers seeing the car in Cherry Hill after that, but it was painted yellow. Wiater has since restored the car to its original metallic blue.

But then the L88 disappeared until 1983.

Hopefully, Wiater will be able to solve the mystery of the missing years before long. He notes that the original motor is gone and would love to find out what happened to it.

If you know anything about this car, please email courierpostonline columnist Jim Walsh.

Source:
Courier Post Online.

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