Exoto 1:18 1966 Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray Competition #9- Wintersteen/Moore- Sebring Winner

The brass at General Motors killed the Corvette Grand Sport program in 1964 but that did not stop Zora Arkus-Duntov and the boys at Corvette from building ever more powerful and “race worthy” examples of “Americas Only Sports Car”. Chevrolet had a fair number of “Privateers” who raced Corvettes in the SCCA and USRRC series production races and they needed an answer to the Shelby Cobras who, starting in 1963, dominated A production racing with their 289 small block V-8s. The situation looked to get even worse with Shelby applying for homologation of a 427 big block with an improved chassis design. The answer was to build a “production” Corvette that could sneak past the GM “No Racing” edict but still be able to compete against the best GT cars in the world.

The answer was the L88. Nominally this was the designation for a 427 cid engine with aluminum heads and a huge single four barrel carburetor and a bunch of other stronger and lighter bits and pieces attached to a four speed manual transmission that was nicknamed “the rock crusher” In the Corvette L88 was actually far more than just an engine and transmission. It might have been the first engine option in history that mandated the removal of both the heater and the radio from the car. Indeed Corvette did about everything possible to discourage anyone but racers from buying the car. They even under rated the horsepower to 430 to fly it under the radar – the actual figure was more like 570. As it was the car, devoid as it was of any pollution controls, was not even street legal in many states. They received homologation for the car in early 1966 and literally drove the first one to Roger Penske’s garage in Philadelphia so Roger could run the car in the Daytona Continental race. Roger raced this car at Daytona and Sebring that year with good enough results that by 1967 L88 Corvettes were showing up at the starting lines all over the United States and would eventually push the Cobras off the podium.

Exoto’s new “Motorbox Gold” line of Corvettes seeks to reproduce some of these “Ultimate Stingrays”. Chronologically the first in the series is the #6 red Corvette that Roger Penske ran at Daytona in February 1966. The background story is that Penske got this car with so little time to prep it that it was not painted the trademark Sunoco blue and yellow but merely had logos added to the factory shipped red body for the race. It managed to survive a punctured radiator and a wreck that broke its headlights – Penske had flashlights taped on and they followed other cars until it got light – to finish first in GT and 12th overall. After the Daytona race the car was repainted blue and yellow, retagged #9 and run at Sebring that March as a teammate to the famous #10 GS roadster. There it managed another first in GT and 9th overall.

The third car in the Exoto series is the #69 owned and raced at Sebring in 1967 by long time Corvette privateer Wilton Jowett it was a DNF. The model line is called 1967 Competition Corvettes but in reality the #69 car is the only one of the three from that year. The new Exoto cars are part of their lesser cost Motorbox Gold line and are made, like the other “Gold” cars at Exoto’s plant in the UAE. In many ways they are an extension of the budget, for Exoto, Motorbox 1967 Corvette, that was produced in association with Revell. Those cars sell for $80.00 while the “competition” cars go for $190.00! It is hard to avoid the question of “where is the gold?”.

Lets start with the two Penske cars. The immediate problem is that the real cars were not 1967 cars but rather 1966 cars – more on that later. The finish of the cars is generally excellent. Whatever problems Exoto might have had with paint in the past with its UAE plant seems to have been fixed with these cars. The “Tampo” livery is clean and crisp, even Roger Penske would approve. The bodies are well formed and the doors and hood seams are pretty good although the window frames on all three of the models I have show gaps between the body and window frames and damage to the finishes that seem to indicate that installing the window glass is a challenge on this model The hold down clips on the front and rear window glass are a nice touch as they are separate pieces rather than just “tabs” molded along with the window frames. This big positive is somewhat tarnished however as some of the clips were incorrectly attached so they do not contact the frames. The car hoods open and close on simple pivot, just like the GS, which is OK but for some reason all three of the hoods sit slightly below the body line and they all sit lower on the drivers side than the passengers side, an indication that there may be a basic problem with the mold itself. The door fit is ok but not up to the level of the GS coupes. It must be admitted that the Corvette coupe door is not an easy door to make or fit but at this price expectations tend to run much higher.

The interiors are nicely done with flock carpet, a nice “on the dash” instrument cluster, roll cage, and racing seat. It very much looks like an quick upgrade stock interior that was sent off to the races which for the red #6 car seems to follow the cars actual history. The other two cars while nicely done, do not appear to be accurate. I cannot find any record that any of these cars ever had a red interior. It is possible that the original car from Chevrolet had one but the pictures of the “restored” Sebring #9 car clearly show it with a black interior. The restored car also has its additional gauges built into the center “T” of the console not mounted on top of the dash. Additionally the space behind the seats under the rear window was closed off with a “shelf”, just like the GS coupes, to cover the racing gas tank. None of the cars come so equipped. It is possible that the red car is correct – except for the tank –and the discrepancies between it and the “restored” car are do to upgrades that were done between Daytona and Sebring. This doesn’t explain why both of the Sebring cars 1966 and 1967 are virtually identical to it. I suppose that it is possible that the 1:1 “restored” car is wrong but I seriously doubt it. The wheels look very good, in fact on the red car they are the best white wheels I have ever seen on an Exoto as they have the look of “paint over metal” not plastic. The blue “Sebring” cars wheels are likewise very good and actually closer in color to the real car, at least to my eyes, than the wheels on the famous Exoto #10 GS that it raced side by side with at Sebring. The tires on the other hand, while well formed, seem too narrow for a 1966 – 67 racing car. They are also stamped as Goodyear Eagles even though the Penske cars carry Firestone stickers on the fenders. The undercarriage has a few nice touches and the exhaust pipes have a pebbled finish that really works well. I was a bit disappointed that they retained the stock pan for the spare tire as this car actually carried it exposed underneath. Under the hood we find the big bad L88 with its single four barrel seemingly sitting in an inner tube – just like the real thing. The basic wiring and plumbing is here but the compartment is sparse compared to its GS siblings. The pebbled finish on the hood interior and around the wheel wells is also a nice touch. All in all the two Penske cars and the white 1967 Jowett are nice cars but the question has to be are they $190.00 nice? The problem with both of the Penske cars is first and foremost that they are inaccurate in so many ways because they were not 1967 cars! The hood on the two Penske cars should not be the signature 1967 hood scoop – but rather the same hood that the Penske GS roadster had. Interestingly the actual 1967 model car does not have the hood scoop at all but the hood generally associated with smaller displacement Corvette engines. I can’t tell if this hood is accurate either because I can’t locate a picture of this car at Sebring. I’ll assume that this one is right until proven otherwise but if it is right the carburetor setup would have to be different for it to breath properly. The Penske cars also carry the five fin louvers behind the front wheels of the 1967 car when it should be should be the triple louvers of the 1966. The front of the car also seems to be at odds with the actual #9 restored car and any of the 1967 racing cars whose pictures I can find. The behind the louver detailing on the #69 car on the other hand looks both very well done and accurate to the 1967 cars. The rear wheel wells on the actual #9 “restored” car were rounded and “extended a bit to carry wider rubber than comes on this car. Again the red #6 might be right and the restored car might be wrong but as best as I can see the #9 and #69 cars are not accurate. All of these discrepancies can be clearly seen by comparing this car to the 1:24 scale Danbury Mint car. Given the price point, I would have hoped for better execution as these models seem closer to the original Motorbox Revell-based pieces than truly new models. These are obviously early examples of these cars so it is possible that Exoto is already working on some of these problems. I hope so, as it would be a shame to have these cars, especially the true 1967 cars which look to be much more “on the mark” then their 1966 hybrid cousins , missing from a “Competition” Corvette collection.

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