The Last Unrestored Triple Black 1969 Corvette L71
From Reader Jonathan H – So it’s kind of a long story but here goes… I had a Corvette Coupe and I was cleaning the engine compartment one day when I found a metal ID tag on the radiator from a radiator shop in Saginaw Michigan. I called the shop to see if they remembered working on the car and if they knew who the owner was back then. They gave me the owners name and I found his phone number through Google. I called him up to talk to him about the Corvette he used to own and he thought I was calling about another black Corvette, a convertible :). I said what convertible? He said the 435 hp black convertible. Isn’t that the car you are calling on? I said no but I would love to hear about it!
His friend had owned it since the early ’90s and then put it away in climate controlled storage after the gas tank began to leak. It sat there until 2018. I asked him if he would possibly sell the car and he said he wasn’t really interested. So I stayed in touch and months later I called him to check in on the car and surprisingly he said he would be open to selling it.
So I took my son out of school and took my father in law with us to drive up to Michigan to get the car. When I got there it was crazy. The car had layers upon layers of dust on it, the interior was covered with a film of white mold, and there were cobwebs under the hood and on the suspension. It didn’t run so we pushed out into the sunlight and took about an hour to go over the car. Remarkably the car preserved fairly well and was extremely original.
In fact this rare triple black 1969 Convertible still wears some of its original paint, dealer applied factory tough ups, factory original interior, original M-21 Muncie close ratio transmission, original 3:70 Posi-traction rear end, original F-41 suspension and the original numbers matching LR coded engine which has never been out of the car.
It is estimated that less than 900 Tuxedo Black Corvettes were built out of the 38,762 cars that left the St. Louis plant in 1969 due to the poor paint quality on factory black cars. In fact, black was discontinued as a paint color option for the Corvette until the 1977 model year. Making real, original Tuxedo Black cars among the most desirable by Corvette collectors today.
Only 2,722 Corvettes were built with the potent L71 Tri-Power engine option, adding an additional cost of $437 to the sticker price.
When you add the rare L71 435 H.P. Tri-power option, the convertible option, and the Tuxedo Black color option, it is estimated that less than 25 triple black L71 convertibles left the factory in 1969. Which makes this a unique, low production Corvette and one of the only un-restored 1969 black Tri-power convertibles that hasn’t been restored.
A true barn find, this 69 Corvette has been off of the road and in storage for over two decades. Due to a gas leak, the previous owner parked this big block beast in a climate controlled garage until it was found in 2018.
In the fall of 2018, the car was taken to Tim Thorpe, noted 1969 L-88 expert and Bloomington Gold Judge to authenticate the car and get it running again.
The car has just 43k original miles and I have spent a lot of time detailing it and getting back on the road. I am actually amazed at how tight the motor still is and how well it drives.
Future plans are to drive it, show it and share its history with other car enthusiasts (and pass it down to my son someday). What I love most about these old cars is the history. I have been really lucky to have located and spoken to all of the past owners of the car including the original selling dealer who connected me with the original owner. I text and talk regularly with the original owner who ordered the car back in December of 1968. It has been a lot of fun listening to his stories of the car, and look forward to hopefully meeting up with him so he can take it for a spin and open up the three carburetors, just like he did back in ’69……
Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks and have a great New Year!
High 5,
Jonathan
