THE ULTIMATE CAR GUY'S PRESENT-THE BAD BOY BIG BLOCK 427 ZL-1
Chevy is celebrating the 50th anniversary of their big block in 2009 and they came up with the ultimate birthday cake-a limited edition 427 ZL-1 created from the exact tooling that created this legend back in 1969.
This is Tim “the Tool man” Taylor territory- 'more power' on steroids. Chevy has limited production of this monster to 427.That translates into one motor built per cubic inch so this puts a huge premium on the historical significance of the engine.Chevy didn’t think that limited production was exclusive enough, so after these motors were done the ZL-1 tooling was retired forever.
That makes these 427 motors an automatic piece of automotive history-out of the crate.
GM backs that up with this statement-“To document the rarity of this engine, GM Performance Parts will include a complete owner's kit with each of these engines. In that kit, you'll find official Anniversary 427 emblems to place on your car as well as an engine data plaque and certificate of authenticity that share a matching serial number with the valve covers”.
This is the kind of stuff that gets you invited to the prom-in a really fast car. The stats on the car back it up “the short block contains a forged steel crank, forged steel rods, and forged aluminum pistons for a 9.5:1 final compression ratio. Aluminum, oval port heads have a 110 cc combustion chamber and carry 2.19-inch intake and 1.88-inch exhaust valves. A matching, high-flow aluminum oval-port intake feeds the heads with the help of an 870 cfm carburetor. The camshaft is a hydraulic roller with valve lift numbers of .510-inch on the intake and .540-inch on the exhaust, 1.7:1 aluminum roller rockers. Like the original ZL1, the Anniversary 427 comes grossly underrated at 430 horsepower”.
Ladies, if you’re buying this brute as a great present for that special car guy, the best translation of those technical points is found in one sentence-“it’ll blow him away”.
Gerry Paquette works for a dealership in Red Deer Alberta Canada called Kipp Scott Pontiac Buick GMC Cadillac. Somehow this dealership that’s a little off the beaten path in North America was able to get six of these rare big blocks. Gerry likes to play it down, but he is well connected with GM and Kipp Scott is a good-sized dealership and that, and lots of luck, secured the motors.
Gerry can’t use them all, as much as he’d like to, so these correct ZL-1 engines are for sale
This gets back to the perfect car guy present.
Maybe Santa can’t pack this on the sleigh even with the lighter aluminum block-but if this baby shows up under the tree on Christmas Day the response from the guy will be a lot like when he was seven and got a new toy fire truck.
Goofy and out of control.
You can reach Kipp Scott can be reached at 403.314.6810 for any more information on the world’s best car guy present.
The 427 ZL-1 is a scary,scary sight when seen up close-but in a really good way.
