Old School L88 ‘Vette Smokes Modern Camaro SS To Shreds

1969 Chevrolet Corvette L88

I already know that the L88 in the C3 ’Vette is plenty fast. You can check out how it fared against a ’68 Super Bee.. Under the hood of this very red Corvette lies a 427ci or 7.0-Liter V-8 that put out around 430 horsepower stock and 460 pound-feet of torque, or so they say. Well, that is on paper. In reality, this thing dishes out north of 500 ponies.

The engine has a compression ratio of 12.0:1. The transmissions offered included a 4-speed manual or a three-speed auto like this one has. Can’t really confirm the rear axle gears, but the Youtuber thinks they’re 4.56. The highly sought-after L88 comes in at just 3,250 pounds.,

2013 Chevrolet Camaro SS

On the other end, we’ve got this recent Camaro from not that long ago. They’re great value for the performance on offer are bargains in my opinion. You should easily be able to find one for under $20k.

And the numbers, well, you’ve got a 6.2-liter V-8 that puts out 426 horsepower and 420 pound-feet of torque. Compression ratio? 10.7:1. While both manuals and autos were offered, this one has a 6-speed stick. The stock rear gearing on the Manual Camaro was 3.45. As for weight, the SS is pretty heavy at 3,860 pounds.

The Race

Well, here’s how things turned out on the drag strip. It was a single heads-up pass and as you saw, the old school Vette wiped the floor with the Camaro SS, demolishing the 1/4 mile in an impressive 10.99 seconds at 125.03 mph against the Camaro’s 12.69 at 109.89 mph.

Let’s Wrap It Up

Well, the performance of these L88 sure does show us why they are so desirable even today. In the end, I guess it was the Camaro’s weight that cost it this race. For the lightweight Corvette meanwhile, thanks to its suspected better rear axle gears, it was a walk in the park.