1971 Chevrolet Corvette - Orange Rush

I didn't realize it was rare at the time," recalls Lester Klindera about the purchase of his '71 LS6-powered Stingray. "I remembered the LS6 from my drag racing days, but I ran Pontiacs." Lester began to realize what he had at this year's Lone Star Corvette Classic. Many may have thought it was pretty cool to see (and hear) the bellowing big-block running the high-banked ovals at Texas Motor Speedway, pushing 6,000 rpm much of the way. Others, we'd guess, were thinking, "My God, what is he doing?" After all, the last of the "hot" big-blocks came in only 188 Corvettes in 1971; the only big-block options available until their discontinuation in 1974 were much weaker LS5s and LS4s. A few concerned onlookers probably even expressed their opinion to Mr. Klindera, a resident of Chico, Texas. "You gotta know the history," he comments. "I didn't know...I've learned more from the Lone Star Classic to now."

Driving his new prize hard and fast, however, was something that came to him naturally. Lester had a '63 split-window while in high school-emphasis on the "had." "I ran out of gas coming back from drag racing," he recalls. "I parked on the shoulder a quarter-mile from a gas station. I was a 100 yards away from the car when pieces of it hit me; a truck driver fell asleep." And although he had less than $1,000 in the car (it was created from the parts of two Corvettes, and had a 327 truck motor), the loss hurt, since he couldn't afford another Vette at the time. He kept drag racing-for Pontiac-for awhile. And he did order a '78 Silver Anniversary model, only to get in an accident while driving a truck. "Worker's comp bought bread and water back then," Lester remembers. The '78 was never delivered.

Marriage and kids intervened, as they so often do, and Lester's Corvette dreams had to wait. When the time came, he began surfing the web, and found what he was looking for. It wasn't a '71 LS6, though. Lester was more interested in a '73 big-block car, complete with a custom hood, flared fenders, and new paint. Alas-the dealer, McJack's Corvettes in Santa Ana, California, sold the car before a deal could be reached. He looked at the '71, but was ambivalent about dealing with Texas summers in a non-A/C car. The dealer kept on, though, and eventually Lester was convinced.

It was at this point that he realized he had something. The Vette showed only 34,000 miles on the clock, and the previous two owners had kept meticulous records. The first owner, one Charles Wall, had the greatest effect on this particular Stingray. It seems, according to Lester, that Mr. Wall was an Associate Editor for Car Craft Magazine. The '71 ended up as the subject-or victim, depending on how you look at it-of a dragstrip test session in the August 1971 issue of that publication. In "Goodbye Forever LS6-Last of the Fast Corvettes" the writers lamented the "End of an era." And truth be told, they had it right. The LS6 was the last hurrah for high-performance Chevrolet big-blocks-a low-compression, aluminum head, 425-horsepower motor, designed to run on low-lead fuel and even available with an automatic transmission.

The staff of Car Craft took it as their mission to push the stock coupe-which came with a M22 four-speed, 3.36:1 gears, stock side pipes, and Goodyear Wide Oval tires-to it's limits. The Vette ran a 13.72 quarter at 102.04 mph in factory trim. By the time the guys added 4.56:1 gears, Hedman Headers, Thrush side pipes, Koni shocks, a Hayden oil cooler, Formula 1 Super Stock tires on 8 1/2-inch steel wheels, and a tank of premium gas, they had it running 12.64 at 114 mph-which is pretty impressive. Unfortunately though, one of the staffers missed a shift, which sent the pushrods through the bottom of the oil pan, according to that long-ago article. The name of the guilty party is never mentioned, or the fact that one of the staff apparently owned the car. In any case, Chevrolet must not have been aware of the exact circumstances of the breakdown, as they replaced the engine under warranty. The car carries that code "CE" warranty-block to this day.