Ken Lingenfelter Collection Spring Charity Open House

[Frosty]

The Ken Lingenfelter Collection is hosting a charity open house on Saturday, April 27, 2019 from 10 AM to 5 PM at their location in Brighton Michigan. This is a collection of close to 200 vehicles, including exotics. This is a collection that is not typically open to the public. The last time I toured this collection, I met Christy Lee from All Girls Garage. Ken will be signing autographs this time around.

See link for details:    http://www.thelingenfeltercollection.com/index.php/event/charity-spring-open-house/

 

[Ringo64]

Sounds interesting! Also, *cough* we need pics of you meeting Christy Lee *cough*

[Frosty]

6 minutes ago, Ringo64 said:

Sounds interesting! Also, *cough* we need pics of you meeting Christy Lee *cough*

Correction.....you want pictures OF Christy Lee, not necessarily me. Trust me, I know the difference, and I don't blame you one bit either.

[Ringo64]

Just now, Frosty said:

Correction.....you want pictures OF Christy Lee, not necessarily me. Trust me, I know the difference, and I don't blame you one bit either.

[Frosty]

16 minutes ago, Ringo64 said:

I knew it! I knew it! I knew it! 

[Frosty]

From Frosty's archives in 2016......

 

Lots of Pontiacs in the collection.

How about a '71 GTO station wagon ? Yes please.....

..and other things

How about a supercharged LS3, 4-speed manual Olds Vista Cruiser?

[Frosty]

Okay - Indyman Joe was my wingman for this open house. It was an interesting and cool collection to see.

Vehicles that were outside - some are private owners' cars.

1960 Impala - owner is asking $25K or best offer over 

 

Mercury Cyclone with the Drag Pack

1969 Camaro Resto-mod with an LSA motor

 

Ferrari convertible

(sig

A pair of ZL1s.

The Hulk Camaro

You basic Dodge Demon

Your basic Rousch Racing Mustang

How about an old Impala SS?

Or Chevy SSR?

A very cool GMC pickup.

How about a Olds Vista Cruiser wagon done as a 442 tribute with a supercharged LS3 and 6-six speed manual shift? Yes please!

[Frosty]

How about some exotic cars?

 Your basic Bugatti Veyron

Your basic Ferrari's - starting with the Enzo

Porsche

Ever hear of a Zimmer Quick Silver? Me neither.

Your basic Lambi Revention

[Frosty]

Okay Corvette Enthusiasts - time to drool.

C6 made to look like a '53 - one of about 300 made

 

C6 made to look like a '58

An original '53 

A '54

A C6 done up as as '53 Nomad

A Callaway twin-turbo'd 350 Tuned Port engine

An original 84 C4 Corvette

Duntov's Mule Corvete - from the GM Heritage Collection

Callaway Special Edition Corvettes.

This is probably one of the best recreations I've ever seen. It is a recreation of the missing Motorama Corvette Corvair prototype. The '52 Motorama had 3 Corvette prototypes. The roadster (that went into production in '53), the Nomad, and the Corvair. The Corvair was the fastback style, but it disappeared in '53 and is believed to have been destroyed.

 

[Frosty]

How about some muscle cars?

Let's start with a pair of Pontiac Solstices:

Meet "Jazz" from the Transformers movies

 

An LS-powered Lingenfelter Solstice

A 2010 COPO Carmaro

A pair of Olds Tornadoes

.

Does anyone like Firebirds? We got 'em.

Hurst Lingenfelter Edition Trans Am

25th Anniversary Edition

 

V6-turbo Pace Car Edition

 

Ever see a Tojan?????? Based on a 3rd-gen Trans Am - built to be a Ferrari killer. This is the only I have ever seen up close.

 

Edited April 29, 2019 by Frosty

[Frosty]

I got more.....

'87 Buick Grand National GNX - $159 of 547 built

 

A Monza Spyder

A rare Monza Mirage

 

An unmolested Chevette.

An AMC Gremlin with the rare Levi's Edition paint and graphics scheme and a 390 V8.

Nice Mustang

Mopar Funny Car

A pair of hot rods.

A '77 Pontiac Lemans Sport Coupe CAN-AM

 

A very rare '74 Pontiac Grand Am with a 400 and 4-speed stick shift!

 

An El Camino

Now this is interesting....a Buick Regal wagon - which was never built by Buick. Probably a Malibu wagon with Buick sheet metal.

Nice clean Nova.

[JUSTA6]

Thankz for sharing.  Looks like an amazing day.

[Frosty]

There's more...

This looks like a Trans Am Depot built TA

This is one of six Lingenfelter-built prototypes.

A supercharged Auburn boat tail speedster

A coffin-nosed front-wheel drive Cord

A 2006 GTO with a body kit

'69 Judge with a stick

'65 GTO

'67 GTO

Grand Prix 2+2

It's sister car - the Monte Carlo SS Aericoupe

Note the differences between the Pontiac and Chevy rear window shape on these Aerocoupes.

 

A Caribbean Blue paint over Silver-base resto-mod Camaro with an LS-2.

This 4-th gen Camaro drag car is part of the GM Heritage Collection. It was commissioned by the former-Speciality Vehicles chief Jon Moss.

Dedicated to the first lady of racing - Linda Vaughan

A Cosworth Vega

 

 

7 minutes ago, JUSTA6 said:

Thankz for sharing.  Looks like an amazing day.

It was a lot of fun for 2 hours. Joe even had time to stuff himself with a Tony's hot dog and soda.

Edited April 29, 2019 by Frosty

[Frosty]

It's charity open house time again this year.  Or so I thought. I went down to the Lingenfelter Collection yesterday. I noticed a lack of cars in and around the place. As I was turning around in the parking lot, an elderly man came out. I asked him if today was the charity open house. He said it's next week. Damn. However, he said I could come in and take a look around since there was already another car club here taking a tour. He said he'd meet me in the lobby. Oh okay.

I parked the pickup. I walked into the lobby. The gentleman I met outside came walking in to meet me. He said, "Hi. I'm Ken. Ken Lingenfelter." I damn near peed myself! I thanked him for allowing me to come in and look around. I gave him $20 to give to the charity fund raiser next week. He said he'd make sure it would get into the right hands.

Ken said I was free to look around. He told me that the sole purpose of the collection is to do fund raising. He said the collection hosted 60 events last year. Wow.

I was there for just under an hour when the car club was wrapping up their visit. Ken told them the story of how he got into cars. He was a teenager in Dearborn MI in the early 60s when he saw his first aplit window Corvette. He fell in love with those cars. That got him into hot rodding while in high school. He thinks he's the only person to be arrested doing a burn out in front of the high school (at least in the 60s).

This is the "Blue Angels" Corvette. This supercharged LS Corvette beat a Blue Angels jet in a quarter mile drag race! The Blue Angels are the US Navy's flight demonstration team. Every time the Blue Angels come to Michigan to do an airshow, the Lingenfelter team is their VIP at the airshow, and then Lingenfelter hosts a dinner for the entire team. Of course at the dinner, the Lingenfelter team shows the video of the Corvette winning.....

 

The car club left after this story. I was on the far end of the collection and I saw Ken walking towards me. I asked him if they were locking up. They were. I said no problem and I thanked again him for letting me in. I asked him what was the story of the 442 Cutlass Vista Cruiser Wagon, probably one of my favorite cars in the collection. It is an Olds Vista Cruiser wagon, with 442 front sheet metal on it. They installed a supercharged LS and 5-speed manual transmission in it. Ken said the car was found in California. Totally rust free. He said he as "peculiar taste in cars" sometimes. He thought the car would look cooler with a 442 front end. I have to agree.

 

Ken said this 1997 Hurst Special Trans Am was available from your local Pontiac dealer back in the day. It was made by Lingenfelter for Pontiac.

 

As we walked toward the front, we walked through the Corvette Room. All sorts of Vettes are there. First one you notice is Corvette #24. This is one of the original 300 Corvettes hand built in Flint, MI in 1953. It was once owned by McCullogh Corp, it is one of only 2 such Vettes that are supercharged. I never seen a Blue Flame six supercharged before (or with 3 carbs).

 

I asked Ken what was the story behind him getting the famous Zora Duntov test mule Corvette. He said his friend in Ohio owned it. His friend took to a Mecum auction. Mecum estimated to be worth $750k. Ken was sitting behind his friend at the auction. Sadly when it came up on the block, bidding stalled at $310k. The Mecum grinder (the person that tries to get you to lower or drop your reserve) was in his friend's face. HIs friend dropped the reserve. Ken decided to get the bidding going with a $320k bid. No one else bid, and it sold to Ken. Ken told his friend that the car is worth more than that and he wanted to make him whole. His friend said," since the car is going to you Ken, I know it will be well taken car of. We are good and I am happy it is going to you."

Ken next pointed out the row of white 2023 Corvettes. These are all going to be converted in Cunningham Corvettes, about a total of 60. Lingenfelter does the actual conversions on them.

I mentioned to Ken my love for C4 Corvettes because it was my dad who was responsible for the 84-89 dash. He pointed out two C4s in the collection. The first was a 40th anniversary edition. He said another friend of his was working with GM and Mercury Marine on a new engine program at the time. It was essentially a beefier, more powerful LT-5 engine. I think the LT-5 is the prettiest engine ever put in a Corvette. Well GM cancelled this engine program just before start of production. So no tweaked LT-5s were ever produced in production. However, Ken's friend knew where some of the pre-production blocks and heads were. They got a set and built the LT-5 that never was. It now sits in this 40th anniversary C4.

The second C4 was this white example. A past customer had Lingenfelter build the engine in this C4. He loved it very much and drove it a lot. He was getting up in age and had to stop driving it. He wanted to donate it to the collection. Ken said once they got the car, he was not sure what all they would have to do to it. Surprisingly the car was immaculate. No road rash, The original owner had taken really good care of it, no dents or paint chips. Then they learned the car had 400,000 miles on it! Wow! Ken was stunned and it was a small testimony to his engineers' work to have a car go 400k miles without being touched or repaired.

Finally we talked about the red and green Corvette Corvair's. These are authentic re-creations of the missing '55 Motorama car. GM debuted 3 Corvette Motorama cars in 1955. There was the coupe, the Nomad, and the Corvair fastback. Ken said GM came up with the Corvair name by combining Corvette with Bel Air. Ken said he owns the green Corvair while another friend owns the red one. The red one is for sale. It is going to be sold later this month in an auction in Auburn Indiana. Ken's friend wants to see $250k for it, but Ken doubts he will get it. Still the attention to deal is remarkable. Ken pointed out the bowtie emblems imbedded with the rear decklid as just one example.

 

In the end,  I had another 30 minutes of Ken's undivided time, telling me these stories before I ended up walking out the door. It's an experience I won't soon forget. I have pictures of other cars that I will post shortly but these are the cars with the stories from my new best friend, Ken Lingenfelter.

 

Edited April 17, 2023 by Frosty

[JUSTA6]

That was freakin awesome.  I missed the chance to be there with Frosty after over doing it on the yardwork.  

[Ringo64]

Wow! What a good mix up to get some face time with Ken!

[Fitzy]

Another stellar collection of pics and prose from Frosty. Good on you, mate.

[64 kiwi boni]

Outstanding frosty !!!! 👍👍👍👍👍👍

[Frosty]

I had tried to get both Justa and Indyman Joe to show up. Both of them were under the weather. 

So boys, do we want to try to go again next Saturday during the actual charity event?

[JUSTA6]

9 hours ago, Frosty said:

I had tried to get both Justa and Indyman Joe to show up. Both of them were under the weather. 

So boys, do we want to try to go again next Saturday during the actual charity event?

Sorry next weekend will be celebrating our 45th anniversary. Even though you could probably get us in for free. 😎

[Frosty]

Are you celebrating all weekend Justa? Helluva party man!

[Frosty]

I just sent Ken a thank you note in LinkedIn. I forget I was in his connection group.

 

Here is an article about some of the other Corvettes in his collection.

https://www.slashgear.com/1239268/5-incredible-chevrolets-ken-lingenfelter-collection/

 

Edited April 18, 2023 by Frosty

[JUSTA6]

4 hours ago, Frosty said:

Are you celebrating all weekend Justa? Helluva party man!

Holland to check out the Tulip fest.  Then a short roadtrip to the cabin and see if it survived the winter.  Spend the night and maybe hop over to Traverse for the day N head home.

[Frosty]

Damn retirees.....they complain that they are busier now than when they were working.

[Frosty]

More pictures from last week at Lingenfelter Performance.

 

Interesting how Avanti's solution to the 5 mph bumper is.....

GP 2+2

Great pair of Buick wagons.  I wished they built the latter on. This is a Century wagon with a Regal front clip on it.

This car is going up for sale at an upcoming auction.

A Tojan - the most unique 3rd gen Trans Am you'll ever see.