The Epic Journey of C.J. Titterington and His 1963 Z06
By Rick Tavel© All rights
reserved
We all have heard numerous fascinating stories about the
history, performance and build specifications of found then often restored
Corvettes over the last several years.
“Barn find” cars of all types are always special and it seems that Terry
Michaelis’ Pro Team Corvette has had more than his share of interesting barn-find Corvettes,
finding two 1963 Z06’s with race histories within the same year. After selling the first barn find, Michaelis
began an impeccable restoration on his second race Z06 discovery, the car
originally campaigned by Dick Lang in the early 60’s. This 1963 Corvette Z06 was found in a barn
less than twenty miles from Dick Lang’s original Chevrolet dealership, and
today, following Michaelis’ impeccable restoration, at a cost of over $200,000,
it is now being shown and winning concours throughout the country. But perhaps an equally, if not more
interesting story is the story of C.J. Titterington’s 1963 Z06 race car which
will be displayed along side of Terry Michaelis’ Z06 at the upcoming Concours d’Elegance of
America in Michigan.
The fact that Titterington’s Z06 is not a “barn find” in no
way diminishes the interesting story of the car and its builder, a story that
begins in February 1963 and continues with its extensive race history through
Titterington’s purchase of the “used up” race car in 1976 and his long, often
painstaking restoration of the car. The
other part of this story is the fact that CJ has ended up with a historically
significant, concours quality 1963 race Z06 that he personally built and
restored over the years, a piece at a time.
It is a story about the hundreds, if not thousands of hours
Titterington, with some help from his three sons, CJ Jr., Jesse, and Justin,
and some friends put in to the restoration.
It’s about the detailed fabrication of missing or unobtainable parts by CJ,
an ironworker by trade, to exact GM design specs. It’s about the extensive
research and contacts made along the way, unearthing the history and
specifications of the car. It’s about
following the recommendations and guidance of one of the most knowledgeable
experts on racing Z06’s in the world, Franz Estereicher. It’s a story about
keeping your eye on the prize and a commitment to excellence. It is the stuff dreams are made of and it
refutes the belief that cars like CJ’s are out of reach for the common
man. What it is not is a story about having hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay
someone else to do a world class restoration. Simply it’s a story about a man
and his car, his vision, his plan, and his commitment to make the car live
again.
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| CJ Titterington's 1963 Z06 As raced by Alvin Forsyth |
To begin the story we have no choice but to start when the
car was born. And in 1963 for Corvette
it was the beginning of more than Titterington’s Z06. It was the beginning of an entire new generation
of Corvette and it was introduced to a more than enthusiastic audience. The new
C2 was actually introduced in the fall of 1962 and racers throughout the
country couldn’t wait to get their hands on the new faster C2, especially in
light of the Shelby Cobra’s anticipated introduction. Titterington’s car was built in late
February of 1963 for Alvin Forsyth, shortly after the announcement of GM’s ban
on racing, and was delivered to Clark Chevrolet, in Homestead,
Pennsylvania. Alvin Forsyth took over Clark Chevrolet, a dealership in which
his father was the majority stockholder, a few months later and changed the
name to Forsyth Chevrolet. Al Forsyth
had been racing Corvettes successfully throughout the east since the late
1950’s.
Along with the new Corvette came the hopes that Corvette
would continue to be able to dominate the race tracks throughout the country
even with the threat of the much publicized “new gun” in town, the now
legendary Shelby Cobra. The first
showdown between the new C2 and the Cobra took place in Riverside, California,
on October 13, 1962. Chevrolet, also
aware of the threat the Cobra posed, offered the first four Corvette Z06’s to
well known racers, Dave MacDonald, Bob Bondurant, Jerry Grant and Doug Hooper
in hopes of continuing their dominance on the track. In September, Chevrolet delivered a
preproduction pilotline Z06 via air freight to Mickey Thompson in California
for initial testing before the October Riverside race. This is the car that Doug Hooper drove during
the race. The other three drivers flew
into St. Louis two weeks before the race and drove them back to California. The
race was getting national attention especially due to the
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| Riverside October 1962 Race |
showdown between the
Corvette and Cobra and the engineers of the two heavyweight contenders were not
going to miss the battle. Zora
Arkus-Duntov and Carrol Shelby were both on hand to offer their guidance to the
teams. The Corvette driven by Dave MacDonald
and the Shelby Cobra driven by Billy Krause battled for the lead most of the
race until the Cobra could no longer continue due to rear suspension problems. This left the lead solely to MacDonald who
was way out in front of the rest of the cars until he had to retire, shredding
a tire on the rear and damaging the suspension too badly to continue. Doug Hooper in the Mickey Thompson sponsored
car went on to win the race.
The Corvette victory was great news for Chevrolet and the
Corvette. Word of the victory spread quickly across the country and racers
rushed to order their Z06’s. But
production problems in the fall of 1962 prevented all but the first specially
assigned fifteen cars being delivered before January of 1963 even though
several were ordered almost immediately after the Riverside race. And so it was with the Z06 Alvin Forsyth
ordered to race on the tracks in the east.
This car was built and delivered in late February. It was ordered and delivered in Tuxedo Black
with the black interior, a rare choice for the race equipped 1963 Z06. It was the Z06 with the big 36 gallon gas
tank and radio delete. Weather
conditions in the Northeast prevented Forsyth from ordering the car with the
heater/defrost delete option.
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| Al Forsyth on the Track 1963 |
Alvin Forsyth raced the car until 1969 with some success. He had several podium finishes in local races
and in the top ten in most of the regional races he finished. He finished third in the 1964 Watkins Glen
500. His wife Laura was also involved in
Alvin’s racing and she also raced a 1958 Corvette “fuelie”. In 1969 the car was sold to Dan Farri who
also continued to race the car until he sold it to Titterington in 1976.
CJ was only 19 years old when he scraped together enough
money to buy the car. He had a C1
Corvette that he had purchased from his sister and to help raise the money for
the Z06 he sold the car back to her.
Keep in mind that in 1976 the car was considered to be nothing more than
an old beat up Corvette, but CJ knew otherwise.
He was a “car guy” and knew a lot about performance cars. He worked at a gas station while he was in
high school and worked on cars, including his 1957 Chevy that was eventually
sold and exported to Europe. He had been
reading automobile magazines since childhood and knew what the Z06 was. Other than that, he knew very little about
his car. But when he purchased the car
from Farri, CJ had no intention of racing the car and wanted to restore the car
to be street legal. At that point it was
a lofty goal.
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| #81 Al Forsyth Z06 in 1963 |
When he got the car it had only a stripped down race interior. There were tie downs welded on the frame and
no bumpers on the car. So to get the car “streetable” CJ began restoring the
car which required him finding and installing a complete interior and bumpers. He searched locally to find the needed parts
from a wrecked car and found an interior from a wrecked 1963 for a couple
hundred dollars. In addition, he removed
the roll bar and then removed the tie downs from the frame, which required him
to do some frame restoration. Of course all of this was done in stages as the
money for the parts became available.
But after almost four years he had gotten the car “streetable” and
restored to the point he was invited to show the car at a judged Corvette show
in 1980.
Even though the National Corvette Restorers Society was
formed in the mid 1970’s still very few enthusiasts knew much about the
specifications of the early race Corvettes from that period. Even the “experts” knew very little of the
history, importance and exact build details of the early Z06’s. Used Corvette racecars had little value or
significance except to a very small group of enthusiasts. CJ relates a story of his experience at the
Corvette show in 1980. There were well
known judges at the show and when they began crawling all around CJ’s Z06 they
seemed more and more perplexed. CJ
wondered what was bothering them.
Finally one of the “expert judges” asked Titterington “what that big
thing behind the seats” was. CJ realized
the so called “experts” had no idea that it was the “big tank”, the “tanker”
option for which collectors pay a huge premium today.
About a year after that show, in 1981 something else
happened that offers some insight into just how perceptive C.J. Titterington
was from a car enthusiast’s perspective, he bought a second project car, an
original 289 Shelby Cobra. The car was
apart and in pieces but it was all there.
Titterington realized that the prices on these cars were continuing to
escalate and he knew that if he did not purchase one at that time that he would
be priced out of the market very soon.
So like he did with the Z06 he scraped together the money to buy the
Cobra much to the dismay of his father who couldn’t understand why his son would
pay the price of a car in pieces. He still owns the car today and is in the
process of restoring the Cobra to the same standards as he has his Corvette
Z06.
Early in the 1990’s CJ decided to re-do his original work on
the Z06. Though his car looked good CJ
had decided to do a more accurate restoration since parts availability had
improved since his the work he had done initially. Then shortly after he began the “second
restoration” of the Z06, he got married and most of the work on the Z06 and
Cobra was put on “indefinite hold”. Much
of his free time was spent working on his house and during the next decade more
of his time was taken being a father to his three sons, which left little or no
time for the restorations. So what he
originally thought was a brief hold on the cars early in the 1990’s turned into
the cars sitting, mostly untouched, for almost fifteen years in an unheated
garage.
But over the fifteen years Titterington never stopped
thinking about bringing the Z06 and Cobra back to life with a complete
restoration. Finally as his sons got older
he had more time to concentrate on his cars and by 2005 he was ready to begin a
completely fresh restoration on the Z06 and to continue to chip away at the
Shelby Cobra. At this point Titterington decided to do a complete body off
restoration on the car. But even though CJ knew he was going to do a thorough
restoration, he had not yet considered bringing the car back exactly to the way
it was delivered and first raced. He still was considering using authentic but
not necessarily Z06 parts.
Rebuilding the engine was one of the first things
Titterington tackled. He knew the engine
should be rebuilt and he was also aware that doing it when the body was off the
car and the engine out was the time to complete it. In addition no matter which way he intended
to take the restoration he knew the engine would need to be done
regardless. So the engine was completed
early in 2005. The restoration proceeded
slowly over the next few years, a result of budgetary and time constrictions,
but whenever he got the chance to buy some original parts for the car he did,
sometimes parts that did not come on his car originally. His three sons offered to help him when they
could and he got a few hours each week from one of his friends, Dave Ley, who
tackled the body and paint work on the car.
It was during this phase that CJ acquired an authentic
Corvette Grand Sport hood and a set of two bar knock off wheels and planned to
use the parts on his restoration, even though they never had been original to
the Z06. But again during this restoration he had not decided to restore the
car to exact original race specifications.
During the ongoing work, he continued to research the
history of his car and made contact with Alvin Forsyth’s widow, Laura. After several phone conversations with her,
she invited him to her home to show him pictures, memorabilia and reminisce
about Alvin, the races, their 1958 “fuelie” and 1963 Z06, and other racers and
teams. CJ learned much from those
conversations including the names of many of the original component
suppliers. In several of the photos
Laura shared with him, CJ noticed the same man working on the Z06. He asked her who he was and she told him it
was, Steve Shiner, the original mechanic and crew chief on Alvin Forsyth’s Z06
. She explained that Shiner had worked
at the Forsyth Chevrolet dealership and was the mechanic who did all the work
on the car. In addition Shiner would
accompany the car to the races and also act as crew chief.
When Titterington returned from his meeting with Laura
Forsyth, he immediately began trying to find out if Shiner was still alive and
if so to make contact with him. He began
calling every “Shiner” in all of the phone books around Metro Pittsburgh until,
by chance, he found a relative of Shiner’s who put him in contact with the
mechanic who was now well into his 70’s.
After a few conversations about the car,
CJ found out that the mechanic continued to do a little work in his back
yard shop even though he had to use a walker to get around. Since he had already had the engine in the
Z06 rebuilt, CJ asked Shiner if he would consider rebuilding the engine for his
289 Shelby Cobra. Shiner agreed and CJ
assisted him. During the several hours
of the rebuild Shiner would relate stories about Forsyth, the races and several
well known racers of the time. Shiner
also told Titterington that he had worked his “magic” on the fuel injection
system of the car and that Forsyth had wanted a special camshaft installed in
the Z06. Having gotten to know David
Crower, owner and founder of Crower Cams, Shiner called him and explained
exactly what they were looking for.
Crower specially ground a unique cam for Forsyth’s Corvette. CJ was disappointed knowing that somewhere
during the car’s past the Crower cam was replaced.
Even though Titterington devoted almost all of his free time
to the restoration process, working mostly by himself except for the one
evening a week when his friend would come and assist him, the restoration moved
slowly. After two years the body was
still off the frame and though CJ had learned a lot about the car from Laura
Forsyth and Steve Shiner he began to think more about the direction the
restoration was headed.
During his research Titterington had learned that Forsyth
ordered the car with the “radio delete” option, so he began his search for an
accurate original “radio delete” dash. Then
in 2007 while Titterington was at Corvettes at Carlisle, hunting an accurate
“radio delete” dash for his Z06, he was
introduced to someone that would change the course of the CJ’s Z06’s future and the entire focus of the
restoration. He met Franz
Estereicher.
Estereicher is recognized as the foremost authority on
racing Z06’s in the world and though he tries to keep a low profile anyone who
owns a C2 Z06 or who has studied these cars recognizes the fact that there is
no one with as much knowledge about these cars.
Estereicher has assembled perhaps the most thorough library about the
Z06 and other racing C2s and includes, drawings, specifications, production
records, historic documents and photos.
He has an extensive library of reference documents, articles, company
communications and photos. Estereicher knows the provenance of every known Z06
and knows exactly the way each of these cars left the factory and where they
went. In addition, he owns one of the first
Z06’s produced (Vin 30837S100809), owned by Mickey Thompson and raced by Bill
Krause. In addition he owns another
extremely rare 1962 Corvette raced by Tom Swindell.
Estereicher knew about the existence of Forsyth’s Z06 but
its whereabouts over the last few decades was unknown. So when the vendor at the legendary Corvettes
at Carlisle mentioned that one of his customers was searching for a radio
delete dash for his Z06, Franz’s interest was peaked. When Estereicher met Titterington he asked
him if he was the owner of a black Z06?
And when Titterington told him he was, he asked him if it was the #81
Z06 raced by Alvin Forsyth. CJ replied
that he had been the owner of the car for almost thirty years. Franz was
ecstatic to have discovered the missing Z06’s whereabouts. They immediately began talking and it didn’t
take CJ long to understand that he was not talking to just another Corvette
enthusiast, he was talking to someone who knew more about racing Corvettes than
anyone he had ever spoken with.
Subsequently he discovered there was virtually nothing Estereicher
didn’t know about the 1963 Corvette Z06.
After several conversations with Franz, including an meeting at
Estereicher’s home which went well into the early morning hours, centered on
the car, its history and the restoration he currently had in progress, CJ was
convinced that the only proper way to restore his car was to bring it back to
exactly the way it was when it began its racing life. He realized that in order to do this he’d
have to make changes to the “second restoration” he had begun. The Grand Sport
hood could not be used and the two bar knockoff wheels had no place on the
car. Estereicher knew exactly how CJ’s
car was delivered, he had reverse engineered the original Corvette design
documents to the date CJ’s car was manufactured and he also not only knew but
could document the history of the car.
Under Franz Estereicher’s guidance a detailed restoration plan was
decided on and begun.
During the process Estereicher was more than willing to help
him. He shared his reverse engineered
diagrams and specification drawings so CJ could insure that the exact parts used
in the restoration were date correct.
Though CJ had restored the frame prior to meeting Franz, afterwards he
realized that the paint used was a gloss and, not being the factory
specification, would have to be changed to conform. Whenever CJ need advice on a specific part he
would speak to Franz before he proceeded to insure the information he had was
correct. From early on CJ was quick to
tell anyone that Franz was and continues to be his mentor.
Now with the final restoration plan in place, CJ realized
that the engine, though already rebuilt, had been sitting too long and decided
to have the engine freshened while it was removed from the car. He also realized that to be 100% accurate he
should have that Crower cam that Steve Shiner, the original mechanic and crew
chief for Forsyth’s Z06, told him about.
So he asked Shiner if he could locate a duplicate. Though it was a long shot, Shiner contacted Crower
and unbelievably they had saved the exact specs for the specially ground cam
they had done in 1963 and they reground an exact duplicate. Shiner, the mechanic that had installed the
first cam almost fifty years before, installed the exact duplicate in the
rebuilt Z06 engine. While he was at it,
the aging mechanic also performed his “magic” on the fuel injection system,
exactly as he had done for Forsyth.
Other details of the car had been uncovered as well and
Titterington was committed to restoring the car to exact specifications. On the original car large holes were cut into
the rear Plexiglas® window for air extraction and to help reduce the heat
inside the car during long endurance races.
Titterington had the original workmen reproduce exact reproduction rear
windows.
It is that type of detail which has characterized the
restoration of CJ’s car over the last five years. CJ credits several people for the way the car
has evolved. Obviously first and foremost is Franz Estereicher who has guided
CJ’s final restoration on the historic Z06.
He is particularly appreciative
to his friend Dave Ley, who consistently gave up evenings over the years for
the restoration of the fiberglass body and the paint work. Anyone who has ever tried to restore a black
fiberglass car knows the difficulty of getting it right and Ley has done an
exceptional job.
What Titterington has set out to achieve has evolved over
his thirty seven year ownership from making his car “streetable”, through a
“second restoration” and then finally to an award-winning outstanding
restoration resulting in highly coveted invitations to concours and historic
events. CJ has just begun to show what
he has accomplished and his car will compete with the finest examples of
Chevrolet’s legendary 1963 Z06’s in the upcoming Concours d’Elegance of America
on July 28 in Plymouth, Michigan. One
can only wonder when nineteen year old C.J. Titterington bought the “used up”
race car in 1976 if he had the slightest idea that he and the car would one day
be the focus of thousands of automobile enthusiasts at some of the most
prestigious events in the county.
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