Among the most amazing garages in the world is that of American businessman Ken Lingenfelter. Located in Brighton (England), this impeccable 3,700 square meter warehouse houses more than 200 exclusive cars, especially American sports cars. The vast majority of them are different models of the Chevrolet Corvette that, traveling the asphalt since the 1950s, is a car with seven decades of successes, generational changes and unforgettable designs on its wheels.
As for the owner of this luxury exhibition, Lingenfelter bought his first “Vette” in 1977. However, his passion for cars comes from before; And he is the son of an executive at General Motors, the company under which the division of the manufacturer Chevrolet is located.
Over time, its collection has grown to become one of the most complete and striking in the sector. In 2008, his passion for speed led him to purchase the assets of Lingenfelter Perfomance Engineering, a company founded by his cousin, engineer John Lingenfelter, and whose products have been instrumental in establishing performance thresholds.
Among the vehicles that stand out the most from this extensive collection is the Zora Duntov Mule, which could be the first high-performance Corvette in history. With a V8 engine pounding under its hood, this model made it possible for so many others to come after it. The truth is that, until then, the first generation (C1) had been a bit disappointing, since all the units manufactured came standard with the 235 inline six-cylinder from General Motors. Given this situation, the few sales and the low expectations of buyers caused the cancellation of the Corvette to be a really serious possibility.
Thus, on the day that the Chevrolet Corvette almost remained an automotive mirage, General Motors engineer Zora Arkus-Duntov raised the possibility of going from a V6 engine to a V8 engine, resulting in what would be known internally in the company under the name Test Mule EX–87. This test vehicle was instrumental in many of the Corvette V8’s early engineering advancements that saw displacement increase to 307 cubic inches and reach 275 hp of power. These changes aroused public interest by converting it, for the first time, into a competition model.
The Chevrolet Corvette was conceived after the Second World War, as a result of the passion for cars, the particular commercial situation of the time and the latent desire to demonstrate that it was possible to build an American sports car with the same features (or better) than the Europeans. Today it is one of the most recognized sports cars in the United States.
In this way, in Ken Lingenfelter’s garage we find models such as the Chevrolette Corvette Coupé with split window from 1963 or the ZR1 Coupé from 2019 with 755 HP of power and which reaches a maximum speed of over 320 km/h. Without a doubt, one of those perfect cars to test ourselves on a circuit. Likewise, vehicles as characteristic as the 1988 Callaway Corvette have passed through his hands, manufactured at a time when the word “Corvette” was already synonymous with an automotive legend. This same model, belonging to the fourth generation (C4), had almost 900 HP of power and set its record by reaching 408 km/h on the oval track of the Ohio Transportation Research Center. He did it in October of that year on tires supplied by Goodyear.
Although American sports cars occupy most of the businessman’s garage, they are not the only ones present in his collection. Thus, we can also see other iconic vehicles such as the 1974 AMC Gremlin, a 1990 Ferrari F40 or a Porsche Carrera GT.
