In the fall of 1966, when model year ’67 cars went into production, Detroit’s horsepower war was in full swing. Mopar enthusiasts could order up a Hemi-powered Dodge Coronet or Charger R/T or a Plymouth Belvedere GTX. Blue Oval fans brought home Torino Cobras, 427-powered Fairlanes, or any of several potent Mustangs. And of course, all of GM’s passenger car divisions other than Cadillac had plenty of muscle on offer, including Ram Air GTOs and Firebirds from Pontiac, Buick Gran Sports, Oldsmobile 4-4-2s, and big-block Super Sport Camaros, Chevelles, and Impalas.
Though Corvette was fundamentally different from all of these other muscle machines insofar as it was a genuine two-seater, it scoffed at the conventional definition of what a sports car had to be. Yes, it had most of the attributes of a traditional sports car, but it also had what was required to go head-to-head with the most ferocious muscle cars of the era, starting with the mighty 427-ci engine.
A total of 9,723 of the 22,940 Corvettes manufactured in 1967 were equipped by the St. Louis factory with one of five different optional 427 engines. The ultra-exotic L88 and L89 variants topped the list in terms of performance and rarity, with only 20 of the former and 16 of the latter produced. At the other end, L36 and L68 big-blocks together are the most common, with a total of 5,933 built, and these offer the best drivability because of their hydraulic lifters and lower compression ratio. Right in between, in the sweet spot, is the coveted L71, featuring an aggressive solid-lifter cam, 11.0:1 compression, all forged internals, and the “Tri-Power” three-carb induction setup.
With a production run of 3,754 for model year ’67, the L71 was not particularly rare when new, but owing to the ravages of time and the way L71-equipped cars were typically used and abused by their lead-footed owners, excellent surviving examples are quite scarce today. Consequently the likelihood of procuring a really good one in the exact color combination you want is pretty small, but that’s exactly what Greg Lotko did.
Lotko’s story, like so many, begins in early childhood when he was given a large-scale Midyear Corvette model for Christmas. “I was about five years old…and it took a lot of work to build it, but I finished it and was in love with C2 Corvettes as a result.”
Though Lotko painted his model red, and was initially enamored with that hue, he grew to love green cars because that was always his father’s choice. “Between 1969 and 1989 my dad drove El Caminos,” he explains. “He had five of them, and the first two were deep green, so deep-green cars give me a very warm feeling and a connection to my father.”
Despite his early infatuation with Corvettes, it took Lotko many years to acquire one. His first car was a 1972 Chevelle SS, which he still has. It was quick and cool, and offered a lot more room for his school pals. It was also better on snowy roads than a Corvette would have been.
A few years after completing college, Lotko considered buying a C4, but the lack of adequate garage space dissuaded him. About a decade later he finally pulled the trigger and bought his first Corvette, a 2007 Z51 convertible equipped with a six-speed. He enjoyed the car very much until acquiring his next Corvette, a 2013 427 60th Anniversary convertible with the potent Callaway SC652 package.
When the 60th Anniversary Callaway arrived, Lotko gifted his ’07 convertible to his dad. A few years earlier, at the age of 71, his father had purchased his very first Corvette, a new ’04. But that was a base car with an automatic, so the six-speed, Z51-equipped ’07 was a new experience for him.
“My father drove manual-transmission cars for most of his life, but he had a serious accident in his last El Camino in 1989, and his left leg was badly injured,” Lotko says. “After that he drove automatics for many years. When I gave him the six-speed Corvette, he had to relearn how to drive a manual-transmission car, something I helped him with. This was somewhat ironic, because he taught me to drive a stick with his 1973 El Camino, which had a ‘three-on-the-tree’ shifter.”
Since buying the 60th Anniversary Callaway, Lotko has added a few more cars to his stable, prompting a scramble to find storage space. To solve that problem, he began constructing a large gallery building in 2021, and resolved to not buy any more cars until the project was finished. But when the opportunity to purchase an ideally spec’d big-block C2 arose, that plan went out the window.
“Exactly one week after I decided I wouldn’t buy any more cars…Chris Mazzilli from CMC/Dream Cars in Plainview, New York…called to let me know about a 1967 Corvette he’d come across,” Lotko says. “It was an original-engine car, and it was Goodwood Green with a Saddle interior, my absolute favorite color combination. I said, ‘Chris, you’re killing me! I just promised myself and my wife that I wouldn’t buy any more cars!’”
But the temptation proved too much, so Lotko decided to discuss the matter with his wife. Happily, she was receptive to the idea and encouraged him to take a look at the car.
“Of course, I didn’t want to look if she wasn’t OK with the possibility that I’d buy it,” he notes. “She asked to see a photo, and when I showed it to her, she said, ‘It’s beautiful. Let’s go look at it.’”
An inspection revealed that the car was in fact “honest” and extremely nice, but in need of some refurbishment after many years of storage. Lotko and his wife quickly agreed that buying it was the right move.
“I have a special affinity for firsts, lasts, and one-year-only models when it comes to cars,” Lotko reflects. “My 60th Anniversary Callaway is a one-year-only offering and the last year for C6. I have a 2019 seven-speed ZR1 convertible, which is the last C7 and the last year a manual transmission was available in a Corvette.
“The ’67 is, of course, the last year for C2, and it was pretty close to perfect for me. Its un-hit body was repainted once and the paint is beautiful, with a few small flaws here and there. But this is ideal because I fully intended to drive the car a lot.”
Further to enhancing the driving experience, Lotko had CMC/Dream Cars go through everything and fix anything that wasn’t working as it should. He also had the restorer add power brakes, an optional feature in 1967 that he would have chosen if he’d bought the car new. The prior owner had already installed power steering, another feature Lotko would have selected if it weren’t already there. The techs at CMC/Dream Cars also redid the cabin.
“The interior was pretty nice,” Lotko remembers, “but there was a crack in a door panel and a split in the driver-side seat bottom. I wanted the inside to look new, so I had the guys restore it, and had them install leather seat covers in place of the original vinyl covers.”
True to his intentions, Lotko drives his Tri-Power big-block frequently, and it takes him back through time to that model that he built as a child.
“I truly love driving this car,” he reports. “I have late-model performance cars and resto-mods, and they’re great too, but the ’67, in stock form, drives just as it did when it was built. It takes me back to that five-year-old kid building a Corvette model.
“It’s also a very strong connection to my dad, because of the color and the shared love for Corvettes that we had before he passed away in 2022. I think about how we both waited a long time to buy our first Corvette—he was 71 and I was in my 40s, and how he relearned to drive a stick with my 2007.”
Further strengthening Lotko’s connection to this ’67 is his wife’s attraction to it. “She fell in love with the car, and especially with the colors that speak so powerfully to me. We’re thoroughly enjoying the car together, and sharing the experience with her is great.”
