The Chevrolet Camaro

The Camaro was Chevrolet’s pony car, its answer to the highly successful Ford Mustang. Ford had managed a marketing coup with the Mustang, building a four-seat sports car that looked fantastic and that sold like crazy, 418,000 the first year in fact. It caught the other big manufacturers by surprise, and it took them a couple of years to catch up.

1968 Chevrolet Camaro

Buy From Art.com

The Chevrolet Camaro was launched in 1966, two years after the Mustang. It followed the Mustang formula with a two-door body with a long nose, short rear, low roof-line, four seats and an option list as long as your arm. The Camaro was a desirable and successful car in its own right, with 220,000 being sold in the first year.

The Camaro was available as a coupe or convertible with a range of engines from mild to wild. There were two in-line sixes and two V-8’s giving from 140 to 275 bhp. You could also order your Camaro with the RS package giving better trim and cosmetic changes to the exterior or with the SS package which included a 350 cu in V-8 or an optional 396 cu in big block V-8 with up to 375 bhp.

The Racing Camaro

Buried at the bottom of the order form was option Z-28. It wasn’t a well publicised option and its reason for being was to allow Chevrolet to homologate the car for Trans Am racing. One thousand cars had to be sold for homologation, and the buyers got a road-going race car.

The engine was a 302 cu in V-8, just inside the Trans Am limit of 305 cu in. And it was a real race engine. It was built tough to last and it had an enormous 800 cfm Holley carby on top. There were two cams available, and one was race only – it did nothing under 4000 rpm. With the road cam power was officially given at 290 bhp but people in the know reckoned 350 bhp at 6200 rpm was more like it.

The SS350 Camaro with 295 bhp could manage 120 mph while the Z-28 could hit 140. The Z-28 was a racing success story, coming first and second in the transAm class of the Sebring 12 Hour race in 1968, . It was class champion of the Trans Am series in both 1968 and ‘69.

On the track the Camaro had more power than the Mustang, but the Mustang handled better, making for some great racing.

Camaro Muscle

In 1969 dealer installed 427 cu in V-8’s rated at 425 bhp were available. Even more impressive was the factory ZL-1 option which was to homolgate the car for NHRA Super Stock drag classes. Fifty cars had to be built and they had 427 cu in aluminium V-8s installed, heavy duty transmissions, front disc brakes and heavy duty suspension.

The engine was officially rated at 430 bhp, and actually produced close to 500 bhp, possibly Chevrolet’s most powerful road going engine ever. The engine weighed the same as the cast-iron 327 small block engine so the cars weight distribution stayed the same.

You needed deep pockets to afford a ZL-1. The engine alone cost more than most cars, with the ZL-1 costing about twice as much as a SS396 Camaro.

Return from Camaro History to Chevrolet Pictures and Articles