Category: camaro

Once Owned By Smokey Yunick, This Chevrolet Small-Block Intake Manifold May Be The Last Remnant Of A Canceled High-Performance Camaro – Daniel Strohl @Hemmings

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By Daniel Strohl on Nov 4th, 2021 at 2:23 pm

When he first laid eyes on the Z/28-badged Camaro that had lain dormant in a garage for decades just three blocks from his house, Bill Fowler figured it was just another hot rod that just another kid had his hands on back in the Eighties. Little did he suspect that he may have stumbled upon a long lost piece of Chevrolet history that passed through the hands of one of the most legendary mechanics in the world.

At least, little did he suspect until he heard the asking price

“He wanted $25,000 for the car, but then he wanted another $5,000 for the intake manifold,” Fowler said.

The seller, small-block Chevrolet tech manual author Larry Schreib, had good reason to ask that much for the latter: The three two-barrel manifold quite possibly came off of an L-70 350-cu.in. V-8, a 360-horsepower engine that Chevrolet managers had reportedly planned for the 1967 Camaro and even sent down the pilot production line before scrapping the option entirely. Much of what we know about the L-70 comes from Philip Borris’s book, “Echoes of Norwood: General Motors Automobile Production During the Twentieth Century,” in which Borris spoke with former Norwood plant employees who recalled building L-70-powered Camaros, painted with Z/28-style rally stripes. In the end, Chevrolet offered the single four-barrel L-48 as the only 350 in the 1967 Camaro and essentially replaced the L-70 option with the 302-powered Z/28.

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Here’s What Everyone Forgot About The 1969 ZL1 Camaro – Dennis Kariuki @HotCars

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Chevrolet brought back the Camaro ZL1 in 2012, there’s even a 2021 model, but these new Camaro ZL1 cars are not the most popular and sought-after Chevy Camaro ZL1’s. The highly unsafe, powerful, and untamed 1969 ZL1 Camaro takes that crown. Most Europeans were surprised when the 2018 Camaro ZL1 1LE got banned on the continent for safety reasons, but if the 1969 Camaro ZL1 was made today, it would be banned worldwide. It was raw, with no safety features, and under the hood was a big block engine that G.M had made illegal for Chevrolet to include in production cars.

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The wonders of a 1969 Camaro cutaway car – Thomas A DeMauro @Hemmings

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An imaginative presentation is essential for drawing attention to a carmaker’s offerings at auto shows, special events, or dealers.

Chevrolet’s Show and Display Department took the idea to the extreme when transforming a few early-produced 1969 Camaros into “Double- Header” cars.

Several newspaper announcements from where they were scheduled to appear around the country stated, “The variety of ways a buyer can personalize Chevrolet’s popular Camaro in 1969 is dramatized in this specially built double-engined Camaro…”

ENGINE: Replacement clear acrylic (plastic) rocker covers that Mark had vacuum formed over original parts reveal the chrome-plated valvetrain items on the 350 V-8. Cutaways show the block’s water jackets, cylinder walls, pistons, and inside the heads and manifolds. White paint with a black outline highlights the areas.

An RS/SS body; an RS/SS front-end assembly with a 350-cu.in. V-8, TH350 three-speed automatic, and a highly detailed subframe and suspension; and a standard Camaro front end with the 250-cu.in. straight-six and a Powerglide two-speed automatic were attached to three platforms.

Mechanisms and electric motors worked in concert to rotate them and synchronize the tilting upward and downward of the modified-for-show body behind each altered front clip to provide the appearance of a whole car. The two front platforms also revolved 180 degrees, to better show the extensively cut away engines and transmissions with internals that turned slowly to highlight their operation

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How I finally came face to face with the 1969 Camaro prototype that I idolized from afar as a kid – Jeff Koch @Hemmings

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As a car-crazy boy growing up in suburban New Jersey in the mid-to-late 1970s, there were few places I could access in order to sate my desire to read about (and look at pictures of) cars. I didn’t get out of the house much, and there wasn’t a ton of extra spending money for magazines, so my school library was my outlet. From grades 2-6, I had Car of the Year: 1895-1970 by Henry B. Lent on near-permanent loan; over a spate of 18 months my name appeared on every line on the checkout card tucked into the manilla pouch on the inside back cover.

I think I even asked for a copy of it once for Christmas; in those pre-Amazon days, finding a copy for sale was nigh-on impossible, and it never arrived.For me, in my single-digit age bracket, it was an enthralling read. Every spread gave some history on a particularly significant car of the season.

On the left-hand page was a black-and-white photo of the car in question, often provided by a manufacturer, or a local historical society. On the right, a few hundred words that explained the car’s significance and put it in some context; the text was breezy and didn’t get bogged down in minutia. It was enough of a part of my childhood that I bought a copy online for cheap just a few years ago—an ex-library copy, just like the one I remembered growing up in the ’70s.

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A decade of difference in the Chevy Camaro: 1967 Z/28 vs. 1977 Z28 – Thomas A. DeMauro @Hemmings

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The Z28 is worshipped by legions of fans and is even begrudgingly respected by some whose loyalties lie with its competitors. It was conceived by Chevrolet’s Product Promotion Engineering Manager Vince Piggins, to pummel the Ford Mustang in the Sports Car Club of America’s (SCCA) Trans-Am Championship series. Race-prepped versions of the 1967 Z/28 helped instigate the on-track pony car wars, and Roger Penske’s team – with driver Mark Donohue – went on to dominate the 1968 and 1969 seasons.

The first-generation (1967-1969) Z/28s were icons of their era, in both street and race trim.For 1970-1974, Z28s were built on the second-generation of the F-body platform. Following the 1975-1976 hiatus of the nameplate, the 1977 edition arrived and was indicative of a decade of change in the auto industry, federal emissions and safety requirements, social norms, and more.

Accordingly, we thought it would be interesting to compare the 1967 Z/28 to the 1977 Z28, highlight a selection of developments, and touch upon a few of the circumstances that led to them.The 1967 Z/28 was limited to a maximum engine displacement of 5.0 liters (305 cubic inches) by SCCA rules, so Chevrolet engineered a V-8 that employed a 4.00-inch-bore 327 block and a 3.00-inch-stroke 283 crankshaft to arrive at 302 cubic inches.

It was fitted with forged bottom-end components, an aggressive solid-lifter camshaft, free-breathing heads with 2.02/1.60-inch valves, a high-rise aluminum intake manifold, Holley carburetor, dual exhaust with a deep-tone muffler, and an 11:1 compression ratio.

The hot small-block was significantly underrated at 290 hp and 290 lb-ft of torque in street trim and reported to make power all the way up to 7,000 rpm.The Camaro’s RPO Z28 Special Performance Package also came with heavy-duty cooling and a 3.73:1-ratio 12-bolt rear end with a radius rod on the passenger side to reduce wheel hop. Positraction was recommended and additional gear ratios were available, but a Muncie close-ratio four-speed and power front disc brakes were required at extra cost.

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Book Review: COPO Camaro, Chevelle & Nova – Tom Stahler @ClassicCars.com

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The history of the muscle cars covertly produced from the Central Office Production Order

COPO was Chevrolet’s special-order system used by dealers to build high-performance models in the 1960s despite a corporate racing ban. The COPO program was originally designated for fleet vehicles such as taxicabs, but at the peak of the muscle car wars, it was used to build the ultimate high-performance Chevy muscle cars.

Author, Matt Avery, a Chevy muscle car expert, combed the archives and found the owners and people involved in the COPO program, providing the culture with a compelling story and outright resource for COPO cars. The COPO muscle car and racing programs produced an extraordinary period of automotive history, and Avery captures all these facets in a very entertaining book.

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2000HP 251MPH BIG RED 1969 CAMARO. THE GREATEST PRO TOURING CAR EVER BUILT? – Hoonigan Build Biology

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This may very well be one of the most legendary car builds of all time. That’s a big claim… but backing it up is 2000 horsepower, a base Veyron-beating top speed of 251mph, countless race wins over the past few decades, and a rebirth from a fire that could have ended it completely. Hold onto your keyboards, this is a story for the times.

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How to build a 670-hp Pro Touring 1969 Camaro without touching the paint -Thomas A. DeMauro @Hemmings

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Taking a modern approach to race car performance for the street

By Thomas A. DeMauro from June 2020 issue of Hemmings Motor News

“I drive it like I stole it!” admits Larry Atwood, regarding his Pro Touring 1969 Camaro. Another owner might be tempted, at least initially, to go easy on his recently completed build after considering the expenditure required to realize his LT4-powered Gen V Bowtie dream.

With all the labor and parts, and the expertise mustered by the crew at the V8 Speed & Resto Shop in Red Bud, Illinois, to not only swap the modern supercharged engine into the classic chassis, but to dial it in to behave like Chevrolet intended all along, you wouldn’t want to risk breaking something right out of the gate, right? Then there’s the Detroit Speed subframe and suspension upgrades, the big Baer brakes… the list goes on and on. Nevertheless, Larry reasons, “We used all high-end components in the build and the Camaro came together well, so there’s no reason why it shouldn’t be able to withstand how I drive it.

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The car that started Pro-Touring is going up for a no-reserve auction – Mike Austin @Hemmings

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Shameless Hemmings Auction promotion

“I was not attempting to create a new genre of cars. I was attempting to harden an old Camaro enough to survive One Lap of America.”

Unless you’re already familiar with Mark Stielow’s creations, there’s nothing to hint at the significance of the the car in the photo above. On the outside, it might look like a very nice custom 1969 Chevrolet Camaro with some modern wheels and tires. It is, however, much more than that. This is the car, nicknamed Tri-Tip, credited with starting the Pro-Touring movement. And, as the headline says, it’s for sale on Hemmings Auctions with no reserve. It also will be on display in the Lingenfelter booth at the 2019 SEMA Show in Las Vegas, Nevada.

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Listing here

Redline Rebuild: Watch this tired big-block 396 go from crusty to trusty – Kyle Smith @Hagerty

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There is no sound quite like a tuned-up big-block. Sadly, when our 1969 Chevrolet Camaro SS396 rolled in the shop it had more of a wheeze than a growl. This engine got a refresh just five years ago, but in that time the car’s duties included teaching hundreds of young drivers how to use a manual transmission, driving road trips, tours, and general use. Given the oil in the ‘Maro’s tailpipes, Hagerty’s Davin Reckow knew there was something wrong but wasn’t sure just how far he’d have to dig to figure things out.

The diagnosis once we got the orange big-block on the engine stand wasn’t good—Hammered valve stems and leaking piston rings meant we had one choice—a Redline Rebuild.