The original Camaro of 1967 started life as Chevrolet’s answer to the top selling Ford Mustang, a sporty two door ‘Pony car’ with strong youth appeal, available in a range of option that covered everything from meek and mild economy straight sixes to monster, tyre shredding V8’s.
Although the styling of the model always twinned with Pontiac’s Firebird in the GM stable, never lost its sense of sporty purpose in the way the Mustang did, the Camaro definitely had its good years and bad years. By the end of the 1960s, sales of the car were flagging badly, and even a complete and rather handsome restyle for the 1970 didn’t do much to help at first.
Bleak as things looked, this period produced perhaps the best Camaro of them all, the classic Z28. This was a special performance option that featured a 360bhp V8, and was recognizable by its dual exhausts, stripes, rear spoiler and black painted grill. To handle the power, Z28 models came with sports suspension, front disk brakes and a ‘posi-traction’ rear axle that incorporated a limited slip differential. Buyers could choose from either three speed automatic or close ratio, four speed manual transmission.
General Motors allowed the Camaro to wither on the vine in the early 1970s, denying it the significant yearly changes that kept buyers interested. The issue of its survival was forced in 1972 when thousands of bodyshells were stranded on the production lines in a strike.
By the time the dispute was over, the cars couldn’t be sold new Federal safety regulations, and they were all scrapped. They would have been followed by the Camaro model itself, had GM bosses had their way. Chevrolet fought for the survival of the badge, however, and by the middle of the decade had turned its fortunes around. The basic shape lasted well into the 1980s.
Although the styling of the model always twinned with Pontiac’s Firebird in the GM stable, never lost its sense of sporty purpose in the way the Mustang did, the Camaro definitely had its good years and bad years. By the end of the 1960s, sales of the car were flagging badly, and even a complete and rather handsome restyle for the 1970 didn’t do much to help at first.
Bleak as things looked, this period produced perhaps the best Camaro of them all, the classic Z28. This was a special performance option that featured a 360bhp V8, and was recognizable by its dual exhausts, stripes, rear spoiler and black painted grill. To handle the power, Z28 models came with sports suspension, front disk brakes and a ‘posi-traction’ rear axle that incorporated a limited slip differential. Buyers could choose from either three speed automatic or close ratio, four speed manual transmission.
General Motors allowed the Camaro to wither on the vine in the early 1970s, denying it the significant yearly changes that kept buyers interested. The issue of its survival was forced in 1972 when thousands of bodyshells were stranded on the production lines in a strike.
By the time the dispute was over, the cars couldn’t be sold new Federal safety regulations, and they were all scrapped. They would have been followed by the Camaro model itself, had GM bosses had their way. Chevrolet fought for the survival of the badge, however, and by the middle of the decade had turned its fortunes around. The basic shape lasted well into the 1980s.
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