On August 11, 1966, the first Chevrolet Camaro rolled off the assembly line at the Norwood, Ohio plant. This iconic car was released to take on the Ford Mustang.
Source: Concept Carz
“A little mustang-eating predator” is how Chevrolet marketers jokingly dubbed their creation. Introduced in 1966, the Camaro sports car was designed as a competitor to the Ford Mustang, which a couple of years earlier had created a new vehicle class and spawned a culture of “pony cars” – compact rear-wheel-drive two-door coupes with a sporty disposition and an affordable price. So, the humorous remarks of the brand’s marketers quite fully characterized the purpose of the novelty.
It should be mentioned that Ford’s brainchild was not the ancestor of the Pony Car class, as many think because such vehicles were produced by both the Chevrolet and Plymouth brands a little earlier. However, this sportscar with a stallion on the radiator grille created an unprecedented public outcry due to its style, and ideology becoming a hit, reaching a million sold copies in the first year and a half since launch. Chevrolet couldn’t watch its competitor’s incredible success, so the idea of creating a proper rival to the legendary Mustang emerged and finally was introduced on August 11, 1966. The model’s introduction marked the beginning of the era of the legendary automobile family.
Source: Mecum Auctions
The first generation of the model was produced with coupe and convertible bodies until 1969 at two factories in the United States. Moreover, models were also assembled in Belgium, Switzerland, Peru, Venezuela, and the Philippines. In 1970, the fight for market share was continued by an updated second-generation beautiful vehicle on the same chassis. At this time, the Chevrolet team was no longer developing the second-generation vehicles in a hurry, but properly thought and arranged, so the car turned out to be even more attractive than its predecessor with a more reliable chassis. However, there were also not pleasant moments during the production of the second generation: the open-top version was no longer produced, and in 1975 the Z28 modification disappeared from the catalogs, which had a 360-horsepower monster in the engine compartment and was able to reach “hundreds” for 6.5 seconds! Rear-wheel drive coupes were equipped with in-line “sixes” 3.8 and 4.7, a V6 3.8 engine, as well as eight-cylinder engines of 5.0, 5.7, 6.5, and 6.6 liters. Second-gen Camaros had mechanical four-speed and automatic three-speed gearboxes.
Source: WallpaperUp
The 1977 model year was marked with the return of Z28 modification, as a model rather than an RPO, in response to increased sales of the Pontiac Trans Am, which sold over 46,000 units in 1976 and accounted for half of all Firebird sales that year. The revived Z28 was powered by a 350cc V8 engine, a four-barrel carburetor that produced 185 hp (138 kW; 188 hp) (175 hp with California emissions equipment), with most vehicles sold fitted with air conditioning and automatic transmission. The engine was no longer supplied with the main bearing cylinder block which was part of the RPO Z28 special performance package, the engine that was shared with the Corvette LT. -1 and L82 350 best engines 1970-74. The engine was no longer supplied with a 4-bolt main bearing cylinder block, forged crank, forged pistons, large valve heads, and a working camshaft. The most powerful engine in the 1977 Camaro was the LM1, which was only available for the Z28. This model year, the company’s engineers received an engine with improved intake and exhaust for all cars of the brand. Also, the cars were available with a 4-speed manual transmission Borg-Warner Super T-10. Intermittent wipers for the 1977 model year were offered as a new option, and the 4.1 L engine became the standard in both sports coupes and luxury LT models. Camaro production rose to a record high, reaching 218,853 coupes produced.
Source: Mecum Auctions
One of the most important and remarkable achievements of the second-generation Camaro, more precisely, of the 1977 release, was the fact that in 1977 it, at last, was ahead of its sworn enemy, the Ford stallion, in sales, reaching 218 853 sold cars.
Contact us if you have this or another classic car to sell.
| Mon - Fri Saturday Sunday |
9am - 6pm 9am - 3pm Closed |