Camaro Story . . .
A friend of mine had one of the very first Camaros made. In the fall of '66 he was a young guy working for his dad's contracting business when they had a project at a local Chevy dealership in the San Fernando Valley part of Los Angeles. One of the GM plants that made Camaros was in the Valley, so once a car rolled off the assembly line it only had to be trucked a few miles to a dealership. During his lunch break he spied two interesting cars just off the transporter, something that he'd never seen before, and being a real, serious motorhead he'd seen just about everything. He took a closer look and saw two of the first Camaros ever, one was a stripper but the other had been ordered as a "showroom queen", with a hot 350/four speed combo, vinyl top, rallye wheels, etc., etc. At the time he was driving a '59 Corvette and was instantly in love with the hi-po Camaro, so he went to talk to a salesman.
Initially the salesman said Chevy wasn't allowing any sales for two weeks until the official introduction, but my friend was very persistent, and of course they knew his family owned a good sized contracting business so relented. They even offered him $250 (some money in 1966!) to let it sit on the showroom floor for two weeks. He said no way and drove off in it that evening. According to my friend, the reaction at gas stations for the next two weeks was wild: eveyone knew it was a new car, but most thought it was a new '67 Mustang. When they saw the Chevy badge they'd exclaim "Oh wow, a Chevy Mustang!". He street raced the car extensively and discovered that the hi-po 350 was too strong for the rear suspension as it had to be repaired under warranty three times - everyone pretty much knew why it broke but since Chevy couldn't prove it they had to fix it. That 350 had to be one of the very first 350s as well, the 327 was still in full production through '68 and 350 availability was limited until then.
[this post was last edited: 2/25/2012-20:32]
A friend of mine had one of the very first Camaros made. In the fall of '66 he was a young guy working for his dad's contracting business when they had a project at a local Chevy dealership in the San Fernando Valley part of Los Angeles. One of the GM plants that made Camaros was in the Valley, so once a car rolled off the assembly line it only had to be trucked a few miles to a dealership. During his lunch break he spied two interesting cars just off the transporter, something that he'd never seen before, and being a real, serious motorhead he'd seen just about everything. He took a closer look and saw two of the first Camaros ever, one was a stripper but the other had been ordered as a "showroom queen", with a hot 350/four speed combo, vinyl top, rallye wheels, etc., etc. At the time he was driving a '59 Corvette and was instantly in love with the hi-po Camaro, so he went to talk to a salesman.
Initially the salesman said Chevy wasn't allowing any sales for two weeks until the official introduction, but my friend was very persistent, and of course they knew his family owned a good sized contracting business so relented. They even offered him $250 (some money in 1966!) to let it sit on the showroom floor for two weeks. He said no way and drove off in it that evening. According to my friend, the reaction at gas stations for the next two weeks was wild: eveyone knew it was a new car, but most thought it was a new '67 Mustang. When they saw the Chevy badge they'd exclaim "Oh wow, a Chevy Mustang!". He street raced the car extensively and discovered that the hi-po 350 was too strong for the rear suspension as it had to be repaired under warranty three times - everyone pretty much knew why it broke but since Chevy couldn't prove it they had to fix it. That 350 had to be one of the very first 350s as well, the 327 was still in full production through '68 and 350 availability was limited until then.
[this post was last edited: 2/25/2012-20:32]
