Car News 2014: Camaro

Showing posts with label Camaro. Show all posts

Sunday, December 4, 2016

Focus on Camaro, the promo videos handed out to the Chevy dealerships to get them up to speed on the new car

Saturday, December 3, 2016

the long-lost first 1967 Camaro Z-28 has been found and restored

The car you see pictured here is the very first Z/28 made, and is now owned by Jon Mello.

Jon has sports car racing in his blood. His parents were tech inspectors for the SCCA and, as a family, all attended Can-Am and Trans-Am races back at Road America from 1970 to 1974.

His 1st car was a 69 Z/28 Camaro with headers and 4.10s

In late December 1966, the first batch of Z-28s rolled down GM’s Norwood, Ohio, assembly line. With the exception of air conditioning and an automatic transmission (or a convertible body), it was possible to equip a Z-28 with just about every option on the extensive 1967 Camaro list.

Jon agreed to examine a car in San Francisco for a friend living in Florida about a dozen years ago. He bought it not knowing it's significance. Jon noted signs that the vehicle had likely been used for professional racing, rollbar mounting holes etc.

When he started sanding down the body, he discovered racing stripes and lettering that indicated that one of the car’s drivers was named John Moore. In his book The Great Camaro, author Michael Lamm was able to list the recipients of the first 25 Z-28s to come out of Norwood, thanks to documents he received from Vince Piggins. “Z-28 #1 was shipped to Aero Chevrolet in Alexandria, Virginia,” Lamm wrote, “where it was groomed as Johnny Moore’s entry into the Daytona 24-hour Continental.” It turns out Jon had received a copy of Lamm’s book years before as a Christmas present.

Jon talked with Moore, who pointed him to Hugh Heishman, who owned the local VW/Porsche dealership and a racing team at the time. Heishman was the car’s original buyer, purchasing the car through Aero Chevrolet. As unbelievable as it seems, Heishman still had the car’s original dealership sales invoice in his possession—35 years later.

In 2003 he got confirmation from Lamm as to where he got his first 25 Z-28 list.” Vince Piggins himself had given Lamm the list of the first 25 Z-28s.

He learned the car’s Trans-Am race history was limited. It was used for just six Trans-Am races in 1967 and 1968 in addition to several SCCA-sanctioned, non–Trans-Am events, a total of eight races driven by Moore and owned by Heishman.

http://www.hotrod.com/articles/first-1967-chevrolet-camaro-z-28-back-track-years-research-meticulous-restoration/

Bill Hunter left a Chevy dealership with a Hugger Orange, X66, 4-speed Yenko Camaro. Street raced that and blew up the motor that night, towed it back to the dealership for the warranty claim. He was given a choice, they'd fix his engine, or he could drop $500 and get a new car

The Yenko didn’t see a dull moment during the first years of life. Bill street-raced the car initially, but in the early 1970s he pulled the motor and installed a radical L88 aluminum-headed race motor that pumped out more than 500 ponies. With this combination Bill terrorized the local tracks, making a name for himself.

Bill’s dad had always left the window stickers in all the cars he bought, so Bill stored the original window sticker for safekeeping and hung a copy in the window where it remains today. Lucky for him, his one-owner Yenko survived its racing days, as did its original L72, which was stored away just in case Bill wanted to bring the car back to its as-delivered state.

Muscle car collector and weekend race car driver Dave Beem spotted Bill’s unrestored Yenko three years ago at a Yenko Supercar Reunion. He just couldn’t believe that the car was still a one-owner original with a file folder full of all the original sales docs, Protect-O-Plate, and window sticker. Bill and Dave became fast friends and stayed in contact over the next three years.

Last year Dave visited Bill, talked of their love for fast cars and especially Yenkos, and whether the car would ever be for sale. After some thought, Bill said he was open to offers. Dave threw out a number to purchase the car. After a night to think about it, Bill accepted his offer. And just like that, after 47 years of ownership, the car was changing hands.