The computer age dawned as the 1981 Camaro was the first year of the Camaro super chip “command control”. But you could no longer order the 350 V8 Z28 manual. Power dropped back to 175hp in the LM1 350 V8 but Don Yenko built a turbo charged Camaro.
The Camaro almost died on several occasions but each time it was reprieved although the engine power ratings declined throughout this period. There are momentary blips here and there as engineers learned new ways to pull more power from increasingly emission strangled engines, but the decline was obvious. Despite having a beautiful body which was designed in the late Sixties, the Camaro carried too much weight for a changing world in which safety, fuel consumption and emissions took precedence over power.

‘Type C’ Model production:
1978 272631
1979 282571
1980 152005
1981 126139

The Camaro of this period was a dinosaur in terms of chassis design, packaging, and engine management systems. But the product was successful and Chevrolet did not stray far from the Camaro’s roots when faced with a redesign of their old war-horse. Despite the success of the Golf GTI, which debuted in 1979 and created an icon, Chevrolet kept much of the original blueprint for their new redesign for the third generation Camaro.

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