If you cannot tell the difference between a 1970 and a 1971 Camaro, -join the club! There is very little difference. There were virtually no external changes. The one obvious change was the high back seats, which were introduced in 1971.

Some optional wheelcovers, 12 new paint colours, revised interiors and thinner windscreen glass were the only major differences. However, under the bonnet all Camaros had lower power outputs as a result of GM’s across the board reduction in compression ratios to enable unleaded fuel to be used. The high power L34 and L78 396 V8’s were replaced by a single 396 CID engine rated at “only” 300 bhp. The L34 had previously been rated at 350 and the L78 375 bhp. The compression ratio was dropped from 11:1 to 9:1 for the Z28 resulting in fewer bhp and 20 fewer lb. of torque. The Z28 was also available for the first time as an automatic – sacrilege?

February 1970 heralded the new second generation Camaro, which continued in the same form for 12 years. Bill Mitchell was quoted as having said that the first generation Camaro was designed by Committee but the second became a designer’s design.

Again, Henry Haga, Chief of Chevrolet’s Studio Three, was instrumental in designing the new shape. The Pontiac team was run concurrently by Bill Porter for the Pontiac version of the new “F” car. Bill Mitchell, Chuck Jordan, Irv Rybicki and Dave Holls formed the mainstay of the Committee to which Henry Haga reported.

The Chevrolet engineers were having difficulty packaging a heater, air conditioner, radio, glove compartment and instruments within the limits of the cowl. They wanted to raise it. Hank Haga had a word with Bill Mitchell who was adamant that the low cowl was essential to the look of this new sporty car and that it was not to be raised by one inch !

The new car borrowed styling cues from Jaguar, Aston Martin, and Facel Vega at the front, and Ferrari for the Kamm tail with 4 round tail lamps. It is fascinating to see things go full circle as William Lyons has confirmed early 60’s Camaro influences in his design of the Aston Martin V8, particularly around the muscular rear haunches.

The second generation did away with rear quarter lights at a saving of $18.00 per car. This enabled those huge doors to be hung – they are five inches longer than those of the previous model. Whilst the car was heavier, had less interior space, one cubic foot less of boot space, there was no doubt that the original shape was right from the outset, as well as having a much more distinctive front grill or “face”. As a result of various last minute complications, the 1970 model was not ready for sale by September 1969 (as was Chevrolet’s practice) but eventually was offered to the public in February 1970, hence the 1970.5 nickname.

The interior came in for major revision with a clearer instrument panel although the all foam, non-adjustable seats were considered too upright for many. Although much of the running gear was carried over from the 1967 – 1969, the front subframe splayed out wider than before and the steering box was mounted ahead of the front axle rather than behind it. This improved steering deflection oversteer immeasurably. Whilst the front suspension was the same design and looked remarkably similar, no piece is interchangeable ! The roof had a double skin for the first time, contributing to the car’s strength and front disc brakes of eleven inch diameter became standard.

Plenty of power was available in the 1970 line-up but the choices narrowed:-

All V8 engines could be bought with a 4 speed manual or Turbo Hydramatic three speed automatic at no extra cost, except the high performance 396 4V V8 and the Z28 which only came with a 4 speed manual gearbox. The Z28 for 1970 provided one of the best power/user friendly compromises in Camaro history and coincidentally lost the slash (/) in the name. A user friendly but powerful 350 CID engine rated at 360 hp with 11:1 compression was used. This was the last year of the Z28 as a pure musclecar, in the following years the cars began to lose more and more power and gain additional weight. The beginnings of the end of pure muscle were on the way.

1969 not only saw the and of the decade which was to have such important influences on design, fashion and style, but also the last of the first generation Camaro. Although the 1969 model was essentially the same as the 1967 – 1968, it looked considerably different and there were quite a few changes to powertrains and options.

In Detroit it was quite normal to introduce new sheetmetal to existing models every two years, and despite 1968’s improving sales record (over the Mustang) and the fact that the 1970 model had been penned, 1969 sheetmetal changes were instigated to give the Camaro a lower, wider stance. Henry Haga, chief designer of the first generation Camaro, admitted design influences from the Mercedes 300 SL gullwing in the wheel arches. The front grill resembled an “egg crate” and became more aggressive but less aerodynamic. The rear lights were segmented into three to accentuate the feeling of width. Those wider arches now enable the modern day Camaro fiend to squeeze larger tyres under them without fouling.

On the mechanical front, the 327 was discontinued and the low spec 307 replaced it. The L-65 350 superseded the high performance 327, giving the 1969 Camaro two 350’s and four 396’s, as well as the Z/28 302, the base 307 and two 6’s.

1968 was the year of Woodstock, Jimmi Hendrix and the student riots in Paris. The war in Vietnam was gathering pace and the Flower Power was in vogue. 1968 heralded the improved Camaro. Not much was different from the 1967, but aficionados will have picked out the lack of front quarter windows and the inclusion of sidemarker lights which became mandatory for all U.S. cars in 1968. The front grill came to more of a point with rectangular sidelights and the grill was painted silver instead of matt black. All SS396 cars had a matt black rear panel.

Rally wheels were available in 15″ (P-28) size for the first time. The engineering improvements included staggered shock absorbers to eliminate axle wind up and multileaf springs were available on the more powerful V8’s. Larger body mounts were fitted and the Turbo Hydromatic auto was available for the first time.

The interior received some attention with the additional gauges arranged in a sawtooth pattern, and the hard to find ‘Tick Tock Tach’ with silver background combined a rev counter and a clock. The dash padding wrapped around the dash for the first time. Astro ventilation was installed, thus enabling the front quarter lights to be discarded. The metal inner door cappings were removed and replaced by complete vinyl door panels.

1968 could be called the year of the Z/28 because it really came into its own that year. The Z/28 was only a delayed option package for the 1967 model (only 602 were sold).

In 1968 the model was so designated as Z/28, having originally being nothing more than an RPO identification number. But Z/28 had a special ring to it and so Chevrolet stuck with it. This was helped by Mark Donohue’s success for the Penske team in the Trans-Am series. He won 10 out of 13 races in 1968 and Chevrolet sold 7,199 Z/28’s.

If comparing ‘67 and ‘68 models for desirability now, they rate a toss up. The ‘67 has the advantage of being the first model but the ‘68 models had better suspension and a more liveable interior. Overall, 235,147 models were sold in 1968 as against 220,907 in 1967. Unmolested Z/28’s are very rare and must rate as very desirable.

Rodley Motors will bing you a weekly installment outlining the history of the Chevrolet camero from 1967 to the present day.

General Motors found themselves wrong footed by the Mustang when it was introduced in April 1964. Chevrolet designers were just putting the finishing touches to a reskinned Corvair for 1965 and believed that its engineering sophistication was what the public wanted. Ralph Nader ended all that when he published his book ‘Unsafe At Any Speed’ in November 1965. Ford had sold 1.3 million Mustangs before the Camaro was even put on sale in 1966. A small, in-house team under Irv Rybicki started the design in August 1964 and management go ahead was given for the new ‘F’ car in early 1965.

The Camaro was a remarkably clean design with few of the unnecessary adornments usually incorporated in car design of the time. Influenced by the ‘Coke Bottle’ theme, which was popular with GM designers (leading to the Corvette), the design was good enough to influence William Towns, when designing the Aston Martin V8 a decade later.

From the outset the Camaro was designed to be better than the Mustang. Its semi-unitised construction with front subframe mounted by rubber biscuits gave a wider track than equivalent Mustangs as well as a quieter ride, and the flexibility to upgrade to larger engines, even before the late 60’s horsepower race began in earnest. The use of the Chevelle rear axle gave the Camaro a wider rear track than initially planned. All but the high performance models were equipped with monoleaf rear springs, and axle wind up was not totally eliminated until staggered shock absorbers were instigated for the 1968 model. One problem which manifested itself quite early on with the convertibles was the tendency to shake under certain conditions. Harmonic dampers were found to be the answer when installed in the boot – chassis engineers termed these ‘cocktail shakers’. The famous Chevy small block was available in several states of tune, from a 327 CID two barrel, to a very quick 350 CID four barrel, which came as part of the SS350 package.

The Camaro was launched on to the U.S. market in 1966 (as a ‘67) with a plethora of options and variables, and 220,906 1967 models were sold of which 25,141 were convertibles but only 602 Z/28’s.

There was never anything like it before April 17, 1964.  The 2-seat crowd had no choices at Ford since the small Thunderbird had been discontinued in 1957.  The only other choices were either foreign or made of plastic.  Unfortunately, those end-of-war babies who loved traditional ‘sports cars,’ now had babies of their own, and a 2-seater was out of the question, yet they were not completely satisfied with a 4-door ‘blandmobile.’  Many of the parents of these end-of-war babies were now free of the child-rearing burdens, and considered themselves too young for 4-door ‘blandmobiles.’  As a result, the market was over-ripe for a car which could be used for daily transportation chores and, at the same time, has a sporty flair.  Read the rest of this entry »

What we do to prepare for SVA and things to bear in mind when choosing someone to prepare you car.

In the case of a vehicle coming from America or Canada a full lighting conversion is required.  The lights are of a different standard to European vehicles.  Many modern vehicles utilise electronics to control the car’s lighting and simply tapping into circuits and bypassing certain outputs of such devices to obtain the lighting outputs for UK specification will overload the system and lead to premature failure. An example of this is using the same output as the front indicators to power the ‘new’ rear indicators. This method is quick and cheap but will overload the device and cause it to overheat. The lighting control modules are designed only to power the lights originally fitted to the vehicle and are very expensive to replace if they burn out and take time to order, meaning your vehicle will be off the road. Read the rest of this entry »