Speedvision story on 67 Nickey Camaro

[JoeC]

Original owner 67 Nickey Camaro. The guys states that it came with a 160 speedometer. I guess Dick Harrell put in a Firebird Speedo.
http://www.speedvision.com/pub/articles/classics/04muscle/010326a.html

[bkhpah]

I have inspected this car a number of times and the "paperwork" with it..Lets just say it is less than I expected...BKH

[Rick]

The Firebird didn't use a 160 until 1968, in 1967 it had a 120.

[bowtie3168]

Joe, Brian,
Do you guys know anything about the "Nickey" Camaro that was at Barrett-Jackson? The car was a blue '67 with a 427 Tri-Power. I can post more info about the car if you like.

Andrew



[Edited by bowtie3168 (03-26-2001 at 04:34 PM).]

[Edited by bowtie3168 (03-26-2001 at 04:36 PM).]

[Edited by bowtie3168 (03-26-2001 at 04:37 PM).]

[JoeC]

Andrew is this the same car that was at Barrett Jackson?
http://www.classicauto-sales.com/cars/nickey67/

[oboym]

ok if the nickey camaro had a 160 speedo option
then i have one up on auction right now on ebay --firebird speedo-nickey

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=571759545&r=0&t=0&showTutorial=0&ed=985923593&indexURL=0&rd=1

[Denis]

andrew, the only docs supporting the barrett-jackson car was an nicb report saying it was delivered new to nickey chevrolet. nothing to show it wasn't one of the hundreds of cars sold off their lot.

as to the 160mph speedo car, i'm curious about the $3k price. that's $200 less than the sticker price on my z, and $2,000 less than the sticker price of the yenko. i guess he and dickie must'a been real good buds.

[oboym]

According to Lopez Nickey painted their engines yellow. Lopez has heard oil leaks were easier to see against this light color, as opposed to Chevrolet orange. The yellow blocks became a Nickey trademark.
************************************
Ok if nickey painted there 427 yellow
then i pulled a 1967 427 crete eng, from a nickey dump truck ??( did nickey paint the block or did it come from gm yellow)???

This original 427 crate eng, was painted yellow from gm in the crate in 1967. I pulled it from a dump truck 15 yr ago.

[GMH454]

Wow !!! A Nickey dump truck. Did it have ladder bars and tripower too !!
Sorry could'nt help myself. And I promised myself I would stay out of this one too.

Oboym no offense meant I just can't get over the $500 for the conversion, what a deal!!!!
Terry

[bkhpah]

I waw at Vette fest a few year ago and was there when the 'Rare" 160 speedo was found at the swap meet...BKH

[JoeC]

Nickey Chevrolet was a large dealership in the 1960s and sponsored both road racing and drag racing cars. They had some type of arrangement with Bill Thomas Race Cars and Dick Harrell to build the Nickey Camaros. Shown on the cover of April 1967 Popular Hot Rodding magazine is the first 1967 Nickey Camaro being built. The photo shows a red SS350 Camaro with a yellow 427 being lowered in the engine bay. The magazine picked up the car at the Bill Thomas shop in Anaheim, CA. They didn't state the exact price of the car -- only said it was under $4000.00. The statement about the yellow engine is true but some of the other statements about the Nickey Camaro sounded strange in my opinion. Jerry Heasley writes about many types of cars and cannot be an expert on every brand but I wonder if he makes any attempt to verify the information he uses in his articles.

[bkhpah]

The price of the car seems very unlikley as well. The 68 Harrell Chevelle with REAL paperwork was over 6000.00. The 67 Camaro with RS and all of the other Nickey/Harrell options had to cost more than the 3000.00 advertised...BKH

[sixtiesmuscle]

Denis, thought I should set the record straight on the "Barrett Jackson" Nickey. This car had been inspected by both the former head of Nickey's high performance car/speed parts department, and, a mechanic from that department that actually worked on the car in '67. Both have verified the car as an authentic aluminum head/tripower car converted at Nickey and sold at Nickey. The simple fact is that the sellers had not been able to put the people and documentation together before the sale. Bad timing, I'd say. An NICB report, and affidavits from two Nickey employees who inspected the car, should be enough to put any questions about this car to rest. In the spirit of full disclosure, I wouldn't have bought the car if I had any doubts. I could have bought it months earlier for less, but, waited until I could verify all the necessary facts and talk to the appropriate people. Mike

[Yenkofan]

re: Nickey pricing.

A Nickey camaro was my dream car in 1967.
I wrote to Bill Thomas Chevrolet in Anaheim Ca (a Nickey partner) for info on the car.
I still have that info.

The Nickey camaro listed for $3891.35.

My option list shows dual quads for $151 installed but no tri-power option...it must have been added later.
Aluminum heads were $225 each.
An L88 could be had for $412.50!!!

Hope this helps...Gary

[bowtie3168]

I am learning so much from this post.Answering many "little" questions that I had. A few years ago I met a gentleman that raced a '67 Nickey Camaro. The car had a yellow engine block and heads, I wondered if that was something that the owner came up with, now I know that it was correct.I will have to call him and ask about the 160 mph speedo.Joe I think that you have seen the car. On a side note, there is a gentleman that comes to the track that races a 12 second REAL F-350 mason dump that was a real work truck. I thought that you might find that entertaining. The truck is called "The Brick Slayer". http://www.yenko.net/ubb/smilies/burnout.gif
Andrew

[Belair62]

Yellow block and heads ? Are there any real facts to back this up or is this based simply because a cover article years ago showed a yellow block ? Anyone have any some real info out of their Nickey literature?

[Yenkofan]

Personally I don't remember anything about a yellow block...and my info has no pictures.

I believe the "yellow" story was started by Charley in order to make all his yellow cars more valuable.

[Denis]

Mike:

Thanks for setting me straight on the paperwork for your new Nickey. That really is a sweet car. Congrats.

[JoeC]

There was an unrestored 67 Nickey Camaro at the Supercar reunion in 1999. If I remember correctly it had a L88 with a yellow painted block that was installed by Nickey. Anyone else remember that car?

[bkhpah]

It was yellow. I looks cool....BKH

[sixtiesmuscle]

I spoke to a mechanic that worked at Nickey in the high performance department about the yellow engine question. He said they painted "some" yellow as an option offered to customers, but, most were Chevy orange to his best recollection. There may have been something to the visibility of oil leaks, but, he believed customers just wanted something different that would stand out from the typical engine.

[oboym]

any more info on the 160 speedo in a nickey??

and is there any body out there that has info or good pic's of the exclusive nickey mag wheel.?

[bbdon]

Here is pic that shows the yellow engine.

http://www.sonic.net/bbdon/free/nickey1.jpg

[Kurt S]

I hate to say this, but be wary of any Jerry Heasley article on Camaros (and Chevy products in general). I hear he knows his Fords, but he regularly prints major errors like BB Camaros tailpanel were body colored, not black. CRG contacted him several times to offer help, but he just kept printing errors.
fyi.

[Belair62]

Thanks for asking the Nickey rep Sixties.Sounds reasonable.Chevy engines don't leak oil anyway.

[Stefano]

I stumbled upon this old thread. sixtiesmuscle had his info correct. I have an old advertisement somewhere in my stuff which addresses the color question.

Nickey offered a "Choose your engine color" option, for their conversions. Obviously Yellow isn't for everyone, but it did make the engine stand out.

I painted the engine in my '69 Camaro Yellow, back in 1980, due to the Nickey Legend. Just thought it was cool to do since Nickey had also done it.

When I had the 2002 Nickey Tribute ZL1 Phase III GMMG Camaro built, we had the engine and heads painted Yellow as one of the Nickey details.