Jon Mello's Z/28 #1

[Belair62]

My very first car was a Fathom Green ’69 Z28 and I enjoyed that car so much that I have pretty much always owned one or two first-gen Camaros since that time, back in the mid-70s. Because of my enthusiasm for the car, I remember being all excited when I saw a book come out for Christmas in 1978 that was called “The Great Camaro” by Michael Lamm. I really enjoyed the book and maybe some of you other Camaro enthusiasts did as well. I especially enjoyed the chapters that dealt with the early Z28 and the Camaro racing activities since I spent many years at the Trans-Am races in the early ‘70s. One thing I really remember reading about was the first 25 Z28s built and how they primarily went to people who were going to race them. There were lots of famous dealerships mentioned such as Nickey, Yenko, Alan Green, Ron Tonkin, & Roger Penske. Interestingly enough, the very first Z28 went to some dealership I had never heard of before, called Aero Chevrolet in Alexandria, VA. According to Mr. Lamm all this information came from the files of Vince Piggins, who was one of the many GM people interviewed for the book. I think most people recognize Piggins’ name as the person who headed Chevrolet’s “backdoor” racing efforts and also the person associated as being “the father of the Z28”. Well, I was really intrigued with this list of cars but for somebody from Southern California and all of these dealerships not even being remotely close to me, I never thought too much more about the cars. I mean, what would be the chance that any of them were still around anyway? Probably about zero. The cars were already 10 years old at this point. That would be forever for a race car. At least it seemed like that to me at the time.

Fast forward to 1999 and I am the proud owner of a very nice Mountain Green ’67 Z28 which I have only owned for about a year or two. I am thinking in the back of my mind that it would be nice to have a second ’67 Camaro for a project since the green car was an unrestored original. I went to go look at a car for a friend who was wanting some engine pieces for his restoration. The seller was wanting to sell original parts off his car so he could make a hotrod out of it. Well, I looked over his car and could tell it had some racing history behind it as there were signs of a roll bar, side-exit exhaust, patched-over hood pin holes, etc. Now this could have been any sort of race car or just something a kid had hopped up in the past, but I liked its potential and the fact that it was originally a gold car with few options. Granada gold is one of my more favorite colors and I personally prefer 4-speed cars with no console. I made him an offer for the car and he said he’d think about it. Well, a couple of months later he called me up and accepted my offer.

After getting the car home, I was able to spend more time looking things over. From the build date of the car, I knew it was around the time when the first Z-28s were built. The cowl tag didn’t offer much help as it had the 4P code on it. This would work for a very early Z28 but could also indicate an SS350 or 327 4bbl/4-speed. I did scratch around on the paint job and saw some evidence of Z28 striping so I spent some time looking at pictures of old Z28 race cars. If this was a Z28, it would be a very early car and could have been something that was raced in the Trans-Am series like those cars I remembered reading about in ‘The Great Camaro” book. I came across a photo of a Z28 which had broken an axle at a race and the view of the car was of the back end. You could make out the fact that it had a flip-top gas filler cap where the roof sail panel came down and met the quarter panel on the driver’s side of the car. In the same area on the passenger side was a smaller hole for what seemed to be a vent line. My car had patched over holes in what appeared to be the same exact places. Now, this car that had broken its axle was a car that was driven by Johnny Moore and he was from the Alexandria, VA area. I thought I should try and track him down and ask him some questions about his old car. I was able to locate about 30 people named John Moore in Virginia but got totally lucky and made contact with his wife on the very first call. She gave me his number at his shop and we spent about a half hour talking about the car I had and what he used to race. He came to the conclusion that it sounded like a possible match but that he was not the owner of the car back then. He said it belonged to a person named Hugh Heishman and that knowing how Hugh was, he probably still had the original paperwork for the car. Now I thought this was getting pretty interesting. I gave Mr. Heishman a call and had to wait about a week or two for him to return from a vacation. When he returned, we had a very nice conversation and it turns out that he did indeed buy a ’67 Z28 when they very first became available. He said that he did in fact still have the original sales invoice from Aero Chevrolet where he ordered and purchased the car. He asked for the VIN on my car. Lo and behold, A MATCH! (You can imagine my feelings at this point) Now, how in the world did this old race car end up driving around on the street as a daily driver out in California, 3000 miles from where it was sold new? He told me that the car was only raced for a year and that they replaced it with a ’68 Camaro due to uncertainty as to whether the Trans-Am series was going to allow the cross ram and 4-wheel disc brakes to be used on the ’67 models. The last race for the ’67 was at the ’68 Daytona 24-hour endurance race. After that, they switched drivetrains and brakes between the ’67 and ’68 and sold the ’67 to the person who delivered mail to their race shop. The new owner wanted all traces of being a race car to be removed and a repaint to the new Camaro color of Rally Green. Sure enough, it was easy to see the remnants of Rally Green over the top of the original gold. Recollections were that the letter carrier moved to California with the car only a year or two after buying it. Sure enough, the car still has its black California license plates from late ’69. I was fortunate enough that Mr. Heishman sent me the original copy of the sales invoice for the car as well as providing me with a notarized “Certificate of Authenticity” for the car, stating it was the one he bought new. I also contacted Michael Lamm and received from him a copy of the document he received from Vince Piggins way back in the ‘70s when he interviewed Vince for his book. You could clearly see where the car listed as Z28 number 1 was delivered to Aero Chevrolet and was purchased by a local VW dealer (which indeed Mr. Heishman was) and that it was to be driven by Johnny Moore at Daytona. All things checked out! I am truly honored to own this piece of Chevrolet history and my intent is to restore the car as it raced when new. I’m sure there are some who would like to see it restored as right off the assembly line but I feel that the real history of the car was made out on the race track.

[Belair62]

Jon...thanks for working with me on this one....great history lesson here !!!

[camarojoe]

Totally awesome story... how about some more pics of the car in its current condition? I can't wait to see this one done...

[427TJ]

Man, what a great story! Z/28 number one---WOW.

Yeah, definately restore it in its original race trim. There are plenty of 'rotisserie' restored stockers out there. The docs are the icing on the cake for sure.

MORE PICTURES!!!

x 1,000

[CopoCrunkus]

Great Story and an Awesome car!

[Mr70]

What a Nice Story!
Great Car with Pix & papers to match.

[Denis]

I can't imagine a more desirable 67Z. Congratulations Jon, it's in good hands now. Will she be ready for the vintage races up here next July?

[Seattle Sam]

Great story!
It's a great combination of luck, an interest in and knowledge of Camaro history, and the willingness to spend time and effort doing research, all coming together to produce the big prize -- a car that likely would have been lost to history if Jon had not come across it at just the right time.

[hvychev]

Simply amazing..........

[Denis]

Jon, the front fenders seem darker than the rest of the car on all the vintage photos. Is that due to a repaint or a fiberglass front end or what?