Grumpy's Toy Camaro's

[Kim_Howie]

[jannes_z-28]

[ QUOTE ]
I was at Atco this past weekend and saw a Chevy Monza painted as a Grumpy's Toy car. It had a huge aluminum rear wing a an equally large snorkel scoop on the hood. Never got to see it run though; I asked someone who was with the car if it was really a Jenkin's car and she said she thought to.

[/ QUOTE ]

Bill Jenkins had a car like that for matchraces, I have an old magazine some where with pictures of it.

Jan

[deluxe]

Toy 14 was built for match racing. The only car unaccounted for is his '81 Camaro, anybody know its whereabouts or what became of it?

[iluv69s]

[ QUOTE ]
Toy 14 was built for match racing. The only car unaccounted for is his '81 Camaro, anybody know its whereabouts or what became of it?

[/ QUOTE ]

So what ever happened to his 70 Camaro? Has it been restored? just curious...

[deluxe]

Grumpys Toy VIII has been restored. Well, what was left of the original car (roof, 1/4's) has been restored back to Toy status.

[iluv69s]

[ QUOTE ]
Grumpys Toy VIII has been restored. Well, what was left of the original car (roof, 1/4's) has been restored back to Toy status.

[/ QUOTE ]

thanks...so the car that was on ebay a number of years ago from Baltimore area was actually grumpys car?? I could have bought that car a while before the auction, but I was not sure if it really was what it was...same car??

[RichSchmidt]

Neither the 68 or 69 car have been found.There is some history on both cars into the early 70's,but the trails go cold.One real problem is that most old race cars were hacked into tube chassis cars back in the late 70's or early 80's back for anybody thought they would be worth much.Once the VIN numbers and chassis are gone most people stop talking about it as the "former so and so" car.And it just vanishes until somebody accidentially spills some good info into the right ears.Most of the racers dont think of these cars like we do.Some old timers might just quip without reservation that a car started life as a famous race car and think that there was no point in mentioning it anymore since the car has been cut up way beyond any hope of restoration.To racers,they would never think of a car being a restored example if it is just the original roofskin and rockers attached to a new body and chassis.We may drool over finding and restoring such a car,but to a racer such a car was gone decades ago when the body was reduced to just a few of the original panels and most of it went in the dumpster.You will need a LOT of documentation to locate the remains of almost any vintage race car.To find any early 70's race car of fame with an entire original body and chassis and credible paperwork would be a gold mine.If either the 68 or 69 Jenkins cars were found with most of the original body and subframe intact and it were restored properly,either one could be a contender for the most valuable muscle car of all time.I race the tracks in the Northeast every weekend from March thru October and I look over so many 1st and 2nd gen camaro race cars for clues,but there are so many "possibles" with too few "probables" to ever make it worthwhile to investigate the good ones.

[RichSchmidt]

[ QUOTE ]
That 1st color pic of grumpys car looks like the color of the car is capri cream? or is it my imagination.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sure looks that way to me.I wonder if the restored car still has the trim tag.I would have said that the picture was just faded or stained,but Winboldon white was pretty light,and the background wall and even the truck in the corner of that shot look pretty white and that Camaro looks pretty creamy.

You have to remember that this was the Grumps first Camaro and the first car he had after the red and white novas.It is entirely possible that he spent a while racing a car with Chevy paint on it before going to that "brand F" color.One thing that is odd is that the pic of the car in the shop looks a lot whiter,it also has lettering on the front fender that isnt in the other photo.I am leaning toward the car being Capri Cream for a while,unless that was a 68 only color.My friend has a Capri Cream 68 race car and it looks soooo vintage cool.

[deluxe]

Sounds like your talking about Toy VIII Rich. When it was brought to Bill, the only thing that remained of the original car was the roof and 1/4's. Their was no identifying marks (vin etc) to say that it was, or use to be his car.
Theirs no doubt the '69 car survives with word of it being "down south". The '68 car has been back halfed and basically modified beyond recognition. Bill is aware of this.

[iluv69s]

That was actually me asking about the 70 car.
When I saw the car, it looked like a much later camaro..I believe a 79 or 80. It had the later style glass nose. The tailights were the wraparound 1980 style also. It was (obviously) tubbed and caged with an aluminum dash.
I would not have even believed that it was Grumpy's real car except that when I looked inside the trunk, I could see the partial cutouts from the original 70 marker lights on the inside of the quarter panels. The car was definitely an original 70 Camaro!! That really made me much more interested in buying the car. Unfortunately..(or fortunately, I guess) I had my mind set on buying the other car the owner was selling!! The car later came up on Ebay and I always wondered if it was the actual car or not.

..one that got away???