Queen City Camaros - a couple of Dandies!

[R68GTO]

I was searching some old newspaper ads and this one from January 1970 caught my eye - check out the L89 RS on top and the 427 Demo car at the bottom of the clip!

[dykstra]

Very cool!

[markinnaples]

Cool. Wonder what the special "duck" hood looks like? LOL

[BCreekDave]

Love to see those wire wheels on a 427.
315 horsepower 396? Me thinks a typo.

[the427king]

Demo was a zl1.

[flyingn]

Demo was a zl1.


ZL1 with wire caps? wow

[R68GTO]

Demo was a zl1.

I was thinking typo as well "427" should have been "327".

[the427king]

From the ads I've seen at queen city including this one posted,they used v8 to describe non 6 cyl small blocks. That and the fact a zl1 was sitting in the showroom next to the l89 for over 10 months,and was still there after the l89 was picked up

[William]

Demo was a zl1.

The rumor that Queen City had a ZL1 has been around for decades. Not true. Only two ZL1-RS, neither automatic. Both survive.

#55 was sold by Whit Chevrolet in Alabama.

#68 was ordered by Harris Chev in IN and sold through Geyer.

[BLACKLS5]

Geyer in Winchester, In. that G. Blatnick owned?

[William]

Think so.

[the427king]

I spoke at length to the original owner of my old l89 which is the l89 in the advertisement above. We spoke for hours about his mother bringing him to the dealership and buying him a brand new camaro for a graduation present. He was 17 1/2 and the mother titled the car in her name for him for insurance purposes.She said he could pick anyone he wanted. He said there was the l89 and a zl1 on the dealership floor. The l89 was a radio delete car but the dealer put a radio in because the dealer said noone was buying the car with a $4600 or so price tag and many complained it didn't even have a radio for that price . He said part of the reason he didn't pick the zl1 was he didn't want to make his mother spend a lot more money and he liked the lemans blue car. His mother did mail delivery for the usps. I wrote down about 10 pages of notes,after speaking to him 10 years or so ago.His story never faltered or changed on any details. He stared one night when there were riots in Cinncinati he drove to Kentucky to get away from the area and got a ticket because the policeman wouldn't believe the exhaust was stock. Being a demo I suppose it could have been from another dealer originally but it was on the floor at queen city back around Jan 1970 when the l89 had sold new after being there for 10 months. That is for certain based on first hand information And yes the ZL1 was fathom Green

[COPO]

The rumor that Queen City had a ZL1 has been around for decades. Not true. Only two ZL1-RS, neither automatic. Both survive.

#55 was sold by Whit Chevrolet in Alabama.

#68 was ordered by Harris Chev in IN and sold through Geyer.

Small correction on the above Whit Chevrolet was in Fayetteville, Arkansas. My COPO Camaro was sold from there.

[William]

There were 13 Fathom Green ZL1s. 10 were ordered by and delivered to Fred Gibb Chev. The other three were ordered and sold by Scuncio in RI, Seltzer in OK and Lavery in OH. If Queen City did obtain a FG ZL1 it had to be a former Gibb Chev car. Of the FG Gibb cars 8 have known histories including their initial re-issue dealerships, Queen City not being one of them. Two do not list a re-issue dealership: #36 N612913 4-speed and #45 N618522 automatic. Entirely possible Gibb sold them. #36 still exists, #45 is in the wind.

Queen City was 10 miles from the Norwood plant. By the end of May, 37 Gibb ZL1s were back at the Norwood plant and Chevy was calling performance dealers trying to get rid of them. It isn’t hard to imagine that Queen City was contacted but to date no ZL1 Camaro has a solid history tracing back to Queen City. And why wouldn't a $7300 Camaro be listed in the January 1970 newspaper ad?

[William]

Small correction on the above Whit Chevrolet was in Fayetteville, Arkansas. My COPO Camaro was sold from there.

You're right, thanks.

[R68GTO]

There were 13 Fathom Green ZL1s. 10 were ordered by and delivered to Fred Gibb Chev. The other three were ordered and sold by Scuncio in RI, Seltzer in OK and Lavery in OH. If Queen City did obtain a FG ZL1 it had to be a former Gibb Chev car. Of the FG Gibb cars 8 have known histories including their initial re-issue dealerships, Queen City not being one of them. Two do not list a re-issue dealership: #36 N612913 4-speed and #45 N618522 automatic. Entirely possible Gibb sold them. #36 still exists, #45 is in the wind.

Queen City was 10 miles from the Norwood plant. By the end of May, 37 Gibb ZL1s were back at the Norwood plant and Chevy was calling performance dealers trying to get rid of them. It isn’t hard to imagine that Queen City was contacted but to date no ZL1 Camaro has a solid history tracing back to Queen City. And why wouldn't a $7300 Camaro be listed in the January 1970 newspaper ad?

Might intent of posting this ad was simply because I thought the cars were interesting....now I'm curious as can be on the possible ZL-1. I did go back last night and searched ads prior to and after the Jan. 05, 1970 ad I posted. I was not able to find a repeat ad for that car- at least by the same type of description. The only ads I can find mentioning ZL-1 or aluminum 427 are private ads and the ones I found where describing that engine in other vehicles. One was a 55 chevy, the other was a 66 Chevelle I think. If I come up with anything else, I'll post it.

[William]

Some vintage ZL1 dealer ads have been located, a few for dealers not on the initial re-distribution list. Entirely possible other dealers were involved.

[purple panther]

There is no question Queen city they sold a ZL-1 It was on the showroom floor. FACT Many people saw the car. Also verified by queen city employees i interviewed. Local knowledge is the best

[69LM1]

Tin Soldier (COPO) was sold out of Queen City Chevrolet. Mr. Ron, the original owner who worked at Norwood and still races today, has verified that. However, the NCRS documents show a different selling dealer. Not sure if this helps the discussion any other than there may be a pattern where QC had a lot of dealer swap cars? Thinking out loud.

/Rich

[William]

Chevy took back about 37 Gibb ZL1s for re-assignment to other dealers. Some of those re-assignments were recorded in the file Vince Piggins had when he provided the VINs to Super Chevy magazine in 1981. Although Hauser Chev in PA received two re-distributed Gibb ZL1s [#4 & #43] they were not listed. However, Hauser placed several ads for the cars in local newspapers establishing their presence.

Before that, Gibb was able to unload a few directly to other dealers. Those were unknown to Chevrolet until sold, at which time the sale card was returned.

It is apparent that some of the subsequent dealers were also not able to sell their ZL1s and moved them on to other dealers. The December 1969 Competition Press lists a new automatic ZL1 Camaro at Dave Hallman Chev, Roanoke VA. Another May 1969 ad lists ZL1 Camaros available at Fairway Chev/Buick, Reedsport OR. Neither dealer is known to have sold any ZL1s.

It is entirely possible Queen City had one they didn't sell and it moved on to another dealership. Should you locate a VIN or an ad describing the car, I will include Queen City in the ZL1 body of knowledge.

[purple panther]

There is no record of queen city chevrolet dealer transfers in 1969 or 1970 or 1971. The zl-1 camaro was sold there. Now joseph chevrolet is a different story. You have to remember these dealers were competitors and they were a bunch of chevrolet dealers in cincinnati in 1969. In 1969 joseph bet on the yenkos selling and queen city bet on the copo camaros. They sold a bunch of them.