Darren X33's Rallye Green Z............

[Belair62]

A 4 - owner 1969 Z/28 Camaro that has resided in Illinois since it was purchased in July of 1969 from Olaf Gjovik Chevrolet in the small town of Sandwich Illinois. In the early 70's the M-22 transmission and 4.10 rear were put to good use at Oswego Drag Raceway. I am still amazed that after such a history it retains it's original drive train. In 1981 my brother Dave was in the market for a 1969 Z/28. He narrowed it down to 2 cars. The deciding factors were color and price. One was red with black stripes in day 2 trim. The red Z looked nicer and was a few thousand dollars cheaper than the more stock Fathom Green and white stripe car that we looked at. At the time we unfortunately didn't realize the potential of a JL-8 car so he went with the cooler looking red Z. This is the car I learned how to drive on when I was 14. My brother would take me to the cemetery and let me go thru the gears of the M-22 until I got it down to a science. After 5 or so years the Z just wasn't practical enough to use as a daily driver so my brother bought another car to use for getting to work. The Z sat for a while and eventually I began using it. It was my daily driver during high school until I went to college. Upon my return from school I found out that my brother listed the Z for sale in the paper. I flipped out and told him to keep it and I would take the responsibility to return it to its original condition. Fortunately he accepted and I began the resto. While working full time I spent every free moment working on it. I had the car in pieces at my parent’s house and did all the work on it with the exception of installing the new quarters and the final paint job. A title search revealed all the original owners and I was able to speak to all of them and obtain original pictures of the car as well as some great stories. This car is part of my family and is here to stay. It is a constant reminder of my early childhood in the early 70’s when the cars that frequented my drive way were Day 2 at it’s finest and you could hear them coming from down the block!