Million dollar camaro....

[Jeff H]

Well, the JL8 option became a reality(even though it was expensive) and the cowl hood became an option as well, but the crossram setup would not have made the best daily driver. I like the fact that Chevrolet was doing all this "behind the scenes" despite the fact that they weren't into racing. Chevrolet, Ford and Mopar came up with some interesting parts because of the Trans Am race series.

[68l30]

Was the R&D on the cowl hood done during the 68 model year or 69....Was it availiable to the Trans-Am teams for testing even though not it was not an RPO to run.I'm just trying to figure out why the delay in offering the hood in 69 if it was used so early on a 68 demo.Was it a retool for a single carb application and the rest of the components necessary plus production in steel?Is the AIM section on the hood dated? I don't have a 69 AIM......


Steve

[Mark_C]

the cars not an early Demo. It's a late July build of 1968. The JL8 option was already issued for the 69 model year by that time. Look in your Assembly manual. The RPO was released on 5/6/68 and the first Revision to the RPO was made on June 2 1968, so it had already been issued 2 months prior to the convertible Z28 being thought of. the car was a test bed for nothing, it was a car built for a VP with all the high performance options the engineering group had, or had on the drawing board at the time. The car is unique and has a place in the history of the Camaro line certainly, but I think alot more has been attributed to it than what it was intended to be. It had nothing to do with saving the Z28 for the 69 model year. It was built to late in the year to have an impact on anything already planned for 69. No one saw it, except for Pete Estes neighbors, it never toured the US in car shows or sat in dealers show rooms for people to see. It's just another example of a special perk executives in GM could get.

I'm sure it's worth a million bucks to someone, and of course I'd like to own it, all I need to do is collect about 995,000 more dollars.

[68z302]

I'm not sure if anyone can answer this question.
Was the crossram setup not designed to use the off road cam?
Does this one off car use that cam shaft or was the crossram tuned to use the production cam?

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

[ QUOTE ]
The cross ram and rear disc were parts that could be bought over the counter at that time for racing purposes(such as Trans Am), but could not be ordered as a RPO for a street vehicle.... Pete's rag top Z was an experiment in the feaseability of these hi performance add ons having the ability to function with some degree of normal operation in traffic conditions. The package passed the test and was then introduced as a dealer available RPO.
Thanks,
Motown

[/ QUOTE ]

So what's the verdict, were the parts available and this car a perk? Or, was the car an R&D effort?

[68l30]

By "early demo" I ment early for 1969.I'm talking about the hood only.I understand the July build date on the Z-28. Do you have the AIM info,date,for the cowl hood..... I can agree with the perk,just wonder why none of the race teams were as quick to get the same deal.Both the drag and T/A cars.....


Steve

[Mark_C]

ZL2 option was drawn 9/5/68, released 9/12/68. Became public (in dealer literature) around Thanksgiving 68, but didn't hit the factory floor until late December of 68.

[camarojoe]

Interesting info Mark... so if the ZL2 hood wasn't even designed until September, theres no chance a July built 68 Camaro could have left the factory with it on there, unless it was installed much later (months) than the car was assembled... Were the JL8 and crossram pieces added directly after the car was built?

[Mark_C]

I'm sure the hood that was installed on it orignally was a prototype that was used to develop the production version. The sheetmetal shop must have had one or more mocked up well before it reached the RPO stage. Plus the assembly manual is just the instructions for assembling it onto the car, not the engineering drawings to have the hood actually stamped out and assembled by whoever produced it for GM. The one on the 68Z may have been one of the batch that the production stampings were made from, or just one used in the engineering and design shops at GM. It's a fiberglass hood now, don't know if it was originally a fiberglass, or a steel hood. Either way I would expect it to be considerably different than a production 69 ZL2 hood.

[JChlupsa]

I was with the understanding that it came with a prototype Fiberglas Crossram hood not a steel one.