Chris Piscitello's 1967 L78 Camaro "The BATCAR"!!!

[Xplantdad]

Chris asked me to do a write up for him to share in the Members Rides section of the site. Many of you will recognize some of the photos used here as I have used them a few in other posts before. I hope that you all enjoy it and love this great piece of American Racing History as much as Chris and I do.


Thanks for this wonderful site and have a great day,


67L78conv



I would like to take a minute to introduce you all to the newest member of my muscle car family taking up residence in the Garaj Mahal, a 1,495 mile numbers matching 1967 Camaro SS L78 375hp 396 convertible known back in the day as the “BATCAR”. I hope you all enjoy it as much as Chris is sure to. The car will be restored to original condition over the course of the next year right down to NOS Redline tires that still have the painted date code on the treads. Here is a little background and history on the car.




Jan 2009 Photo taken in the Garaj Mahal after the new baby arrived.




A History of the L78 in 1967-

In 1967 Chevrolet had determined that no vehicle would be fitted with an engine that produced more than 1bhp for every 10 pounds of weight other than their flagship the Corvette. At 3,325 pounds for the base V8 convertible the Camaro was the second lightest vehicle available from Chevrolet that year, even lighter than the Corvette by a mere 35 pounds. By the end of 1966 it seemed that the Camaro had received all the engines that Chevy was going to give it with the late introduction of the L35 325hp 396 in November and the 290hp 302 Z28 near the end of the calendar year in December.

On March 17th 1967 that all changed. A rule in both NHRA and AHRA had been introduced earlier giving a special weight break to convertibles and the door was open for any manufacturer willing to shoehorn a high horse big block into the engine bay of lightweight car. On the 17th Chevrolet announced it was adding the potent L78 375hp (rated) 396 to the Camaro engine lineup to its dealers. Although the new engine was said to be a detuned version of the 1965 Corvette 396 which was rated at 425hp many beg to differ. The 1967 version used the same, bore, stroke, cam, compression, cfm, in fact the 1967 specifications were identical in every respect except for one. The hp rating in 1965 was 425 at 6,400rpm, in 1967 the rating had dropped to 375 at 5,600rpm. No matter how you rate it a potent combination was created and the other manufacturer racers were about to be educated in exactly what the rear of a Camaro looked like as they would be seeing it often. When talking to the vintage racers of these cars they all stated the same thing, out of the box with very little tuning these cars were capable of pulling into the low 12’s with 4.10’s in the rear. Unfortunately we have no proof of this in hand and a road test was never done to record it, instead the 1967 L78 Chevelle Coupe numbers were used as reference.

It was never advertised in 1967 that the new RPO L78 was able to be had by anyone willing to check off the RPO and pay the then whopping $500.35 when placing their order. When these cars were ordered they came in all varieties from the ultimate low option stripped race car shown here to wildly optioned examples with everything from disc brakes to tilt wheels. In total 1,138 L78’s were produced for the Camaro line, of which we are not sure just how many were convertibles as Chevrolet did not keep records. If you play the percentages game there would have been approximately 132 produced. Popular predictions from researchers of these cars range from 70 to 140 depending on who you talk to. In the end the one pictured above is one of 36 known confirmed examples (based on the Camaro registry kept by Mike aka 67L78conv on this site) and one of just 5 that are confirmed to retain their original drive line.

The History of the “BATCAR”-

On a cold rainy day in April of 1967, ok, we have no idea what day it was or what it was like. Some time in April Dave Conner of Rod Shop race driver infamy walked into Mahlen Maxton Chevrolet in Worthington Ohio and proceeded to check off the boxes for a new Camaro destined to be an all out terror on the race track. In the end he only checked off three boxes, RPO L78 for the 375hp 396, RPO M21 for the Muncie close ratio 4 speed transmission (yes the Muncie M21 was an option in 1967 that all but 7 L78 buyers purchased) and lastly the G80 Posi rear with 4.10 gears. The final color decision was black, black top with gold interior. After some time word came down that there was a delay in getting the car with the 4.10 rear and he would either have to wait or take a different gear ratio which he opted for to speed things up and had the dealer change the gears out to the correct 4.10’s. Conner wasted no time getting the car on the track, in fact he had only changed the tires, not even taking the window sticker out of it before making his first ¼ mile pass in it. If there was ever any question of just what a brute these cars were like out of the box just take a look at the front end lift in this literally day two photo.






May 1967 Photo taken the day after the vehicle was purchased by David and Judy Conner.





Not long after the car would get its first paint scheme, the black and gold BATCAR colors as seen in this winter of 1968 photo taken at Raceway Park in New Jersey. This would be the color scheme for the car while it was raced by Conner while being sponsored by Mr. Auto Store of West Salem Ohio and his own business Conner Construction.





Undated early photo of first paint scheme prior to sponsorship decal application.







Fall of 1968 First paint scheme pre Rod Shop




Later on Dave Conner’s successes on the track would bring him to the attention of and have him join the ranks of the race drivers working for the Rod Shop. Racing this car along with the other drivers they would create one of the most notorious and famous of race franchises of the day. The car would be given the familiar red, white and blue paint scheme that became one of their trade marks on the track. They were so successful that Mopar courted them to race their vaunted Hemi powered race cars.





December 1969 Issue of Popular Hot Rodding feature article “The Rod Shop All Star Drag Team”





Although this later photo taken of the second owner is post Rod Shop it is a great color example of the color scheme the Rod Shop used.




The L78 power plant in the car was short lived though. It was not blown up like most would expect but the L78’s were such a dominating engine in the class that NHRA and AHRA made a rule change rating the engine at the 1965 425 hp rating. As a result the engine with less than 500 miles on it (mostly from flat towing) was pulled and replaced with an L35 325 hp version. Luckily both Conner and the second owner Sherman Gerlach both kept the engine and virtually every other part replaced or upgraded on the car shelved including the entire engine, carb to pan, trans and rear end.

Under Conner the car would rack up an impressive number of wins including being the 1968 NHRA Winternationals winner setting a world record in the process, 1968 Indy Best Ap car, 1968/69 AHRA national record holder in F/S, 1969 AHRA and NHRA Winternationals Champion in SS/IA, 1969 NHRA Record Holder SS/IA and 1970 NHRA Division 3 Champion SS to name a few.







1970 RoD ShoP promotional with the current vehicles of the year. The Batcar is the left car in the second row.




After the Rod Shop picked up the Hemi contract Conner decided it was time to let the car go to a new owner. The vehicles second owner from 1971 until Jan 2009 was a race car driver and currently a race engine builder named Sherman Gerlach, a nicer gentleman you could never ask to meet. Sherman was no slouch himself campaigning the car to an NHRA national record and win in the 1972 Indy Nationals and the 1972 Bristol Nationals winner in SS/IA along with many other victories before retiring the car in 1974. Sherman would eventually hang up his gloves and turn the reigns over to his sons who still race today with their father building and tuning their engines for them.






Sherman Gerlach and son Kenny after winning the 1972 Indy Nationals.






1972 National Class Record Certificate.



Sherman after leaving the car to sit in his garage for a number of years decided it was time to return the car to its stock appearance repainting it to its original black with white nose stripe colors and returning it’s original parts to the engine bay. What was missing he found and installed like NOS dated spiral shocks. Although the car is not 100% correct (Yet) all of the major original dated components and sheet metal are intact right down to its original quarters, fenders and chrome. Some of the very few pieces that were replaced over the years are the carpets and seat belts. One of the most amazing pieces that this car retains is its original top with dated plastic rear window. When you look at the rear window the National Record Holder lettering that was placed on it has left an outline that is still visible to this day.





Jan 2009 Second owner Sherman Gerlach and Chris meet for the first time.




In January 2009 Chris met with Sherman for the first time and saw the car that he would eventually purchase. Sherman had decided that it was time for the car to see a new home as he no longer desired to be its caregiver. After a careful inspection and some intense negotiation where Chris learned just how tough a negotiator Sherman was a deal was struck and the wheels were set in motion to bring the car to the Garaj Mahal. Over the course of the next year or so this car will be receiving one of the most correct and detailed restorations imaginable.

Keep checking back for more info as research into the cars history is still ongoing.







At just 1,495 original miles this car is one of the lowest mileage 67 L78 examples to exist.






Jan 2009 photo in Sherman Gerlachs Garage.






Jan 2009 photo of interior.






Jan 2009 photo of engine bay.






Magazine featuring the Rod Shop All Star Drag Team








Parts of the All Star article talking about the Batcar










Nice set of tires!

[66 L78 ragtop]

Chris,

Simply incredible...How do you find such cars?

[firstgenaddict]

Again... Mr P I am amazed...

[mockingbird812]

Stupendous. Cool story. Great car. Congrats Chris!!

[markjohnson]

WOW! What an incredible car and history to boot. Love the color combination!

[BJCHEV396]

NICE!!!

[Charley Lillard]

all those pics and none of the best shot I had seen. It is showing the rear tire wrinkle and the car hooking up....

[66 L78 ragtop]

[ QUOTE ]
all those pics and none of the best shot I had seen. It is showing the rear tire wrinkle and the car hooking up....

[/ QUOTE ]

You mean this photo?

http://www.chevroletcamaros.com/

[67L78conv]

There you go Charley.

Slowly working on restoring a bunch of the vintage photos that can be posted later as well.

Shameless plug incoming. Finally back to work on the Camaros Site after a much longer than planned break from it. Next section to go up in the next week or two will be an interactive decoding section that will do the usual decoding but also allow for the entry of a cars non tagged options (tilt, posi, etc.) to come up with an approximate price of the car new minus destination charges.

[SBR]

Chris, what an incredible story that is. That car looks great as is! I can only imagine how great it will look when completed. Congrats on yet another addition to your collection. BTW I love those redlines!