The Chevrolet Camaro History and Data
Chevrolet’s Camaro (and its sister “F-car,” the Pontiac Firebird) was hardly an original notion – it was a blatant GM rip-off of the Ford Mustang. But just because it’s stolen doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea.
Trivia to keep in mind: Every engine in every Camaro ever built by GM was of pushrod-actuated valve design. There’s never been an overhead cam engine in a factory Camaro, Unless we consider the placement of the 3.4L V6 for a short time.
Just as the first Ford Mustang was based on the compact designed Falcon, so the first 1967 Chevy Camaro was based on Chevy’s compact Nova. However, it was based on the upcoming redesigned ’68 Nova II and therefore more robust than a comparable ’67 Nova ride.
The basic engineering of the Camaro was a unibody structure from the windshield and firewall back, with a separate steel rail subframe for everything up front. Double A-arms made up the independent front suspension while the solid rear axle was suspended by semi-elliptical leaf springs. As was typical of standard-equipped vehicles at the time, braking was by four drums, the steering was slow and manual, and Chevy’s rugged 230-cubic-inch straight six poked out an optimistically rated 140 horsepower while twisting a three-speed manual transmission.
The base $2,466.00, ’67 Camaro sport coupe was lean and aggressive, as was with the convertible. Adding substance to that appearance was done either by picking or combining individual options or trim packages called RS and SS.
Let us also not forget about the Z28 package that wasn’t actually included in any sales Brochures the very first year.
For more information about the Classic Chevy Camaro and Panther Camaro