First Generation Camaro 1967 Camaro 1968 Camaro 1969 Camaro
A History Of The First Generation Camaro
In 1967 Chevrolet released a new muscle car to the market, and it was just what the public wanted, over the years the camaro would undergo a lot of changes, but none would be as popular as the first generation of the camaro.
Ford motor company had released the mustang in 1964 to do battle with the corvette, and learned really quickly that it could not do battle with the corvette, Chevrolet got thinking about what they could do to battle the mustang, and out of that cam the camaro.
The camaro bar none was one of the best selling muscle cars ever built, next to the Ford mustang, which has four more years to create it's fan base, but that didn't stop the camaro from being released, as a matter of fact it forced Chevrolet to release the camaro.
The first camaros released had the six cylinder engines in them just like the mustang, except it didn't take Chevrolet quite as long to realize that the six wouldn't quite make the grade, in the middle of the first year release Chevrolet added a small block V8 to the list.
Chevrolet desperately need a car to do battle against the Ford mustang, they had been beating Ford down in every way but the mid sized muscle car, or the pony car as it was known, Chevrolet was sick of losing the battle to Ford.
They began to hit the race track with their new camaro, their best showing in 1967 would be on the SCCA race track, where they'd win quite a few races, after they got the camaro tuned in later in 1967 they'd hit the mile track hard an heavy.
Ford really had no idea what was about to happen to their wonderful mustang once the camaro was ready for the drag strip, they were having a hard time keeping up to the small block version of the SS camaro, let a lone the new SS 396 big block.
Nobody could have known what a few special dealerships would do for the camaro, in 1967 the central office production order, better known as "COPO" would begin as a brain child of Don Yenko of Yenko Chevrolet.
He would produce a car known as the super Yenko camaro, or "sYc" this car would feature Chevrolet's most vicious engine that they had ever produced, a 427 big block known as the "COPO 9561" on the order list it was called the sports car conversion.
This car was absolutely tearing up the drag strip in the late 1960's, Ford had no idea what was about to come, later in 1967 Yenko Chevrolet would order a ZL1 camaro, otherwise known as the "COPO 9560" this was an all aluminum 427 beast, rated at 435 HP.
It was actually the guts of an L88 corvette put in to an aluminum engine block, dropping about 350 pounds of weight of the car, in other words you'd have the poser of a big block, and the weight of a small block, you can imagine the advantage they had.
Don Yenko hired Dick Harrell to drive this Zl1 camaro from 1967 to 1969, and during his run as a driver for Yenko Chevrolet he would set many track records, some which still stand today, in 1969 he would drive the ZL1 camaro to it's first 10 second mile.
To be exact it would run a 10.30, and break every track record ever set, Harrell would not do any huge mods to these cars to make them run like that, he would slap on a set of slicks, do a track tune, and uncork the headers, and the Zl1 would pull these number all day long.
Later in 1969 Dick Harrell would power the Zl1 camaro to a 10.06, a record which still stands today for a super stock race car, this was not the only time Ford would be forced to pay homage to the camaro, it would dominate the SCCA with it's 302 CID small block.
I used to own a 1969 Z/28 camaro with a 302 in it, and I can tell you that I never lost while racing a mustang, not even the boss 429, that car meant business, and it would surprise a lot of people over the years.
The camaro made it's mark on the race world more then once during it's run as a muscle car in the late 1960's, and hopefully it will continue to do for the next 10 or 15 years, in my opinion Chevrolet has never produced a car with the staying power of the camaro.
