Tagged with 'chevy'

All love stories have a beginning, and this one is no different. As is the case with most ladies, she belonged to another man. And for sixteen years, George Hedrick of Lyles, TN made many offers to make her his, promising to restore and love only (not to sell). In early 2000, George’s friend (who had made the purchase from the original owner) passed away and the car went to auction where George was able to purchase her for the high bid of $1200.

The first thing George did after making her his was to properly store her, where she remained until 2009. During those 9 years, George finished his career as an independent contractor, the whole time never forgetting his love that waited. The plans were to restore her to original specs, but as the pictures show, many things changed– and as Elvis said, “I did it my way”. With a little help from friends Richard Dunn and Rod Lyonhurst, they restored a lot of metal and changed the original color from Deepwater Blue to 2008 Corvette Atomic Orange.

There was a bit of a surprise at the GM Renaissance Center today. As you can see from the photos, there were multiple custom Chevrolet Camaros surrounded by a film crew in GM’s circular showroom.

Just what is the occasion? Are they New York International Auto Show surprises? Chevy did catch everyone off guard with the Z/28 announcement last year, after all. Though they could just as well be movie cars from Transformers 4. But as it turns out, the Camaros seen here are neither official Chevrolet concepts, nor are they Autobots (or Decepticons).

We're in a Barber Motorsports Park garage in Birmingham, Ala., on a brisk morning with pro race-car driver Andy Pilgrim -- along with the Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 and Porsche 911 GT3, the latest, road course-focused street cars for 2014. Cadillac Racing pays Pilgrim to pilot a CTS-V coupe in the Pirelli World Challenge series, but today he is our hired gun to give us top-level feedback around the challenging 2.38-mile circuit.

Pilgrim's résumé boasts wins at the 12 Hours of Sebring, Petit Le Mans and the Rolex 24 at Daytona, in addition to numerous Le Mans podium finishes. And while he has bagged five professional sports-car championships, it's his articulate, detailed feedback about a car's behavior at the limit that's more valuable to us on this day.

Before 1970, General Motors had an edict that restricted cubic inches depending on the bodystyle. Chevrolet’s compact (Chevy II/Nova), mid-size (Chevelle), and pony car (Camaro) could not have anything larger than a 396, while full-size cars and the Corvette could get the 427. Meanwhile, across town at Chrysler and Ford, they were running amuck with 7-Liter monsters like the 426 Hemi and Boss 429.

Knowing that credibility was built on the street as much as on the racetrack (which, by the way, was never sanctioned by General Motors due to a racing ban that began in 1963), the folks at Chevrolet created a way to build a few Chevelles and Camaros with 427s. Instead of offering them as Regular Production Orders (RPO), they were built through the Central Office Production Order (COPO) channel. This channel was normally used for fleet orders like for the phone company, so they were equipped to handle things that were not quite regular production. A little over 300 COPO Chevelles and an estimated 1,000 COPO Camaros were built with the L72 427, which was rated at 425 horsepower.

JOLIET, Ill., March 31, 2014 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- As Chicagoland performance-car enthusiasts await the arrival of the track-ready 2015 Chevy Camaro Z/28 at Bill Jacobs Joliet in the coming months, they'll be able to catch a glimpse of the muscle car in action as paces the 2014 Indy 500 on May 25.

While the 2015 Chevy Camaro Z/28 won't be fully unleashed on the track, the man behind the wheel has proven to be more than capable of getting every ounce of performance from a car. Chevy selected three-time Indy 500 winner Dario Franchitti to drive the track-ready Camaro. Although Franchitti had his racing career cut short after suffering serious injuries from a crash last October, the automotive world is thrilled to see Franchitti back behind the wheel at the Indy 500.

The 2014 Camaro Z/28 is a lot more than a big engine in a Camaro—it’s a repurposed performance machine with numerous tweaks to call its own. This “Camaro Z06″ (if you will) has a number of aerodynamic mods that help make the it such a stellar vehicle on the track, so Car and Driver interviewed Program Engineering Manager Mark Stielow to discuss how the Z/28′s aerodynamics improve the breed and how it compares with another Camaro with track aspirations, the 1LE.

The new 2014 Camaro Z/28 is so fast, it outran its own tires. Here's how Chevy fixed it.

It's well known that the Chevy Camaro Z/28 has the widest front tires of any production car. At 305 mm wide, those tires produce tremendous grip--especially since they're Pirelli P Zero Trofeo Rs. In fact, they make so much grip, the Z/28 was spinning the tire around the wheel under braking--the Z/28 was, in effect, outrunning its tires, or at least their ability to grip the wheels.

Tom Panaseny grew up on Long Island, NY helping his Dad work on the family cars. In 1969, his neighbor drove home in a new 1969 Camaro Indy Pace Car - white with orange stripes and orange interior. Tom thought it was the coolest car he’d ever seen. It made a lasting impression, and started his love of Camaros.

Money was tight in the early ’70s, so Tom’s first cruiser ended up being a tired old ’64 Mustang, beat up from many years enduring NY winters. It did not take long though, before Tom joined his Chevelle and ’Cuda driving friends and built a total performance 1923 T-bucket with blown 350, and “all of the good stuff.” Talk about one extreme to another!

Barber Motorsports Park is providing the backdrop this week as Chevrolet introduces its new Camaro Z/28 to journalists from top auto enthusiast magazines.

About 100 people are visiting Birmingham and the park over a 10-day span, including Chevrolet engineers, as well as writers, photographers and videographers for Motor Trend, Road & Track, Car and Driver, Hot Rod and others.

I’ve owned this Camaro for the past eleven years– I purchased it at the Spring Daytona swap meet in March of 2002. I had decided I wanted a project car to work on, as I had always wanted a ‘69 Camaro for that exact purpose. My plan was to work on the project as funds became available. I thought that it would take as little as 5 years, (depending on the condition of the car, of course). As I walked around the Daytona Swap Meet that day it looked like I wasn’t going to find my project car. All the Camaros found were already restored and were commanding at least $35-$40 thousand dollars.