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No matter where you look, the talk of the town remains that Ferrari 250 GTO that sold for $38 million at Pebble Beach. We love it too, but it’s not the only rare breed that’s crossing the block these days.
Up for sale at Mecum Auction’s Dallas is this remarkable 1967 Chevrolet Camaro, but not just any old Camaro, this was the first one delivered to the renowned Yenko Chevrolet dealership.
We purchased our 1986 IROC-Z Camaro used in March, 1987 at a VW/Mazda/Subaru dealership in College Park, Maryland. A close friend was the used car sales manager there. We were looking for a car, nothing specific in mind. We just knew we were tired of the econobox white Chevette my wife drove to work. Our friend let us know he had a car we might be interested in. When he drove it into our view with the T-tops removed and that red interior showing, we were sold. The original owner had traded it on a four-wheel drive Subaru because he was missing too much work due to snow. Janice drove it off the lot then she said, “This is my car!” So we left the Chevette as a trade and we were now Camaro owners.
I was only 7 years old in 1975 when my uncle, Kevin Green, wheeled this car into the back corner of the garage. It wouldn’t see the light of day again until 2007. He had paid $400. I would later learn the car had been traded to the dealership where my uncle worked in exchange for a Datsun 280Z by its second owner, a friend of George Alderman (who was using the car for autocross racing). The first owner (identified by the Protect-O-Plate), Olive Hicks, has eluded us for years, despite our best efforts to find her. What we know for sure is that she purchased the car at Van’s Chevrolet in New Castle, DE, just a stone’s throw from my home today, and that the car had never really traveled more than a few miles from there.
My relationship with Camaros began in November 1966. My uncle, Bob McKeown, walked into Spielman Chevrolet in Brooklyn, NY, and drove out of the showroom with a new 1967 Camaro– one of the first ones built. At the time, this car was nothing special; just an inline 250 cubic-inch six-cylinder with a 3-speed manual transmission on the column. Not long afterward, he paid me and a neighbor five dollars to wash and wax his new Camaro. We were thrilled, not just because we got $2.50 each (a lot of money for teenagers in 1967) but also because we actually got to go over, under, and around a real Camaro! It didn’t matter to us that it wasn’t an SS, it was a Camaro– and nobody else we knew even had one.
The mid-sixties saw Camaro competing against Mustang for street and track bragging rights; while at the same time GM and Ford were competing for showroom sales. This era has been etched in history as the “Pony Car” Wars. This being a special Camaro issue; we thought it might be fun to run down the timeline for the Camaro. We’ll also be taking a look at things that were happening in the World of Camaro at that time. Along the way we’ll throw in a few weird or rare Camaro options, just for fun.
The Chevrolet models that came out of Don Yenko's shop were all spectacular. This '68 Camaro may be a little more so...
In the late 1960s, General Motors had a corporate edict which barred any engine larger than 400 cubic inches from finding its way under the hood of their recently released Ford Mustang fighter, the Camaro. To bypass this minor hurdle, the now famous Don Yenko ordered SS Camaros equipped with the L-78 Big Block engine to his father’s dealership and swapped it out with the 7.0-liter L-72 from the Corvette. The result was the now very rare and sought after Yenko Camaro. Only 64 Yenko’s were built in 1968, one of which will cross the auction block at Mecum’s Original Spring Classic auction next month.
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.
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.
By Manoli Katakis - Jan 18, 2014 The Achilles Freedom Team of Wounded Veterans must be smiling big right now. Mostly because they received all of the $700,000 proceeds from the first production COPO Chevrolet Camaro for the 2014 model year that was just sold at the Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale, Arizona.
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!
