![]() The 1969 Camaro was the last of the first generation Camaros. Ford answered the sales challenge from the Camaro and the horse power challenge by adding the 427 Cobra and 428 Cobra Jet engines to the lineup for the 1968 Mustang. Seventy lucky owners got a pony car that was ridiculously powerful and, more than likely, ridiculously hard to keep on the road. They dropped a 426 Hemi in the engine bay. Plymouth went all in with its 1968 Barracuda. The Camaro’s big sister, the 1968 Firebird, remained largely unchanged. Other than the 1968 Corvette, the AMX was the only two seater widely available in the marketplace. The AMC AMX and AMC Javelin were similar cars with the main difference was the deletion of the back seat in the AMX. American Motors introduced the 1968 AMX and the 1968 Javelin in an attempt gain share in the rapidly growing market segment. More manufacturers entered the pony car market in 1968. The result was a $3800 Camaro that could do 0-60 in less than 4 seconds and the ¼ mile in the low 12 second range. After the engine transfer, they beefed up a few other Components, added a unique hood and threw in a few badges for good measure. The fine people at Yenko Sports in Canonsburg Pennsylvania ripped the 396ci big blocks out of about 100 Camaros and replaced it with a 427ci L72 Corvette engine producing at least 425hp. The ”Super Yenko Camaro” or SYC was billed as the ultimate Camaro. Not some badged up pretend muscle car.įinally, for those not content with the SS396, one chevy dealership offered a more powerful Camaro and became a legend in the process. All the suspension Components were beefed up and many of the other critical drive train Components were built up. General Motors decided to let the public have their Z/28 in 1968. Because the SS was much cheaper than the Z/28 GM sold about four Super Sports for every Z/28 sold. The straight line performance of the SS396 was very similar to the Z/28. Several versions were offered and they all offered very good performance. Of course the heart of the car was the 396ci big block. The Super Sport 396 package included a unique hood with twin banks of four square simulated air intakes, big SS 396 emblems and a host of other performance upgrades. While the SS may have been the power lifter the Z/28 was the tri-athlete of the group. The Z/28 continued to display its road racing roots. The Super Sport or SS continued to be the ground pounder of the group. It was a good engine but it couldn’t compete with the big blocks or the high performance 302ci found in the Z/28s. The largest engine available in the base lineup was the 327ci small block. The base Camaro continued to be the car that emphasized looks over performance. In 1967, Chevrolet sold about 221,000 Camaros. Pony Car fans were well satisfied with the car also. All minor stuff which says that overall the designers got it right the first time. Side markers were added and the vents were removed from the windows. The square headlights from the 1967 Camaro were replaced with rectangular ones. Minor changes were made to the front and rear of the car. Little changed for the second year of Camaro production.
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