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By
DAVID PIKE
General Motors often claimed to be the first manufacturer of true
post-war sports cars in the United States with the Corvette. Certainly
it was the first built in any volume but the newness of the concept to
American car buyers took a while to catch on. Even though European
sports cars were popular sellers at the time, the Corvette, when first
released, was a flop.
Despite this Ford followed quickly with its
Thunderbird and using superior marketing skills, quickly outsold
the Corvette two-to-one. Ford's action took the industry by
surprise and clearly showed that the youth market was certainly
performance-oriented. To capitalise on this Ford launched the
Mustang two seasons before other manufacturers were able to catch
up.
General Motors response came from Chevrolet in a
car called the Camaro, which was first released as a 1968 model.
Camaro copied the classic marketing strategies developed for the
Mustang. It had a long option list, which included no less than 81
factory-fitted choices, together with an additional 41 accessories
which the dealer could install.
The concept allowed each buyer to tailor a car
to their own individual specification, a feature which Americans
obviously liked as cars sold in increasingly larger numbers and
only months after the Camaro was released it came with more
specifications than any other car in production at the time.
The Camaro was powered by a base straight
six-cylinder engine developing 104kW and, as an option, a more
powerful 116kW version was offered, as well as two V8 engines.
These were the superb 5.23-litre and, what was inclusive to Camaro
in its launch year, the new 5.6-litre smallblock engine which
ultimately became the standard GM V8 power plant for many years
after.
There was also another V8 option which was not
heavily promoted, the Z-28. This was a race-tuned engine designed
for the Trans Am series of Chev racing cars.
This new 4948cc engine enabled the Camaro to
just fit into Group 2 of the Trans Am series and, as the FIA rules
required a minimum of 1000 cars to have been produced, the 4948cc
engine formed the basis of the Z28 option which could be ordered
through any Chev dealer. The Z-28 was the most performance
oriented Camaro ever.
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