1967 Chevy Camaro Z/28 Trans-Am Race Car Kissimmee Auction Bound

Ford debuted the Mustang in mid-April, 1964 as a half-year model. Sales were expected to be around 100,000 units per year, but far eclipsed that mark, with more than 400,000 units crossing Ford showrooms in the first year of production. The one millionth Mustang was sold before two production years had passed. Chevrolet desperately needed to capitalize on this new pony car market. The Bow Tie’s answer came on September 26^th, 1966, in the form of the Chevy Camaro.

The Chevy Camaro differed from the Mustang in that it had a more aerodynamic, streamlined appearance. Unlike the full unibody construction of the Mustang, the Camaro used a partial frame in front to improve ride quality and minimize noise, coupled with a rear unibody design that saved both space and construction cost.

The Chevy Camaro was introduced before some of the option packages were completed. One of those was the Z/28 Special Performance Package, which wasn’t available until late December of 1966, with the first deliveries coming in January of 1967. The Z/28 package was developed so privateer racers could compete in the Sports Car Club of America Trans Am Racing Series. The over two-liter class Trans Am cars were limited to 116 inches of wheelbase, and five liters, or 305.1 cubic inches, of engine displacement. The standard Camaro Small Block displaced 327 cubic inches, or just under 5.4 liters. This wouldn’t do.

Vince Piggins was the mastermind behind the Chevy Camaro Z/28. In order to produce an engine with parts available from the shelves at Chevrolet, Piggins stuck a 283 crank in a 327 Small Block to create a 302 cubic-inch engine. He then added a heavy-duty radiator, F41 Special Purpose Front and Rear Suspension, quick ratio steering, dual exhaust, fifteen-inch by six-inch wheels shod in Redline tires, and a 3.73 rear gear. The option package required the four-speed close-ratio manual gearbox, power brakes with front discs or heavy-duty brakes with front discs, stripes on the hood and trunk lid, and recommended Positraction. What the 1967 Camaro Z/28 did not come with was any exterior badging.

The Chevy Camaro Z/28’s 302 Small Block was grossly underrated at 290 horsepower. The auto journos at Car and Driver magazine certainly thought so when they said, “The 290-horsepower figure quoted for the Z/28 engine seems ridiculously conservative. It feels at least as strong as the 327, 350-horsepower engine offered in the Corvette.” In Sports Car Graphic, Jerry Titus agreed, writing it was, “logical to expect a fully prepared version of the 302 to produce well in excess of 370 honest ponies.” Titus missed the mark by quite a bit, as the race prep gurus at Traco Engineering managed to coax close to 500 horsepower from the Z/28’s 302.

RPO (Regular Production Order) Z/28 did not make it into the 1967 Chevy Camaro sales brochure, but still got plenty of ink in car magazines. Despite being a late-year option and not appearing in the brochure, 602 savvy buyers checked the order form for the Z/28 package, and Chevy went SCCA racing.

Mark Donohue was driving a 1967 Chevy Camaro Z/28 in the Trans Am series for Roger Penske Racing in 1967. As an engineer, Donohue made the ideal racing driver. He knew what made cars go faster and perform better, and had ideas on how to make that happen. As automotive historian John Ficarra told the story in one of his many VINWiki YouTube appearances, “So they were looking for ways to make them lighter and faster […] so their Camaro, they dipped in acid. The whole car. They put the whole car in a tank of acid which burnt away the steel, and they had a special equation, like it would be this amount of time, you would take it out and neutralize it, and it would shave hundreds of pounds off these cars. Because these aren’t chassis cars, these are unibody cars, so the whole unibody goes in there. The steel is so thin, they have to build a roll cage in there strong enough to hold the car together. In a racing situation, the transfer of loads from corner to corner go through the body, but the body would have collapsed, so they built this roll cage in it. People were like, ‘That is a massive roll cage,’ and they’re [Penske] like, ‘We just want to be safe.’ The story goes that when one of the technical guys […] leaned against the roof, it is paper thin.” The Penske team responded, “That’s unfortunate. It must be the sun.” The car in question is our feature 1967 Chevy Camaro Z/28.

Mark Donohue won the 1968 Sebring Trans-Am in this 1967 Sunoco Chevy Camaro Z/28, AKA the Lightweight, and won ten of the thirteen 1968 Trans-Am races to bring home the championship for Roger Penske Racing. It had been declared illegal the previous year for being underweight, but had returned for the 1968 season, albeit disguised with an updated grille, headlights, and taillights. The racing roundel numbers were often swapped with the other 1968 Camaro entry to keep officials from finding out the Lightweight was running. The Lightweight proved to be a second-and-a-half quicker on the track than its full weight contemporary.

The Lightweight Chevy Camaro Z/28 had a few other tricks up its sleeve. Chevy engineer Bill Howell had devised a system that used a brake booster vacuum to retract the front brake caliper pistons, enabling much quicker pad changes, saving several minutes in the pits. The system was technically legal as it used only off-the-shelf parts to create it, even if those parts weren’t being used in the manner intended by the manufacturer.

The Lightweight Chevy Camaro Z/28 has been restored several times over the years, but always to the same trim and performance as when it ran in SCCA Trans-Am racing in the late 1960s. It still runs the Traco Engineering built 302 putting out 550 horsepower, one of the six prototype cross-ram intake systems designed by Bill Howell, the original hand-fabricated dash with aircraft-style bullet lights, and a hand number-stamped rear differential built by Chevrolet marked for use at Sebring.

This remarkable piece of Chevy Camaro racing history will cross the Mecum Auctions block at their Kissimmee, Florida, event on Saturday, January 18^th.