Back in 1968 I bought a Ram Air 400 Firebird with 6K miles on it. It was sold new through London Motor Products in London, Ontario. It was the off white colour with the deluxe basket weave vinyl interior. It had the turbo 400, posi with the Ram Air gears changed out to a more user friendly 3.55 gear set. It had the gauges and hood tach, pdb, clock on the console, rally II wheels. When brand new, the original owner had the engine balanced and blueprinted, trac bars added, rear rims widened to 8", added headers, transmission reworked, and the Camaro spoiler added. The whole rear face, including the rear face of the spoiler painted black. I traded it in at Beare Motors in Port Perry, Ontario. I saw it a few weeks later and it had been sold and was painted silver. I have never seen the car since but always keep an eye out for it. Anyone seen anything like it around?
-- Edited by 73SC on Tuesday 5th of January 2010 11:51:51 PM
Period photos are great for documenting how these cars were set up and driven every day. Look at the shackles on this with the oversized rubber and this is a car bought in '68 not some years later. These photos are reallly neat.
How many cars at cruises do we see that actually look like the cars that were driven back then ? Not too many. Most people are too worried about "correct". I say the photo shows "correct" not the showroom pristine cars we have come to see each cruise night.
The large majority of cars that my friends and I owned back in the day had aftermarket wheels, shackles, air shocks and rear "steamrollers" for tires. That was the least we did to them. I got excited when I went to look at buying a car if it had headers, Thrush, tach, & mags. That meant you didn't have to do it yourself.
The large majority of cars that my friends and I owned back in the day had aftermarket wheels, shackles, air shocks and rear "steamrollers" for tires. That was the least we did to them. I got excited when I went to look at buying a car if it had headers, Thrush, tach, & mags. That meant you didn't have to do it yourself.
There were always modified cars running around Clinton Seaforth lol
Ah yes. I need a scanner! the black out tail panel is something that the old school racers did in the day. I know of one copo camaro that had it done as well. Lookes like it woulda been tough back in the day.
There was a red '68 SS396 Camaro in Oshawa back then. A month or so after I showed up in town with the Firebird, he showed up with the same blacked out tail end treatment. You know what they say, "Imitation is the greatest form of flattery". It's something that the factory should have done and alway looked so right to me. Unfortunately, I don't have the VIN to work with. In its day the Firebird was a pretty strong runner, but wouldn't match the top dogs today at all. The Camaro guy came after me one night and soon found out that it wasn't a regular Bird. I did run a '68 SS396 Chevelle back then. He kept missing shifts with that junker Muncie shifter. When we finally did make a clean run, I only beat him by a fender. Just recently, I was talking a guy who knew him. He was from out of town. The car actually had a 427. That made me feel pretty good as it felt stronger than our COPO car when I first bought it. Once the 427 got set up, I think that the Bird would have had its hands full but I wouldn't want to bet either way. Those automatic cars never feel as strong as they actually are. Our so called "killer" L78 Chevelle wouldn't hold a candle to either the Firebird or the '72 Lemans Sport that I put together with a mildly done over '70 360 hp 455. In a 60 to 90 mph fourth gear pull the Lemans pulled the Chevelle by about 2 1/2 car lengths. From my experience that tells me a lot. I guess i keep the Chevelles because I have more spare parts for them than I did for the Pontiacs. I'm glad you guys enjoyed the pictures.
-- Edited by Keith Tedford on Wednesday 6th of January 2010 09:46:32 PM
I had a 68 RS/SS 396 Camaro it had a black tail panel-was that because of the RS package then ?
I agree I like period correct-I had a 67 Beaumont SD396 with aluminum slots and redline tires !
Chrome reverse were another big thing I don't see much of anymore-
I remember buying a set at Canadian Tire clearout for $5 each and selling them to a friend (same price) just cause I knew he was putting them on his 55 Chev-that was 1986 and it was retro then !
