David Newhardt - The Complete Book of Chevrolet Camaro: Every Model Since 1967, 2nd Edition

The 1979 Z28 can be distinguished from the 1978 version by the new front three-piece spoiler and front flairs.

T he times they were a-changin. A new generation, born in the immediate postwar years, was now entering society with money in their pockets and firm ideas about what they wanted and what they didnt want. And one of the things they didnt want was a car that looked like what Mom and Dad drove. To these baby boomers, their parents had driven bulbous, hulking machines that looked old the day they were built. Station wagons, boring sedans no, the boomers wanted excitement on wheels, a mechanical partner that was young looking, fleet-footed, and inexpensive.

Ford Motor Company read the tea leaves well and gambled on a new vehicle built on the bones of a sturdy economy car. Ford felt that the new Mustang was a secretarys car and didnt have illusions that it would set the motoring world on fire. But thats exactly what the pony car did. Dearborn was overwhelmed by the publics reaction to this simple and cheap 2 + 2 equipped with either a six-cylinder or a small-block V-8.

Its said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and General Motors wasnt above stealing a page from anothers playbook if it meant that it could borrow the concept to create a similar vehicle to the Mustang. And thats exactly what GM did. By using the Nova economy car as the basis for a long-hood/short-deck sporty car, GM could price it competitively to the Mustang. A vehicles chassis/platform is traditionally the most expensive and time-consuming part to develop, and by utilizing the Novas capable if boring underpinnings, Chevrolet could field a competitor to the dreaded Mustang in a decent amount of time. And thats exactly what it did.

The response was heartening to Chevrolet, who knew that there was a body of buyers who wouldnt get caught dead in a Ford, but who were also frustrated that GM in general, and Chevrolet in particular had not manufactured an affordable competitor. These folks flocked to Chevrolet dealerships, and soon a genuine battle for a narrow slice of the market was in full fight. The contest would last for decades, with the lead swinging in both directions. As the twenty-first century got rolling, the plug was pulled on the Camaro, but soon cooler heads prevailed, and within a few years showrooms were once again stocked with new Camaros. The struggle for this slice of the sales pie continues to this day, with the consumer being the lucky recipient of Chevrolets efforts. What will the Camaro of the future look like? One thing is for sure, it will cause hearts, young and old, to skip when one rolls by. While the youth of the 1960s wanted a fun car to show off in, today all ages want to show off in a Camaro.

19671969 Responding to the Blue Oval

C amaro enthusiasts turn toward Dearborn, Michigan, and give a nod of thanks to General Motors arch nemesis, the Ford Motor Company. The reason is clear: Without the Ford Mustang to appeal to the baby boomer generation, the Camaro would not exist. It took the staggering sales numbers that the Mustang generated, right from its inception, to wake the complacent General Motors up to a huge marketing niche that it was ignoring.

Lido Lee Iacocca was the General Manager at Ford Division, and he had a finger on the pulse of the youth market. He formed the Fairlane Committee, a group assembled to brainstorm new products. One of the first vehicles from the committee was the Falcon Futura, a huge-selling economy car. The committees next idea was a car built on the Falcon platform.

In many peoples mind, a sports car isnt a sports car if there is a roof over their heads. Chevrolet knew this, and when the Camaro debuted in late 1966, each version of the car except for the Z/28s 302 V-8 was available in a ragtop Camaro.