RELATED SEARCHES
Sponsored Camaro Racing Results:
Camaro Racing
By:
Published: September 19, 2006
Chevrolet's Camaro has a deep history in automotive racing. The first year of its production the impact of the Camaro became apparent as it was chosen as the pace car of the '67 Indianapolis 500. The Camaro was invited to pace the Indy 500 again in 1969, a year many Camaro enthusiasts consider Chevrolet's best year.
Unlike the '67 pace car, in 1969 Chevy made a special Pace Car package available to the public in limited numbers - the hardtop of this car is considered extremely rare - a genuine piece of Camaro racing history.
The Z/28 Camaro was designed for road racing, but on the drag strip it was dominant; its quarter-mile time in the low 13s. The Camaro was selling in record numbers on the street while, perhaps more importantly, it was a great success in the SCCA (Sports Car Club of America). Team Penske, with Mark Donohue at the wheel, took the checkered flag 3 times in the '67 season during the Z/28's "break-in" period, then they went on to claim the championship in 1968 with a record 10 out of 13 race wins. The Camaro's dominance continued on in 1969 when Team Penske and their Z/28 won the championship again, solidifying Camaro racing prestige.
The Camaro was making its rounds with other drivers in the SCCA as well. One famous driver whose first successes came behind the wheel of a Camaro racing was Smokey Yunick. After getting kicked out of a Ford-only test session in 1967 and getting it banned from the Trans-Am, Yunick took the car to the salt flats of Bonneville. There in his Camaro he broke numerous endurance and speed records. The F-body ran 174 mph with the original DZ-302 small-block, but then Yunick changed the engine and it ran 183 mph. Not too shabby for a car that could be bought by the public.
Pretty soon tuning Camaros and Camaro racing would become mainstream. Don Yenko was the man who first tinkered with the Camaros, selling them tuned for a higher price. The most powerful engine available in '67 for the car was only a 396 big-block. Yenko put in the newest big-block power plant in the car, the 427, and it could do a quarter-mile stretch in the mid 12s. Since the modifications Yenko was doing on the cars soon became too costly, he got the factory involved. Producing only around 200 Yenko Camaros (the number is disputed), today these cars are some of the most sought after by performance aficionados and car collectors. And to think they sold for $4,245 in '69.
Yenko was not the only one tuning cars for performance. In '67 Joel Rosen, who began a successful racing career in the early '60s, began tuning Camaro's and selling them at the Baldwin Chevrolet dealership in Long Island, New York. Putting iron 427s or L88 427s under the hood and pairing these with their patented "Super-Bite Suspension" Rosen and his crew guaranteed the car, coined the "Phase III" would make 129 mph in 11.5 seconds or better, even better than the Yenko Camaro.
Today, it is still very popular to tune and reconfigure Camaros for racing. Team Camaro at www.camaro.net has a web site dedicated to Camaro racing and modifications. At www.yenko.net is a similar site for Yenko Camaro racing.
Camaro Racing. 2006. Team Camaro. 18 Sept. 2006 http://www.camaros.net/racing/.
The History of the Camaro. 2003. Budget Performance.com. 18 Sept. 2006 http://budgetperformance.com/articles/camaro_histo ry/camaro_special2.shtml.
The Z/28 Camaro was designed for road racing, but on the drag strip it was dominant; its quarter-mile time in the low 13s. The Camaro was selling in record numbers on the street while, perhaps more importantly, it was a great success in the SCCA (Sports Car Club of America). Team Penske, with Mark Donohue at the wheel, took the checkered flag 3 times in the '67 season during the Z/28's "break-in" period, then they went on to claim the championship in 1968 with a record 10 out of 13 race wins. The Camaro's dominance continued on in 1969 when Team Penske and their Z/28 won the championship again, solidifying Camaro racing prestige.
The Camaro was making its rounds with other drivers in the SCCA as well. One famous driver whose first successes came behind the wheel of a Camaro racing was Smokey Yunick. After getting kicked out of a Ford-only test session in 1967 and getting it banned from the Trans-Am, Yunick took the car to the salt flats of Bonneville. There in his Camaro he broke numerous endurance and speed records. The F-body ran 174 mph with the original DZ-302 small-block, but then Yunick changed the engine and it ran 183 mph. Not too shabby for a car that could be bought by the public.
Pretty soon tuning Camaros and Camaro racing would become mainstream. Don Yenko was the man who first tinkered with the Camaros, selling them tuned for a higher price. The most powerful engine available in '67 for the car was only a 396 big-block. Yenko put in the newest big-block power plant in the car, the 427, and it could do a quarter-mile stretch in the mid 12s. Since the modifications Yenko was doing on the cars soon became too costly, he got the factory involved. Producing only around 200 Yenko Camaros (the number is disputed), today these cars are some of the most sought after by performance aficionados and car collectors. And to think they sold for $4,245 in '69.
Yenko was not the only one tuning cars for performance. In '67 Joel Rosen, who began a successful racing career in the early '60s, began tuning Camaro's and selling them at the Baldwin Chevrolet dealership in Long Island, New York. Putting iron 427s or L88 427s under the hood and pairing these with their patented "Super-Bite Suspension" Rosen and his crew guaranteed the car, coined the "Phase III" would make 129 mph in 11.5 seconds or better, even better than the Yenko Camaro.
Today, it is still very popular to tune and reconfigure Camaros for racing. Team Camaro at www.camaro.net has a web site dedicated to Camaro racing and modifications. At www.yenko.net is a similar site for Yenko Camaro racing.
Camaro Racing. 2006. Team Camaro. 18 Sept. 2006 http://www.camaros.net/racing/.
The History of the Camaro. 2003. Budget Performance.com. 18 Sept. 2006 http://budgetperformance.com/articles/camaro_histo ry/camaro_special2.shtml.
Featured Camaro Racing Products:
