Saturday, June 23, 2007
The 1969 Z/28 Camaro, An Automotive Icon
The Z/28 Camaro was conceived of to race on the SCCA or Sports Car Club Of America circuit, and it made a name for its self there, the Z/28 was built to handle through the corners, and that it did, and a good job of it on the SCCA road courses, the Z/28 had its fair share of victories.
It came from the factory with a 302 CID small block Chevy engine, the according to the factory would put out 290 HP, this of course was an underrating of the power that the car had, but if you do the math, according to the mile times that the car would run, Your Camaro weighs about 3650 pounds with a driver and can complete a 1/4 mile in about 13 seconds. The means that you've got about 328.36 HP at the wheels, and about 426.87 HP at the flywheel, this kind of blows the power ratting out of the water.
The Z/28 also had an optional 350 CID engine that could be had, but the 302 is the most desirable by far, the reason for Chevy using the 302 in the first place was that the SCCA had a rule that said that your engine size couldnt be larger then 305 CID, thus the 302 was born, this was achieved by Chevy using a 327 CID engine block and a 283 CID crankshaft, which displaced the size that they were looking for, and got them on the SCCA circuit.
The Z/28 had a lot of options available when you bought one, but the two most desirable options were the JL8 cross ram intake manifold, which came with two 590 cfm Holley carburetors that sat under the hood, in a cross ways format, and the four wheel disc brakes are the other option that was highly desirable to buyers of the Z/28 camaro, if you were to buy one today with these options on it, just these two options would jack up the price thousands of dollars on todays market.
It is of course very hard to locate a car with these two options on it these days, and if you do find one, you should do everything in your power to buy it, because you may never see it again, the Z/28 is my personal favorite out of all the muscle car ever built, I used to own a 1969 Z/28 camaro as a kid, but my mom got pissed off and sold it while I was out of town, Ive seen it around the city that I live in, and the new owner has fully restored the car, it makes me a happy man that he loves it.
