Rumors that General Motors had at last come up with something to steal sales from Ford’s massively successful Mustang swept through the American auto industry in the spring of 1966. Code named Panther, the Camaro was announced to newspaper reporters on June 29, 1966, reaching showrooms on September 21. The Pony Car building block philosophy was simple: sell a basic machine and allow the customers to add their own extras.
I have always felt like the body structure and handling of the camaro was slightly better than the Mustang's. neither were that good but the Camaro was a little more modern in my mind.
Agreed...Except for the mono-leaf rear springs that caused wicked wheel-hop on the early cars. While not specifically a handling issue per se, it was a severe handicap to getting power to the ground.
Interesting article, though. I had a '68 for a short time in the 90's and wish I had never sold it. To me, there's nothing quite as distinctive as a clean 1st-gen F-body.
My mom's 1967 Camaro arrived late in September of 1966. She had driven 1st and 2nd generation Corvair Monzas for 6 years before the arrival of the plain-jane harvest gold Camaro. It had a 250 c.i. six cylinder coupled to a 2-speed powerglide automatic transmission. It had no options other than ugly full hubcaps. It garnered some looks but I must confess, the restyled 67 Mustang got a lot more. My sister's boyfriend bought a navy blue, black vinyl roof 327 c.i., 4-speed manual Camaro. It looked so much better than mom's and had black wheels with now heavily sought after dog dish center caps.
On the same subject, most people don't realize that Camaro actually replaced the Chevrolet Corvair Monza, and Ralph Nader was just a convenient excuse.
The Chevrolet Corvair like GM's high tech midsized cars of the early 60s (which included OHC 6's, aluminum V8s, IRS, flexible driveshafts...keep in mind this was over 50 years ago!) was expensive to produce, and GM was already looking for a replacement when Mustang was introduced. The sales success of the Mustang sent what became the Camaro into a crash development program in which the car came out before the main car on that platform (the Nova) hit the streets.
By the time Nader's book came out about issues in the car industry (which the Corvair was a small part), the key issue he raised about the Corvair were fixed (involving the rear swing axle).
GM's original plans included not only the restyling of Corvair which took place the same year as Mustang, and was the Chevrolet offering that actually went head to head with it. GM planned to keep Corvair after Camaro came out, and actually planned a reskinning for 1970, but in '68 GM killed all development on Corvair, pulled all advertising funding, and left Corvair sales to die off in favor of Camaro's redesigns (both the single year '69 Camaro, and the all new 1970 1/2 Camaro).
Last bit of trivia: Much of the design themes developed for the 3rd gen Corvair wound up as the basis of the 1973 Pontiac Lemans...... especially it's pointed or pinched rear profile.
That's cool. I love the pics of various designs they were trying out.
I have searched for years to find any pics or details on what concepts and designs GM was considering when they were working on the 3rd Gen F-bodies, but I've never found anything. I sure would like to see what GM was considering for designs back then of my 3rd Gen.
I could have had some of the first gen F-bodies BUT somehow ended up restoring a pair of '74 F-bodies. Thanks to GM's outstanding rust preventive measures (actually lacking thereof!) both of these rotted out completely in just 8-10 years! I really wish I had kept the Firebird though (the hand painted "oversized" bird on the flat hood was awesome!) but it helped pay for my wedding 25 years ago. Considering that I'm still married I guess it wasn't too bad of a move.
Ahhh, the '74 Firebird. My favorite 2nd gen. Last year without the cat hump, last year with the straight rear window.
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