First Camaro Ever Built is Brought Back to Life
It doesn’t take a genius to realize how significant the Camaro has been for the car world. To this day the first generation models are some of the most sought after cars on the market.
The reason is quite obvious just by looking at the glorious piece of American muscle. Thus, it shouldn’t be surprising that the first Camaro ever made ought to be worth a fortune — both financially and historically.
One may assume that the first Camaro has been lost over the years (and for awhile it was), but now it has been painstakingly restored and its history has been recovered!
The Grenada Gold ’67 Camaro (VIN N100001) was the first of forty-nine pilot cars that were build before the name “Camaro” had even been decided on.
It was used in advertisements and promotions for a while after it was build, but it wasn’t long before it changed hands.
The first F-body has spent its entire life in Oklahoma after being sold to individual buyers. It changed hands several times early on, with each buyer paying the original ticket price for the vehicle since they realized its significance.
After owning the car for some time, an unfortunate death in the family led a father to sell the prized vehicle once again. This time, it ended up in the hands of a man who planned to make it a drag car.
And he did. Thankfully, he realized what the car was worth and carefully preserved the parts he removed from the ’67. The iconic beauty can be seen in several photos with the NHRA throughout areas of Oklahoma and Texas.
After changing hands several more times, the muscle car was put into storage in the 1980s. It was some time during these years that the significance of the Camaro was lost.
A man ended up purchasing the car (for $2500!) in 2009 straight for storage, planning to use it as a race car for himself and his two sons.
However, once he discovered the stunning VIN, he put it up for sale once more and used the profit to change careers. It was purchased the same day.
And so began the quest to both recover all of the history of the vehicle and to restore it to its former glory.
The owners interviewed all of the past owners (or their surviving family) and even managed to purchase the parts that were taken off the ride for the original race car build.
The restoration itself began in late 2012 and finished in May of 2014. The car will be on display at the 1015 Carlisle GM Nationals at Carlisle, Pennsylvania from June 26th to 28th.
Check out the video below and enjoy learning about the history of the first Camaro ever made!