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2025 Volvo XC 90 vs 2025 Audi Q7How Racing Built the Chevy Camaro Z/28
The Chevy Camaro Z/28 took Trans Am racing by storm and beat its rival the Mustang Boss 302 in the process, both on the track and in sales.
Making the Camaro a Racecar
The Chevy Camaro was built to beat the Mustang at its own pony car game. In fact, when asked what exactly a Camaro was, Chevy’s Pete Estes famously replied, “A Camaro is a small vicious animal that eats Mustangs.” The Camaro would share the same basic long hood, short deck design with the Mustang and run similar engines ranging up to a stout 396 V8. But to complete the package the Camaro would need one more thing: street cred.
In 1966, the year the Camaro debuted, it had been the Mustang Boss 302 dominating in the SCCA’s (Sports Car Club of America) Trans Am series while Chevy wasn’t even fielding a car. Chevy’s head of Product Promotion, Vince Piggins, firmly believed in the adage of “Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday” and that the Camaro could make a name for itself among the buying public by notching some racing wins. To that end, he set about prepping the Camaro for race duty.
The Camaro Goes Trans Am
The first thing the Camaro was going to need to go racing was a new engine. SCCA Trans Am homologation rules limited displacement to 305 cubic inches. The closest Chevy had was the Camaro’s 283 small block which was bored and stroked to 302 cubic inches and given a once over of performance parts. Those included a solid-lifer camshaft, 11:1 compression, forged pistons, 2-inch intake and 1.6-inch exhaust valves, and the option of single or dual four-barrel Holley carburetors. The result was an official 290 horsepower, a number universally considered an underrating of the actual output which was closer to 375 horsepower.
Even with the boost in power, the Camaro Z/28 only managed a zero to sixty time of 6.7 seconds. But straight-line speed was not the Z/28’s game, track racing was and to that end Chevy upgraded the car’s suspension, gave it quick-ratio steering, and power front disc brakes.
The 1967 model Z/28 carried neither the name nor the badging Z28. SCCA homologation rules called for a minimum of 1,000 production units to be built for a car to participate. As a homologation car, the Z28 was initially offered as an RPO (Regular Production Option) Special Performance Package through dealers. The car wasn’t officially promoted, nor did it get associated badging. Production on the ’67 model only reached 602 cars for the year. Chevy’s racing team finagled a paperwork loophole that still allowed them to race that year.
The Z/28 Makes Its Name
Where Ford had Shelby and the Mustang Boss 302, Chevy now had the Camaro Z/28 and Roger Penske’s team. Team driver Mark Donohue took three race wins in ’67 behind the wheel of the Camaro. Despite finishing three out of four among manufacturers for the season, the Z/28 had shown its promise. The 1968 SCCA Trans Am season proved the Camaro Z/28 had truly arrived as Chevy took down 10 of 13 races, utterly decimating the competition. The following season was almost as dominant as the Z/28 managed 8 wins out of 12 for back-to-back championships.
The 1968 Camaro Z/28 saw only minor changes from the previous year’s version. Proper Z/28 badging was applied, and the “racing” version was added to Camaro promotional materials. Mechanicals stayed largely the same, with the addition of a bigger connecting rod, larger main bearing journals, and tweaks to the rear suspension the only notable changes. Sales for the Z/28, in its first year as a marketed trim, reached 7,199 units.
For 1969, the Z/28 received a visual refresher along with the Camaro more broadly as well as trim specific performance upgrades. The Z/28’s Rally wheels grew slightly larger, now measuring 15×7-inches, a Hurst shifter became standard, and new 4-bolt main bearing caps were added. New performance options added a cowl induction hood, four-wheel disc brakes, and dual-quad cross ram intakes. The NC8 chambered exhaust initially implemented for the ’69 Z/28 proved to be so loud Chevy was forced to switch to a dual exhaust with mufflers to appease owners’ neighbors.
Success on the racetrack did indeed translate to sales for the Z/28 Camaro. For 1969, the Z/28 outsold its on-track rival, the Ford Mustang Boss 302, 20,302 to a mere 1,628. While the Z/28 continued as the premier performance trim for the Camaro for decades to come, even earing a Motor Trend Car of the Year nod in 1982, its longevity owes much to the initial successes, both on the track and in the showroom, of the first-generation Camaro.
