1967 SS 396 Camaro Barn Find Parked 43 Years

First and Foremost..

Thank you to Jerry Heasely for the amazing You Tube Video and please check out his channel to see some more awesome videos.

About the Video…

He flew to Minnesota to record the unearthing of a an original-paint, 1967 SS 396 Camaro (375-horsepower L78 – one of 1138 built)) that the owner stored in his pole barn in Wisconsin in 1975. He is finally going to sell.

History of the Camaro L-78.

If you don’t know the Camaro was it was Chevy’s answer to the Mustang that was released a few years earlier in 1964. The first year for the Camaro was 1967, From the start, Camaro featured a Super Sport edition as an answer to the Mustang GT. It added $211 to the $2,572 Camaro Sport Coupe or the $2,809 convertible. Included were firmer springs and shocks, wide-oval tires, a special hood with die-cast simulated louvers, and a bumblebee stripe around the car’s nose. Many buyers combined it with the $105 Rally Sport package, which included hidden headlamps.

The new 295-bhp four-barrel 350-cid V-8 was the standard SS engine. With a four-speed and 3.31:1 gears, Motor Trend’s SS 350 ran 0-60 in 8 seconds and the quarter in 15.4 at 90 mph. That was directly comparable to a 335-bhp 390-cid Mustang GT.

Then, a few months into the model year, Chevy unleashed the SS 396. It initially came in 325-bhp tune and tacked $263 onto the SS group. Still later in the year, the 375-bhp L78 variant was offered for $500. Since the L78 violated GM’s rule against any car except the Corvette exceeding 10-pounds-per horsepower, it technically was listed as a dealer-installed option. (A few high-performance dealers like Nickey in Chicago, Baldwin Motion in New York and Yenko in Pennsylvania would install a 400-hp-plus 427-cid V-8.) SS 396 Camaros came standard with a four-speed manual; the three-speed automatic was a $226 option.

With its poorly designed single-leaf rear springs and a near-vertical mounting of the rear shock absorbers, all V-8 Camaros had severe rear-wheel hop in hard acceleration. With more weight over the nose and additional torque, the 396s were even worse to handle. But no other ponycar was quicker.

In the First-year Camaro sales trailed those racked up by Mustang by a wide margin, but of the 220,917 sold, more than 34,000 that were Super Sports. Chevy’s new pony car was off and running.

My very first car was a ’67 Camaro SS 327 4spd so I can attest to the way those early cars were.

Now..

The reason why you are here is because that you love old cars just as much as I do, if you go through the older posts you will see pictures of my 1972 Impala with now 60,000 original miles. and trust me many many many more will be put on. And I hope you enjoy this blog as much as I do creating it .