Rescued From Texas Barn: 1967 Chevrolet Camaro.

In the Fall of 1966, the Chevy Camaro became the first serious competitor to the insanely popular Ford Mustang “pony car.” And Chevrolet put a big dent in Ford’s sales by selling 221,000 copies of the new Camaro in its first outing, the 1967 model year. This example has been off the road since 1974 and was recently discovered in a barn in The Lone Star state.

Greg Hope of Holiday, Texas already owned one of the first-generation Camaro’s. He acquired that car, a 1968 model, from its original owner back in 1992. It’s burgundy in color with white stripes and 327 scripts on the front fenders. Being a fan of the Camaro and American muscle cars, when he heard rumors of this ’67 Camaro which was thought to be a 396 big-block automobile, Greg went to check it out. The car had been parked outside from 1974-04 and then brought inside a barn before Mother Nature completely took control.

When Greg arrived at the scene, he found the car’s engine had been removed and it was a 375 hp 396 cubic inch motor. And its companion 4-speed manual was still in the car. However, with a check of the VIN, he determined the engine and tranny had been swapped as the car left the factory with an inline-6 and 3-on-the-tree. Although a bit disappointed in that discovery, Greg still thought the Chevy was worth saving and struck a deal with its owner to let it go. He later found out that the ’67 and his ’68 were both sold brand new at the same dealership in Texas!

At first, he thought he would clean up the Camaro and sell it to make a few bucks. But his 13-year-old daughter fell in love with the car and wanted it as her first car. So, plans for the car now are to keep it stock looking as its production numbers weren’t rare. But Greg plans to drop in an LS V8 with an overdrive transmission – and install vintage air conditioning because those Texas summers can be murder. We hope the daughter, Kendall, enjoys this find when her time comes to get behind the wheel!