well, today i was able to speak to the original owner of the car. here's the story....
after graduating high school, chuck wanted to go but a muscle car. his dad insisted he buy an amc or amx (he couldn't remember)but chuck really wanted to get a yellow z28 camaro like he had seen in all the latest magazines. after getting a summer job working in a business that made large steel dumpsters, chuck had enough of a down payment saved to buy a camaro and he told his dad it was his money so he was getting what he wanted. his dad conceded and helped with the hunt. his dad came across a rally green one about 45 minutes from their house where they had lived at courtsey chevrolet in los angles. they went down there, negotiated a price and chuck drove home in his brand new z28 at the age of 18. his dad was nice enough to let him park the car in the garage while living at home. for the next three years, chuck began to take a liking to street racing and racing at the drag strip. with the money earned he made his car payments as well as bought plenty of speed parts. being in southern ca, chuck knew TRACO was the place to go when it came to speed. so he took his cylinder heads down there to get a nice port port match to them. then with welders at his disposal, he made his own traction bars. during the first couple years, chuck got a few speeding tickets in the car and even got two in one day. with all the abuse he put it through, the only thing he ever broke was the rear end. he was running a 4:56 gear in it and at a launch, he sheared all the ring gear bolts and sent some parts through the rear end cover. after three or four years of working and racing, chuck decided it was time to go to college so he did. the camaro sat safe and sound in his dads garage. once out of college, chuck moved to the san diego area and eventually bringing the car to his house but never putting it back on the road. fast forward to the late 80s, chuck put the car into a storage unit where is sat until 2020 when he decided it was time to pack up and move back east and let the car go. to this day he still carries a photo of the car in his wallet.
i told him today at end of our conversation that this will always be your car. we are just the caretakers of it for this next chapter of its life.
i was so curious about the TRACO work done and knowing TRACO usually stamped their work, i had to see if the heads were stamped. so after work, i went straight to where the car is stored and sure enough my suspicions were correct!!
below is the traco stamp as well as the photo from his wallet.
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