Rare Camaro History

[Lee Stewart]

IMO . . . GM was still selling 3x2 engines in muscle cars during the 1966 model year: GTO and 442. The Camaro was to debut in Sept. 1966. There was no 396 option. Just the new 350 4bbl. A 3x2 option would offer higher horsepower which the Camaro would need to compete with the new restyled 1967 Mustang's 390/320 HP option.

Then the mandate came where only the Corvette would get 3x2 options and all other GM cars would lose their 3x2 engine options for the 1967 model year. And the SB 3x2 option was cancelled.

It had nothing to do with racing and everything to do with the growing muscle car market.

[William]

Originally Posted by Lee Stewart

IMO . . . GM was still selling 3x2 engines in muscle cars during the 1966 model year: GTO and 442. The Camaro was to debut in Sept. 1966. There was no 396 option. Just the new 350 4bbl. A 3x2 option would offer higher horsepower which the Camaro would need to compete with the new restyled 1967 Mustang's 390/320 HP option.

Then the mandate came where only the Corvette would get 3x2 options and all other GM cars would lose their 3x2 engine options for the 1967 model year. And the SB 3x2 option was cancelled.

It had nothing to do with racing and everything to do with the growing muscle car market.

Sounds like a plausible explanation; the GTO lost tri-power for the '67 MY also.

One of these 3 x 2 manifolds turned up at a Pomona swap meet in the '80s. Think that one had a '0-' part number. The L70 was intended to be an option for the Camaro SS350. If it had proven viable, it could have been sold OTC as the cross-ram was.

[rlw68]

Originally Posted by William

Sounds like a plausible explanation; the GTO lost tri-power for the '67 MY also.

Yea but no one writes songs about a Hyundai

[Lee Stewart]

According to this article, the L70 would make 360 HP!

But that doesn't mean none were built. Reader Lynn Dockey directed us to a question about the L-70's existence in Philip Borris's 2012 book, "Echoes of Norwood: General Motors Automobile Production During the Twentieth Century," in which Borris noted that GM initially intended the 360-hp L-70 as a sort of smaller sibling to the L68/L71 tri-power big-block 427s found in the Corvette.

https://www.hemmings.com/stories/202...ne-of-them-all

Was the L70 more than a 350 with trip deuces? Like a higher compression ratio and a solid cam? A 65 HP gain with just a 3x2 induction doesn't add up

[1967Z28]

Phil, for clarification, if the L70 was discontinued prior to the Camaro going into production then it would seem like they would have had to be evaluated on the pilot cars, however those all seem to be well documented as to how they were built. Are you possibly saying the L70 engine was evaluated after it had been discontinued and once regular Camaro production had started?

[70 copo]

Originally Posted by 1967Z28

Phil, for clarification, if the L70 was discontinued prior to the Camaro going into production then it would seem like they would have had to be evaluated on the pilot cars, however those all seem to be well documented as to how they were built. Are you possibly saying the L70 engine was evaluated after it had been discontinued and once regular Camaro production had started?

Yes, kind of. The RPO was drawn and then cancelled per the timeline. However here is where it got interesting when a retiree told me "hey I was part of the L-70 build program".

In summary These were prototypes built in the same side building where the pilots were produced. These were 3X2 small blocks and were cosmetically dressed with the stripes later used on RPO Z/28. The build happened soon after regular Camaro production started in the fall of 1966.

Here is the Air cleaner image close up that I posted in another thread on this topic here back in 2016.

[1967Z28]

Interesting. Thanks for the info.