Speedvision story on 67 Nickey Camaro

[JoeC]

Nickey Chevrolet was a large dealership in the 1960s and sponsored both road racing and drag racing cars. They had some type of arrangement with Bill Thomas Race Cars and Dick Harrell to build the Nickey Camaros. Shown on the cover of April 1967 Popular Hot Rodding magazine is the first 1967 Nickey Camaro being built. The photo shows a red SS350 Camaro with a yellow 427 being lowered in the engine bay. The magazine picked up the car at the Bill Thomas shop in Anaheim, CA. They didn't state the exact price of the car -- only said it was under $4000.00. The statement about the yellow engine is true but some of the other statements about the Nickey Camaro sounded strange in my opinion. Jerry Heasley writes about many types of cars and cannot be an expert on every brand but I wonder if he makes any attempt to verify the information he uses in his articles.

[bkhpah]

The price of the car seems very unlikley as well. The 68 Harrell Chevelle with REAL paperwork was over 6000.00. The 67 Camaro with RS and all of the other Nickey/Harrell options had to cost more than the 3000.00 advertised...BKH

[sixtiesmuscle]

Denis, thought I should set the record straight on the "Barrett Jackson" Nickey. This car had been inspected by both the former head of Nickey's high performance car/speed parts department, and, a mechanic from that department that actually worked on the car in '67. Both have verified the car as an authentic aluminum head/tripower car converted at Nickey and sold at Nickey. The simple fact is that the sellers had not been able to put the people and documentation together before the sale. Bad timing, I'd say. An NICB report, and affidavits from two Nickey employees who inspected the car, should be enough to put any questions about this car to rest. In the spirit of full disclosure, I wouldn't have bought the car if I had any doubts. I could have bought it months earlier for less, but, waited until I could verify all the necessary facts and talk to the appropriate people. Mike

[Yenkofan]

re: Nickey pricing.

A Nickey camaro was my dream car in 1967.
I wrote to Bill Thomas Chevrolet in Anaheim Ca (a Nickey partner) for info on the car.
I still have that info.

The Nickey camaro listed for $3891.35.

My option list shows dual quads for $151 installed but no tri-power option...it must have been added later.
Aluminum heads were $225 each.
An L88 could be had for $412.50!!!

Hope this helps...Gary

[bowtie3168]

I am learning so much from this post.Answering many "little" questions that I had. A few years ago I met a gentleman that raced a '67 Nickey Camaro. The car had a yellow engine block and heads, I wondered if that was something that the owner came up with, now I know that it was correct.I will have to call him and ask about the 160 mph speedo.Joe I think that you have seen the car. On a side note, there is a gentleman that comes to the track that races a 12 second REAL F-350 mason dump that was a real work truck. I thought that you might find that entertaining. The truck is called "The Brick Slayer".
Andrew

[Belair62]

Yellow block and heads ? Are there any real facts to back this up or is this based simply because a cover article years ago showed a yellow block ? Anyone have any some real info out of their Nickey literature?

[Yenkofan]

Personally I don't remember anything about a yellow block...and my info has no pictures.

I believe the "yellow" story was started by Charley in order to make all his yellow cars more valuable.

[Denis]

Mike:

Thanks for setting me straight on the paperwork for your new Nickey. That really is a sweet car. Congrats.

[JoeC]

There was an unrestored 67 Nickey Camaro at the Supercar reunion in 1999. If I remember correctly it had a L88 with a yellow painted block that was installed by Nickey. Anyone else remember that car?

[bkhpah]

It was yellow. I looks cool....BKH