CC In Scale: The Camaro Tribe!

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– Posted on August 7, 2025

Deep in the human heart is a need for belonging. Historians or sociologists might link this back to prehistoric times, when belonging to the tribe in a hunter/gatherer society meant having others looking out for your safety and welfare. They had your back, as you had theirs. The same when pioneering settlement in previously unoccupied (or thought to be) country; knowing others will be there to help in your time of need as you help in theirs. Perhaps not so important in a large town or city, though we all want a sense of community.

Whilst perhaps not so needful nowadays, some might find this need for belonging met by a religious group, a political ideology or party, a social club – or among enthusiasts for a particular brand of car.

I’m religious, but have no political affiliations, nor am I a blind supporter of any particular brand of car. This means I have no hidden agenda in my builds. Though I do have favourites, I neither seek out nor avoid any particular type of car. I’d like to think that last makes me a good fit with the CC commentariat.

But, as we know, the tribal sorts exist. They follow one brand or model of car, and may vary in their degree of allegiance from merely preferring one car to being utterly blind to its faults, and possibly spreading misinformation/disinformation about their cars’ faults and strengths. I just remain silent and smile inwardly; there’s no reasoning with some of these guys.

So far I’ve avoided discussing certain cars, but today it’s time to enter the GM jungle and brave the tribe of Camaro!

We know the story. GM was caught out by the Ford Mustang’s popularity, realized that despite the turbo, the flat six powered Corvair was missing the mark, and hurried to produce a competitor (Fear not, Chevy fans – I won’t mention the M-word again!) It looks to me like they did a pretty good job with what they had. Beautiful, in fact. I wouldn’t have changed a thing.

Alterations were minor for ’68. Once again, it would have been awfully hard to choose which particular model to get. An SS or not? Big block or small? Maybe the Z28 – but that was pretty hard-core in these early days. There seemed to be a Camaro to fit every purpose. This one’s an AMT kit from 1981.

Then for ‘69, a facelift. Again, they nailed the looks. Maybe the side flares were a little bit fussy, but they looked like they belonged. A nice update. A 1977 Monogram kit here. Yes, it has some proportional issues. There’s an excellent Revell ’69; must build one some day.

Again the options proliferated. This orange SS has the RS package with the hidden headlights as well as the SS stripes. And a vinyl roof. This one’s built from a seventies reissue of the MPC annual kit.

Then halfway through 1970, everything changed. When these came out, I could hardly believe my eyes. This was a production car? This was American? Sorry guys, no slight intended; just that it was so stunning. Wow! The cowl seemed incredibly low, the proportions and surfacing were beautiful. Lovely to look at, almost like a European exotic. Much nicer than the previous model, which was quite attractive in itself. The General was really on a roll. Looked like the seventies were going to be a Golden Age of design from GM.

Confusingly, although AMT developed this new tool of this Camaro in 2000 with much more detail, they also kept reissuing the 1970 annual tool, which had been updated from year to year, then revised back to ’70 spec in 1989. This led to folk in online forums questioning which was the ‘good’ (new tool) kit.

This is my 1971 build – well, my 1985ish rebuild. AMT kitted the SS396 (not the Z/28, probably thinking the big block was more appealing), and gave it an engraved vinyl roof texture – nice to have, but not what I would have chosen. It’s much simpler to build than the later kit; fewer parts, and not as much detail. You might not notice the difference when it’s built up and on display.

This is that 1989 revision of the original, which deleted the vinyl roof and changed the car from an SS396 to a Z/28 with the RS nose. Online ‘experts’ said they hadn’t gotten the front-end right; I believe a later issue revised this area yet again.

Then came those bumper laws. From outside the US, we just shook our heads. So much added bulk and weight, just where you least wanted it, and this at a time when fuel economy’s importance had come to the fore – that was unfortunate timing to say the very least. But at least the front end was reshaped in an attempt to blend the bumper in, like on this ’76.

Here’s a custom version, showing what it could have looked like instead. Funny how nowadays we have no bumper laws, and have flexible plastic lower body panels – but they’re often shaped to offer next to no protection. Between you and me, I reckon we’re worse off than we were in the first place. And have you seen the way people drive lately?

By ’79 those awkward chrome girders had been replaced with this flexible body coloured nose (and tail), but the rest of the car was becoming increasingly dated. It had been around for a long time, and the trend in styling was toward more angular edges and flatter surfaces. Time for a change, but it seemed to be a long time coming.

Personally, I found this next generation underwhelming. While I agree the previous generation was looking awfully long in the tooth, was this really the answer? While the proportions and shape were pretty much right (cough, front overhang, cough), that live rear axle, spare wheel, and fuel tank still took up an awful lot of space – but they had to go somewhere – and it remained pretty tight inside. Maybe they could have shifted the cowl forward a bit and cribbed some space from the engine compartment?

From reading Car and Driver, it didn’t seem particularly well-built either. Yeah, I know GM was operating under a lot more government regulatory constraints, but so was everybody else – was this really the best they could come up with? GM seemed to have forgotten they were in business to provide consumer products. Diss the consumer, and he or she will go elsewhere. As they eventually found out. Or have they?

Yes, there were models of later Camaros, but down here they seemed to sit on the shelves unsold. I never built any later ones. Firebirds looked better to me (sorry, Camaro fans) – I’ll cover them another time. In my eyes, the bloom was off the rose; the Camaro was a shadow of what it had been.

Blackmore’s Night: Ghost of a Rose

Peak Camaro, IMHO.