Text by Patrick Bell.
Nashville, Tennessee, is where we are headed today to visit the E. B. Smith Chevrolet dealership. They bought the Coggin Chevrolet shop in May of 1968, and started a journey that capitalized on the muscle car movement. Their showroom displayed many of them to attract floor traffic, and they always had a good stock of all models, so you could be sure to find a car to fit your needs, desires, and budget.
Here it is! We begin with a 1968 Camaro Z-28 on the showroom floor. It was Ermine White with a black vinyl roof, stripes, and interior. It appeared to have the Air Spoiler Equipment option that included a special front valance and rear deck spoiler. Plus a plastic diaper was attached to protect the showroom carpet.
First introduced in 1967, the Z-28 was a high performance option package that was available on the Camaro Sport Coupe. The engine was a special 302 cubic inch V8 with 290 horsepower, and the package cost $400.25 in the 1968 model year. Required options were a 4 speed transmission ($184.35), and power front disc brakes ($100.10). Add that to a $2694.00 car, and you had $3378.70 for a basic new Z-28. There were only 7199 units produced, which amounted to about 1.1 cars per dealer.
Vinyl tops were becoming popular during the 1960’s, and that naturally led to some that were on the artistic side. The “Mod Tops” sign leads one to think of the floral version, while the Ermine White Camaro shown had a houndstooth pattern style. Either way, they were aftermarket and were added by the dealer as a sales gimmick. As far as I know, only Plymouth and Dodge had a floral style vinyl that was a factory installed option, and Plymouth also offered a paisley version. And Mercury had a houndstooth version available on the Cougar. None of them were very popular overall, and there are few originals left.
In the background left was a Chevelle SS 396 Sport Coupe, and on the right a Chevelle Malibu Sport Sedan or Concours Sport Sedan.
This was an advertisement for the parts department, showing the retail counter with well dressed customers in the upper section. The manager was likely the guy with the tie behind the counter, who was also seen supervising on the left in the warehouse shown in the lower section. A forklift was in use lifting an engine to the upper floor, while others were about their duties. They obviously had invested in a well stocked parts department.
This location at 201 Woodland Street was a car dealer of one brand or another from 1920-1985. It is shown here in 1967 when Coggin Chevrolet was the occupant; 1967 full size models could be seen in the showroom, and a 1965 Plymouth Fury was passing by.
Coggin opened in 1953, and as you can see on the right side of the image, they also had property across the street. This building was used by various other occupants until it was torn down in the early 2020’s as part of the ongoing redevelopment of that part of town.
Here was an advertisement in “The Tennessean” in May of 1968 announcing the ownership change, and introducing the management staff. E. B. Smith was the man on the far left, and three others appeared to have the last name Smith.
They also became distributors for the Yenko Super Camaro, shown in this ad from “The Tennessean” dated to September 12, 1968. Besides Camaros, Nova and Chevelle Yenkos were coming for 1969.
The Yenko Camaros were built from 1967-1969, with a total of 319 over the three years. 212 Novas were produced in 1969-1970, and just 99 Chevelles were built, only in 1969. They were built for high performance with a list of specifications, as in the Camaro shown above, and they became quite legendary.
Here was an inside view of the rounded corner on the showroom where they had a Sports Department display set up. From the left, a Safari Yellow Corvette Sting Ray Coupe, Matador Red Camaro RS convertible with a front accent stripe, and the Ermine White Camaro with the Mod Top seen earlier.
This one was a slightly different view of the same corner and cars, this time with a couple of customers. The young girl seemed to favor the Corvette, while Mom was a convertible gal. The Z-28 from the first image was off to the right.
None of the buildings seen outside have survived, due to the redevelopment program underway in that part of town. Nissan Stadium (home of the Titans) now occupies much of the land across the street on the left side.
A Grecian Green Camaro RS Sport Coupe with black vinyl roof and interior was in the back portion of the showroom. It also was equipped with one of the two Turbo-Fire 327 ci V8’s available, along with a front accent stripe in white, full wheel covers and white wall tires.
To show a different area of dealer life, our final image was a later shot in the service department with a 1970-1972 Corvette Sting Ray Coupe getting some work done. The guy on the right looked like he was reading something, so it must have been pretty serious.
Thanks for joining us and have a great day!
Great pictures here .
-Nate
Didn’t realize new cars in the showroom leaked fluids back then…!!! My neighbors half brother was a salesman at our local Mid Hudson Chevy in Poughkeepsie ny. My neighbor was a farmer, he bought a new 68 midnite blue ss396 Camaro with a four speed Muncie. We used to ride to livestock and farm auctions in that bad boy.. Man it was cool…!!!!!! I was 15 at the time
The biggest issue with those printed vinyl tops was fading. A solid color wasn’t so bad (like the ubiquitous black), but the printed ones seemed to fade fast if left out in the sun.
Maybe with today’s technology, there’s some sort of clear coating to prevent that. But I sure don’t know of anyone attempting it since those halcyon days of the late sixties, especially since factory vinyl tops have virtually disappeared on any of today’s styling. I mean, with nothing but sedans, SUVs, and pickups, vinyl tops are essentially defunct.
The closest thing left might be the colored hardtops available on, say, the Jeep Wrangler.