In 1964, many American car manufacturers were in a panic. Ford had just released the first Mustang, and attention quickly turned away from the muscle and sports cars produced by other companies. The number of different innovations in style and speed that the Mustang offered made producing a comparable vehicle a daunting prospect for competitors. But Chevrolet decided that they would not be beaten by the popular pony car, and quickly produced a pony of their own: the Camaro.

One of the most impressive aspects of the Camaro’s production was the speed at which it hit the market. The Mustang was unveiled and made available for preorder in April of 1964, but by April of 1965 the rumor that Chevy was nearing completion on a competition piece was spreading like wildfire among automotive journalists.

This rumor turned out to be true; the Mustang had famously borrowed many of its internal components from the Ford Falcon, and Chevy was saving time by implementing changes onto the framework of the Chevy II Nova. However, this and other facts about the car were kept top-secret from the public. The only thing they had to go on was the vehicle’s code name, Panther. 

Chevy’s formal announcement of the new pony was just as shrouded in mystery. On June 21, 1966, dozens of reporters from automotive magazines received cryptic telegrams inviting them to a meeting of the “Society for the Eradication of Panthers from the Automotive World,” or SEPAW, a week later. They were actually being invited to a massive press conference in a Detroit Hotel, where they were informed that the Panther concept was defunct and that the real name of the new car was the Camaro. The name is a French slang term meaning “friend” or “buddy,” which Chevy GM Pete Estes said was meant to describe the relationship between the car and the driver. Other Chevy execs said otherwise, joking that Camaro was the name of a “small, vicious animal that eats Mustangs.”

The Camaro was finally unveiled to the public at another press preview in early September of 1966. Its combination of visual style and promised power wowed crowds and generated a lot of hype. Customers didn’t have to wait long, as the 1967 model Camaro finally went on sale at Chevy dealerships nationwide on September 29, 1966. Around 220,000 1967s were sold in the first fiscal year, and a small 25,000 of that number were convertibles.

There was a lot to love about this new pony right off the bat. It offered the same distinct pony characteristics of the Mustang—rear wheel drive, a lengthy hood, and four seats with two doors—but to many it was an elevation and improvement of the concept. The multiple body styles, such as the Rally Sport (RS) and ever-popular Super Sport (SS), made themselves distinct from Ford and offered a unique, angular Chevrolet flair. Plus it was no slouch under the hood; the Super Sport included an L48 Chevy 350 engine that produced 300 hp, outstripping the Mustang V8 base model by a full 90 horsepower.

As immediately compelling as the Camaro may have been at launch, there are a few important aspects of this vehicle and its philosophy that truly cement its place as a great in automotive history. The first of these aspects are the ideas that it represented; the Camaro was originally designed to topple the Mustang’s throne as king of pony cars. Despite a valiant effort, the car did not achieve this goal. The first three years of the Mustang saw over 1.3 million total sales, while the Camaro’s first three barely passed 700,000. However, these launch years were enough to cement the Camaro as a popular competitor in the pony car market. It has enjoyed a proud legacy of millions of fans over the years, and when the Mustang rebranded with a retro-modern design in 2005, the now-iconic 2010 Camaro wasn’t far behind.

The Camaro was also important for introducing one of the most important engines of all time. Chevy’s 350 was first created as a high-performance option for this specific car, but variations of it would go on to be the company’s standard high-performance option and a popular replacement block for drag cars and hot rods. The 80s and 90s saw an especially high influx of 350 use, and the phrase “put a 350 in it” could be heard in junkyards and garages nationwide. The engine stayed in production until 2002 and was used in many other types of vehicles such as industrial trucks, airplanes, and speedboats. To many, the 350 is not only a quintessential piece of the Chevy experience, but their favorite Chevy engine of all time.

The Camaro may not have succeeded in achieving exactly what its designers wanted it to achieve. Its entry onto the market was not the same far-and-away success as the Mustang experienced, and the two models have been (and probably will be) locked in a back-and-forth popularity contest for decades. But this in and of itself is an enormous accomplishment and testament to the determination of Chevy’s designers and engineers in the 60’s. Who else would have had the gumption to go toe-to-toe with the country’s most popular car? Who else could have improved on the idea of a high-performance engine in such a short time? And who else could have combined a unique blend of style and power to create one of the most beloved collector vehicles of all time?

References:

Chevrolet Camaro - Wikipedia

A Complete History of The Chevy Camaro | Raybuck

The History of the Chevrolet Camaro, from 1967 to Today (caranddriver.com)

Chevrolet small-block engine (first- and second-generation) - Wikipedia

Ford Mustang - Wikipedia

Chevrolet 350: GM's Most Enduring V8 Engine - Autotrader