1967 Chevrolet Camaro
Personal story and photograph submitted by owner Jim White
for participation in the the 2008 GM Century Cruise
I have been a GM car guy my whole life. I was born and raised in Warren in the shadow of the GM Tech Center. When I was about eight, I toured Fisher Body Engineering and since that day I dreamed of working as an engineer at GM. While growing up, I spent hours drawing GM cars and studying them, I could name the make and model year of just about any GM car from a quick glance. I graduated from high school went to college and earned an engineering degree from Wayne State University in 1987. I worked as an engineer at a couple other places and even turned down a job offer from Ford. My dream finally came true in 1994 when I was hired by GM to engineer occupant restraint systems for the all new C5 Corvette.
My hobby while attending college was pouring over magazine articles and any info I could get about Chevy Corvettes, Camaros and their engines. I eventually got my own Camaro, a plain Jane 1968 that was a victim of many Michigan winters. I tore into the restoration project, but finally had to give up. There was just too much rust. A few years later, even after owning a 1986 Corvette, I had to have another Camaro. This time I found a clean solid 1967 with the RS option. I bought it in 1989 with no engine.
I took it completely apart and stripped the parts down to bare metal. I did all the body work including paint and built the motor myself. It took a couple years to complete the restoration, but there is always something else to fiddle with. Over the years, I took apart and rebuilt every component on the car. During the restoration process, people would often comment: how could I spend my time on such a mountainous task? The trick is to have a picture in your mind of what the car will look like when you are done. The theme of my Camaro is stock appearing with some extra power under the hood. It is painted in the correct for 1967 Ermine White and has a red interior. The drive train includes a hopped up 350 small block Chevy engine with a Richmond five speed transmission and a ten bolt posi rear end.
The car draws a lot of attention. The most popular comment is the question "What year is it?" usually from someone who used to have one or liked Camaros back when they were young. The look isn’t the only source of enjoyment; the smell and the sound are also part of the experience. The best part to me of enjoying my car is driving it, that way I get to see, hear and feel the car. I enjoy taking the car to the drag strip where I can run the car through the gears without watching the mirrors for police. The best time in the quarter mile is 11.91 sec. at 116 mph. There’s nothing like the sound of my Camaro’s over-cammed small block struggling to idle on a crisp October morning.
GM’s Century Cruise pays tribute to GM’s past and the passion owners have for their vehicles. On Saturday, August 16, 2008 this vehicle and more than 100 other classic GM vehicles will cruise from the GM Global Headquarters at the Renaissance Center up Woodward Avenue to the heart of the Woodward Dream Cruise in Royal Oak and the surrounding suburbs. One of these vehicles will be crowned “top cruiser” based on a text voting campaign.
Next GM Century Cruise Participant
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