Earliest known L78 Camaro

[Charley]

There is a locked thread from 2007 where we had a heated discussion on the earliest known L78 Camaro. I thought it was the 67 Pace Car I used to own. Nobody would divulge the exact trim-vin details on the Grumpy Jenkin's car that was the other known early car. I had a chance to look at Grumpys car this weekend and noted the trim-vin #'s.

Grumpys vin..................N197055
My old 67 Pace car vin is N194600

Grumpy trim tag build week   03D
Pace car..............................03C

Grumpy's body #...............97737
Pace car...........................93453

Old thread.        http://www.camaros.org/forum/index.php?topic=1667.0

[LVN 67]

Don't own an L-78. Was told my L-35 has a fairly early build date.


Vin: N185414
                   
Trim tag build wk: 02E
                                 
Body # 85174

[KurtS]

Thanks! I didn't have complete data on his car.

I think the discrepancy was Grumpy was told his was the first L78. It may have been the first unit sold to the public, but the 2 pacers were undoubtably built before his car.

[Jon Mello]

And the VIN of the back up #2 pacer was lower than either of those.

[JoeC]

interesting info
did you get a picture of the trim tag?
I am curious if it has the dash (-) like some special order cars have. (It can be easy to miss)

I was standing next to the car talking to Grumpy about it at Carlise years ago.
The hood was closed and the Grump did not want to open it without the owner's permission. I went back a few times but never did get to see the tag. At that time, I was researching the dash I had found on some Yenko tags.

Bill did tell me the story (as been told in magazine articles) of his unhappy crew guy driving it home in the cold with no heater or radio and big gears. He was told it was the first L78 but said he was not really sure about it.

RIP Grumpy

[Mark]

Either way it would have been the first sold to the "public", even though the VIN shows Grumpy's car was built 2 days later both pacecars would have still been sitting at the tech center being prepared for pacing the event when Grump's was being strapped to a car hauler for delivery.

[JoeC]

that old thead was pretty good
I hope that Grumpy's paperwork can come out

I wonder why Grumpy's car would have gone to the tech center?

It would not need any mech work like the Pace cars did, since Bill would tear it down and rebuild it anyway

Some vip cars would get a better body fit and finish but I would think this can be done at Norwood

I would think Bill would have wanted it right off the line to get started on it as it was already late for 1967 drag season.

Chevy needed to prove to NHRA that the 50 min L78s were built before it can be raced in Super Stock so that was something that Bill helped with.

[JoeC]

LVN 67,  Do you have the "4N" on your early L-35 trim tag?

[LVN 67]

Yes , space 4 has an N.  I sent pictures of trim tag, POP, and T-400 supplement to Kurt Sonen when I first signed up.   

[67rs/ss396]

For what it's worth. My 67 L35 nor 03C red car's body # is 93489 just 36 cars from the pace car.
And my 67 L35 LOS car is an 02C built car also very early from what I'm told.