Spoiler availability

[KurtS]

When was the Camaro spoiler available as a GM service part? Was it the same part # as the production 68 spoiler?
Was it legal to run all of the 67 season?

Maybe this has been addressed and I just didn't see it....

Thanks!

[crossboss]

The 'legal' items would be in the FIA papers. I believe Jon had posted them.

[KurtS]

Thanks!
The spoiler was 3916633 (same # as 67-68 production spoiler) and the FIA papers (http://www.camaros.org/forum/index.php?topic=7896.0) list it as optional. I don't see a date on the papers, but I assume it was about Dec66 / Jan 67.
When were the first spoilers available to racers? Looks like some cars didn't have them for the first TA race.

[Jon Mello]

The FIA form was valid as of January 1st, 1967.  Bob Tucker built the Joie Chitwood Camaro which ran at Daytona in February of that year.  He told me he was given a blueprint for the rear spoiler and had to build his own from that.  I don't have info on when they first became available as a service part, however Don Yenko contracted with Perfect Plastics Industries of Oakmont, PA in mid-June 1967 to have them make 25 rear spoilers for him.  This is something he wouldn't have bothered with if they were available via the service department.

[MO]

Very surprising since the prototype Z had one. You'd think there would have been some production timeframe for them between Oct 66 and Jan 67 for upcoming Z-28 production and racing. Maybe the intent all along was to let racers build their own from homologation blueprints, until they saw the desire/popularity of them for street use and then decided to produce them.

[crossboss]

Boys,
There is an interesting topic over at the Boss 302 site concerning the spoiler/wing 'effectiveness' on downforce. Not so much about the 'availability' of it. None the less, an engineer who worked on the NASCAR Mopar wing cars had started the debate. Reason I am writing this, I believe it is a nice read and quite informative. Check it out:
http://www.boss302.com/smf/index.php?topic=85652.0

[KurtS]

Interesting because I see some cars in the first TA race had spoilers. And the Penske cars soon had them, IIRC.
Do we know if Yenko's spoilers were the same height?

[cook_dw]

I thought the Yenko spoilers were molded into the deck lid?  Or was that for '68?

[Jon Mello]

Penske's car got a spoiler for the first race and so did Craig Fisher's car and Joie Chitwood's.  The Penske car had three bolts attaching the spoiler and you could see them externally from the top.  The Johnny Moore gold Z did not get it until the second race at Sebring.  As I said, I know the Chitwood car had a handmade spoiler done from a blueprint supplied by Chevrolet.  I don't know what other's did but not every car that raced in Trans-Am in '67 had a spoiler.  It was probably about half of them that did.  I have not studied the Yenko spoilers enough but I believe the first ones were stock height and bolted to a stock deck lid.  I have seen a molded in rear spoiler on a white '68 Yenko but don't know if that was a one-off or if others were also done like that.

[Jon Mello]

I posted this informative spoiler technical article 8 years ago.  It doesn't cover anything to do with spoiler availability in '67 though.

http://www.camaros.org/forum/index.php?topic=10017.msg73888#msg73888

[KurtS]

Thanks for the info. I thought I had seen pictures of a Penske car in the first race without spoilers, but looks like I was mistaken.
Notable that the spoilers are called out in the race coverage - "Craig Fisher speeds his spoilered Camaro...." "Donahue and his spoiler equipped car..."

[Jon Mello]

Here are a couple of photos courtesy of Bob Tucker.  The first one shows the car being prepped and the rear spoiler in the midst of fabrication.  The second shows the finished car being picked up by Joie Chitwood Jr just prior to the Daytona Trans-Am with the fabricated rear spoiler installed.

[MO]

I posted this informative spoiler technical article 8 years ago.  It doesn't cover anything to do with spoiler availability in '67 though.

http://www.camaros.org/forum/index.php?topic=10017.msg73888#msg73888

Thanks for posting that again Jon. It's a really good article. I remember reading a book years ago on automotive aerodynamics. It touched on the value of using spoilers on street cars. The results were similar; negligible at legal speed limits. 

[MO]

I bought a 67 Camaro in the mid 70's that had a fiberglass decklid with an integral spoiler. It was not shaped like the factory spoilers. It was shorter in height and only the length of the decklid. I couldn't find anything on it to determine who manufactured it. 

[GMAD_Van Nuys]

According to this article in Hot Rod, the rear spoiler was available in 1967, but was not part of the Z28 package:

https://www.hotrod.com/articles/0706phr-1967-chevy-camaro-z28-history/