Royal Camaro's Golden Anniversary At Amelia Island Concours

February 17, 2017 by Amelia Island Concours

GM brass wasn't enthusiastic about adding a sixth model to Chevrolet's 1967 model lineup . . . until they saw the prototype. It was a knockout. The new Chevy, codenamed Panther, began to appear in the automotive business journals and enthusiast publications more than a half-century ago.

Anything General Motors did was big news in those days. In the wake of Ford's Mustang a new addition to a class of one, especially from the world's biggest and most powerful auto maker, was seismic news.

The formal name for Chevy's new sporty car came from a 30 year old French/English dictionary: Camaro meant 'pal', 'comrade' or 'warm friend.' The marketing guys, just like the designers, nailed it. Camaro.

'The Camaro brought affordable world class design to American car showrooms,' said Bill Warner, founder and Chairman of the Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance. 'When experts, critics and even competing designers compare a mass production design such as the Camaro to a Ferrari Lusso you know you've struck gold.'

The centerpiece of the 22nd annual Amelia Concours Camaro class will be Camaro Number One, the gold 1967 coupe VIN number 10001. Also in the class will be 1968 and '69 Yenko Camaros, a 1969 Indy 500 RS/SS Pace Car, a 1973 Baldwin Motion Camaro plus a COPO Camaro and several significant generation one and two Camaros.

'With a big list of models and options one could build a very personalized Camaro,' said Warner. 'Camaros were road racing and drag racing champions, luxury GT cars, Saturday night cruisers, top-down beach cruisers, you name it. Now they've taken their rightful place as true modern classics.'

The first warning shot that GM was poised to enter the sporty car market was Chevy's Super Nova that debuted at the 1964 New York Auto Show just two weeks before the Mustang was introduced. Chevy followed up with the XP-836 and that high concept design codified the Camaro look.

GM was flexing its design muscles: the prototype Camaro shape spent eleven days in the Ling-Temco-Vought wind tunnel outside Dallas, TX. The tunnel really liked the shape of the new Chevy.

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About The Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance

Now in its third decade, the Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance is among the top automotive events in the world. Always held the second full weekend in March, 'The Amelia' draws over 250 rare vehicles from collections around the world to The Golf Club of Amelia Island and The Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island for a celebration of the automobile like no other. Since 1996, the show's Foundation has donated over $3.0 million to Community Hospice of Northeast Florida, Inc., Spina Bifida of Jacksonville, The Navy Marine Corps Relief Society, Shop with Cops, and other deserving charities. In 2013 and 2016 the Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance won Octane Magazine's EFG International Historic Motoring Event of the Year award.The 22nd annual Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance is scheduled for March 10-12, 2017. For more information, visit www.ameliaconcours.org.