1968 Camaro

Facts and Quotes about the 1968 Camaro

The sales literature from 1968 said the second year Camaro was for the “fun crowd” and that it was a “husky performer and looks it.” Chevrolet Marketing
  • The Rally Sport or RS package consisted of concealed headlights and several other appearance upgrades. It was optional on any version including the base model, the Super Sport or the Z/28. Of the 235,137 Camaros produced in 1968, 40,977 had the $105.35 option.
  • A single 1968 Z/28 convertible was built for then Chevrolet general manager Elliott “Pete” Estes.
  • General Motors finally decided to market the Z/28. At first they were not sure about offering the production race car to the masses. Sales took off with almost 7,200 being sold in 1968 compared to sales of a little over 600 in 1967.

Little changed for the second year of Camaro production. Minor changes were made to the front and rear of the car. The square headlights from 1967 were replaced with rectangular ones. Side markers were added and the vents were removed from the windows. All minor stuff which says that overall the designers got it right the first time.
Pony Car fans were well satisfied with the car also. It 1967, Chevrolet sold about 221,000 Camaros. In 1968, sales were over 235,000. The car was well received.

The base Camaro continued to be the car that emphasized looks over performance. The largest engine available in the base lineup was the 327ci small block. It was a good engine but it couldn’t compete with the big blocks or the high performance 302ci found in the Z/28s. The Super Sport or SS continued to be the ground pounder of the group. It was a ¼ mile machine. The Z/28 continued to display its road racing roots. While the SS may have been the power lifter the Z/28 was the tri-athlete of the group.


The Super Sport 396 package included a unique hood with twin banks of four square simulated air intakes, big SS 396 emblems and a host of other performance upgrades. Of course the heart of the car was the 396ci big block. Several versions were offered and they all offered very good performance. The straight line performance of the SS396 was very similar to the Z/28. Because the SS was much cheaper than the Z/28 GM sold about four Super Sports for every Z/28 sold.


General Motors decided to let the public have their Z/28 in 1968. It was still a bare knuckles race car. Air conditioning was not an option. Neither was an automatic transmission. Disk brakes were a mandatory option. All the suspension components were beefed up and many of the other critical drive train components were built up. This was the real thing. Not some badged up pretend muscle car.


Finally, for those not content with the SS396, one chevy dealership offered a more powerful Camaro and became a legend in the process.  The ”Super Yenko Camaro” or SYC was billed as the ultimate Camaro. It’s easy to see why. The fine people at Yenko Sports in Canonsburg Pennsylvania ripped the 396ci big blocks out of about 100 Camaros and replaced it with a 427ci L72 Corvette engine producing at least 425hp. After the engine transfer, they beefed up a few other components, added a unique hood and threw in a few badges for good measure. The result was a $3800 Camaro that could do 0-60 in less than 4 seconds and the ¼ mile in the low 12 second range.



 

1968 Camaro Statistics

  Camaro SS Camaro SS/RS Camaro Z/28
Base Price $2,801 $2,986 $3,297
0-60 Time n/a 7.8 sec 7.4 sec
1/4 Mile Time 14.1 sec @ 99.0 mph 15.6 sec @ 92.0 mph 14.9 sec @ 101.4 mph
Engine Used 396ci/375hp 396ci/325hp 302ci/290hp
Source Popular Hot Rod Motor Trend Car Life

 

Production Numbers

  Hardtop Convertibles Total
Base Model 176,813 20,440 197,253
Super Sport 30,695 Combined - No Breakout Available 30,695
Z/28 7,199 - 7,199
       

 

Available Engines

Code Size Cubic Inch Fuel System Horsepower @ rpm Torque @ rpm
STD I6 230 1x1bbl 140 @ 4400 220 @ 1600
L22 250 1x1bbl 155 @ 4200 235 @ 1600
STD V8 327 1x2bbl 210 @ 4600 320 @ 2400
L30 327 1x4bbl 275 @ 4800 335 @ 3200
L48 350 1x4bbl 295 @ 4800 380 @ 3200
L35 396 1x4bbl 325 @ 4800 410 @ 3200
L34 396 1x4bbl 350 @ 5200 415 @ 3600
L78/L79 396 1x4bbl 375 @ 5600 415 @ 3600
Z28 302 1x4bbl 290 @ 5800 290 @ 4200
L72 427 1x4bbl 425 @ 5400 460 @ 3600
         
External Resources
 

 

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