Saluting the Camaro's 30th birthday, we test the top runner from '67 against a new '97.

Listen, we're as surprised as you are that Jerry MacNeish of Randallstown, Maryland, let us thrash his concours-caliber 1967 Chevrolet Camaro Z28. Of the 130 or so '67 Z28s that have survived intact--of just 602 built--MacNeish's car is quite possibly the best, thanks to a painstaking and expensive restoration.

But lending us his car was worth it, says MacNeish, who is 44. "Some of the guys in the show-car arena, they're gonna say, 'MacNeish! What an ass! Look what he did to his car!' But I'm not afraid. And I think it was for a good cause."

The cause is this story, comparing his 1967 Z28 with a 1997 30th-anniversary Z28 like the one that paced August's NASCAR Brickyard 400 race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Every 1997 Camaro will have 30th-anniversary imprints on the front seats. Z28 owners can celebrate the big three-oh with an option package, which buys white, five-spoked wheels that are doomed to be blackened with brake dust at every stop, retro black-and-white houndstooth-check cloth upholstery that received profoundly mixed reviews, and monochrome white paint with a pair of flashy orange stripes running up the hood and down the roof and hatch. The package adds $2336 to the price of a Z28 coupe, or $2301 to the convertible's sticker, including the power convenience packages that must be ordered with it. If that's not special enough, you can vie for one of 900 anniversary-edition Z28 SSs or 100 extra-special Z28 SS LT4 models (see sidebar)--all prepared by Street Legal Performance in Montreal. We tested a garden-variety anniversary Z28 and the top-drawer SS LT4 against MacNeish's original.

Little else is different from last year's 29th un-anniversary Camaro. New are an improved instrument panel and taillights that include an amber lens (very international). Mechanically, our '97 Z28 carried over the 285-horsepower 5.7-liter V-8 with a four-speed automatic transmission.

MacNeish's 1967 Z28 is a gorgeous Tahoe Turquoise, one of 48 Zs painted that color. It is also one of the 254 Rally Sport models (covered headlights are the most obvious tip-off). If a 1967 Z28 actually has Z28 engraved anywhere on the car, it isn't a real one. There was no badging (expect for the RS on Rally Sport models), and no rear spoiler. Badging came with the 1968 Z28, of which Chevrolet sold 10 times more copies than in 1967. (Why? "Nobody knew about the Z28 in 1967," MacNeish comments. "Only Car and Driver and Sports Car Graphic paid any attention to it.")

Chevrolet had hoped to build 1000 1967 Z28s, but it fell nearly 400 short. The sole reason for the Z28 was that the Sports Car Club of America had limited the engine size for its Trans-Am series to less than 5.0 liters and required that the engine be available to the public. Chevy's 283-cubic-inch V-8 wasn't offered in the Camaro, and the 327, 350, and 396 engines were too big for the rules. Chevy took the 283's crankshaft and put it in the 327's block, added heads from the Corvette's 327, a Holley four-barrel and a high-rise manifold, and voilą!--the resulting 302-cubic-inch V-8, rated at a conservative 290 horsepower at 5800 rpm, was a very competitive Trans-Am car.

MacNeish's Z28 was sold new at Rudolph Chevrolet in Phoenix, Arizona, with a sticker price of $3980. MacNeish paid $7250 for it in running-but-rough condition in 1990; the body and the interior were shot, but the drivetrain was intact.

MacNeish, a calibration specialist with Master Metrology in Towson, Maryland, spent the next seven months restoring it. Peter's Body Shop in Reisterstown did the paint and body work. Mancini Machine in Catonsville did the machine work on the engine; MacNeish did the rest. The car was completed in July 1991. Two years later, MacNeish turned down a $45,000 offer.

Despite the nearly perfect restoration, 30-year-old technology is, well, 30 years old. Although the engine feels nearly as strong as the 1997 Z28's, the four-speed Muncie transmission resists quick shifting. The overboosted power steering, coupled with the huge, thin-rimmed steering wheel and super-narrow 7.35-15 Goodyear Power Cushion two-ply nylon tires, makes racetrack handling startlingly vague, with feedback limited to the auditory volume of tire squeal. MacNeish's Z28 wears a set of original red-stripe Power Cushions, as did every 1967 Z28 delivered. Each tire is worth $800 now, as no reproduction tires are available in the correct size and configuration.

By (unfair) comparison, our 1997 Z28 had excellent P245/50ZR-16 Goodyear Eagle GS-C radials, traction control, and four-wheel disc brakes with anti-lock. It handled corners with aplomb and launched off the starting line with little drama. MacNeish's Z28 suffered from serious wheel hop on the starting line: The '67 Z had only a right-side traction arm ("The first thing people did when they bought one of these was bolt on a set of traction bars," MacNeish says). For 1968, Chevrolet staggered the Camaro's rear shocks, which helped considerably.

As you'd suspect, the overall sensation of driving the two cars is quite different. In the new Z28, you basically sit on the floor, forehead only a few inches from the sun visor, a result of the nearly horizontal windshield. On the older Z, you're sitting in what feels like a padded chair, up high, though with plenty of headroom. You strike a sort of commanding presence, but don't expect much lateral support from the seats as you drift through the corners, serenaded by the moaning from tires almost as narrow as a modern temporary spare.

Still, MacNeish's car very nearly duplicated our 1967 test results, despite the fact that our original test car was one of two prototypes Chevy built, with a rear spoiler and a less-restrictive exhaust. In 1967, we estimated our Z's top speed at 124 mph, which MacNeish's car reached. Our quarter-mile time was 14.9 seconds, about a half-second quicker than MacNeish's Z28, which had a single-muffler factory exhaust. Not surprisingly, the '97 convertible was six-tenths quicker, and the SS LT4 blew it away.

In all, a fine performance from a gorgeous car. "These solid-lifter horsepower cars from the '60s," MacNeish says, "people can't get enough of 'em. I get calls from kids who are 18 or 20 years old who are into restoring one, and that's great. It'll keep these cars alive for a long time."

The Baddest Z Yet?

In some respects, this is the true successor to Jerry MacNeish's car. It's the race-bred limited-edition Camaro of choice for future collectors--the SLP-produced Z28 SS LT4. It sits at the top of a broadening range of SLP-tuned Camaros, and it promises to be the fastest dealer-delivered Camaro in the land.

Base SLP-prepared Z28 SSs can be distinguished from garden-variety Z28s by a flared-nostril air intake on the hood (designed to ram more air into the engine), a deeper and longer rear spoiler, SS exterior badging, 17-inch aluminum wheels, and BFGoodrich Comp T/A P275/40ZR-17 tires. Cosmetically, there's special fabric for the seats, SS-embroidered headrests and floor mats, and a plaque on the dashboard that identifies the limited-edition model number for each SS. The base price is $24,864.

In 1996, SLP upgraded 2419 Camaro Z28s into SS models, and demand quickly exceeded supply. In 1997, SLP has plans to produce 2000 Z28 SSs, plus 900 30th-anniversary Z28 SSs with the orange stripes (for an added $349). These ram-air-induction LT1 V-8-powered models boast 305 hp, 20 more than in a 1997 Z28.

But there's a third car. As an added birthday bonus, SLP will produce 100 30th-anniversary Z28 SSs powered by the 330-hp LT4 Corvette V-8, an engine transplant that required significant intake-manifold reengineering to compensate for the Camaro's more restrictive exhaust system. The price of this 30th-anniversary Camaro Z28 SS LT4 is about $38,000.

Before we took the SS LT4 to the track, we reviewed past performance figures. In our "Musclecar Triathlon" comparison (December 1995), a 1996 Z28 SS accelerated from 0 to 60 mph in 4.9 seconds and ran the quarter-mile in 13.6 seconds at 106 mph. Oddly enough, the new SS LT4 turned 0 to 60 mph in 5.0 seconds and ran the quarter-mile in 13.6 seconds at 105 mph. With 25 more horsepower, we expected the 1997 LT4 SS to be two- to three-tenths of a second quicker than last year's model. Maybe the 1996 SS, with 10,000 miles on its odometer, was better broken in (our prototype 1997 SS had clocked only 700 miles), or maybe it was a cheater. We suspect the answer is "all of the above."

Even though the test results make it look as if the latest SS is virtually the same as a 1996 model, the new SS LT4 feels vastly improved on the road. SLP says the number-one complaint from customers was that the ride was too harsh and jarring in everyday driving. All SS models benefit from revised spring rates, new anti-roll bars, and significant shock-valving refinements. The combined result is a ride that's not unlike a stock Camaro's, with no loss of grip--the 1997 SS equaled the 1996's skidpad performance of 0.89 g.

Pitch the SS LT4 into a corner, and it delivers controllable understeer with minimal kickback at the wheel rim. The tail can be coaxed out with a nudge of the throttle, but this too is easily countered. The new suspension's predictable behavior should instill owners with the confidence to probe the lofty limits of this rare car. Maybe one of those owners will lend us one for the Camaro's 60th anniversary. --Bradley Nevin

The Z28 Marches, Storms, and Slogs through History

Thirty years of Chevrolet Camaro history means a bit less than that of Camaro Z28 history, as the performance model was dropped by Chevrolet in 1975 when, hat in hand, the company essentially admitted how ashamed it was to even think of building a performance car in that grim era of gas consciousness. (It was not quite ashamed enough to drop the Corvette.) The Z28 returned in mid-1977.

In Car and Driver's March 1967 test of the original Z28 (price, $4051), we said the Z suggested that Chevrolet "is on the way towards making the gutsy stormer the Camaro should have been in the first place." The 290-hp 302-cubic-inch V-8 and four-speed manual transmission took us down the quarter-mile in 14.9 seconds at 97 mph and from 0 to 60 mph in 6.7 seconds.

May 1970: We test the second-generation Z28--introduced in February of that year--finding that it was "not as thrilling as it once was." At $4476, this all-new Z "seems much tamer than it once did," despite the Z's first 5.7-liter V-8 and its 360 horsepower. The quarter-mile time was 14.2 seconds at 100.3 mph; 0 to 60 mph in 5.8 seconds. Despite our apprehension, more than two decades would pass before a new Z28 would run that fast for us again.

September 1973: Our $4855 four-speed Z28 ran the quarter-mile in 15.2 seconds at 94.6 mph and did 0 to 60 mph in 6.7 seconds. Now down to 245 horsepower (this begins the era of "net" instead of "gross" horsepower; net is more realistic), we suggested that, among other things, the "feeble intake system" meant the "lightning-fast reflexes of the old Z28 are but a memory."

August 1975: With no Z28, we reluctantly test a $5874 Rally Sport with a limp 155-hp 5.7-liter engine and appropriately dismal flat-black paint on the hood. The quarter-mile time was 16.8 seconds at 81.5 mph; 0 to 60 mph took 8.5 seconds. "The RS is only a halfhearted hint of the blood-bailing Z28 of yore," we wrote. So dreadful was this period of automotive history that we even had trouble finding competitive cars to pit it against. On our performance bar graphs, we chose, of all things, the Toyota Corona, the Chevy Monza two-plus-two, and the Lotus Elite.

April 1977: We celebrate the return of the Z28--in name, anyway--cheerfully noting that the "Z28 is a special automobile." We produce a quarter-mile in 16.3 seconds at 83 mph; 0 to 60 mph in 8.6 seconds; and a top speed of 105 mph at the 5000-rpm redline.

January 1982: "The body is so gorgeous, grown men will blush," we said of the new third-generation Camaro Z28. Unfortunately, "the engine room is a disaster area." At stoplights, "the Z28 is Emily Post polite: Everyone else goes first." Our test car had an estimated $12,000 sticker price, a three-speed automatic, and a 165-hp 5.0-liter V-8. The quarter-mile time was 16 seconds at 85 mph; 0 to 60 mph was 7.9 seconds.

October 1984: Things were looking up when we tested the first 1985 IROC-Z, so dubbed because the Camaro had become the official International Race of Champions car (the IROC name continued through 1990). The 5.0-liter V-8 in our test car had 190 horsepower; we chose that version over the 215-hp LB9 because the lower-output engine could be had with a five-speed manual transmission instead of the LB9's mandatory automatic. The quarter-mile was 15.4 seconds at 90 mph; 0 to 60 mph was 7.5 seconds.

June 1987: We comparison-tested an IROC-Z against a Mustang GT and a Pontiac Firebird Formula. The IROC finished last. At $18,083, the Camaro "can hang in there on the road, but it gets smoked at the loan officer's desk."

December 1993: Finally, the 1993, fourth-generation Camaro Z28 arrived, and we were unanimously delighted. In our comparison test, the $20,590 Z28 positively trounced the $19,150 Mustang GT. The Z28's healthy 275-hp 5.7-liter V-8 pushed the car to a 14.1-second quarter-mile at 101 mph. The 0-to-60-mph time was 5.4 seconds; top speed was 156 mph.

Not much has changed since, and likely won't until about 2001, when we expect the fifth-generation Camaro and Z28. --SCS