Having originally purchased a 1969 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 in 1971, owner Casey Miles has been running this exact car at the drag strip for nearly the car’s entire history. During its four decade tenure at the track, he's also set some quarter-mile records in the classic Chevy muscle car.
In YouTuber Bobby Fazio’s latest video, he interviews the owner of the Z/28, takes us around the car, and shows us the specs and some burnouts for good measure.
The Classic Z/28 Still Tears Up The Drag Strip
When it comes to classic Chevy pony cars, there are more than a few ‘unicorn’ models that all Chevy enthusiasts covet. The most obvious examples are a big power, big block Yenko Super Camaro and the ‘COPO’ ZL1 – with only 201 and 69 units built, respectively.
However, even veteran Chevrolet fans might not have heard of Baldwin-Motion – the result of a franchised New York Chevrolet dealership and a performance tuning shop coming together in the late 1960s to build some supremely fast custom Camaros and Corvettes.
While the Z/28 featured isn’t a big power, custom build, it is an original Baldwin dealership car. That puts this Camaro in a rare place in muscle car history. Despite competing on the strip and the occasional stoplight street race, the car has only racked up just over 23,000 miles according to Miles.
Running in the stock class, NHRA regulations mean that there are a few minor modifications that are either allowed or required to compete. YouTuber Bobby Fazio takes a walk around with Casey, first taking a look under the hood at the small block 302 cu. in. V8. This was originally introduced by Chevrolet as a less powerful, smaller-capacity engine in order to comply with the SCCA Trans-Am regulations and was exclusive to the Z/28 at the time.
Officially rated at 290 hp to satisfy the 1 hp per ci requirements of Trans-Am, and to lower the cost of owners’ insurance, the real power output was closer to 309 hp. As allowed by the NHRA stock class regulations, Casey fitted an aftermarket quick fuel aluminum carburetor and replaced the original Holley 780. He also added some heat shielding to stop the manifold from igniting fuel from the carburetor.
This 1969 Camaro Runs In The NHRA Stock Class
Casey also fitted a Jerico 4-speed transmission, a new rear axle, and 5.57 ratio gearing, as well as some necessary safety features like an electronic cut-off and a full roll-cage.
Casey does stress that the car is fully street-legal, however, with a working radio, windshield wipers, and a full 2.5-inch exhaust. Casey can also run directly through the headers for a bit of extra power, but the gains are marginal he says. He finds it amusing to confuse other competitors by switching between the two exhaust modes before setting off down the drag strip.
The Z/28 has also had a full body respray last year. However, all the metal is original with Casey keeping the original paint on the firewall for added authenticity.
Casey's Camaro ran an 11.20 second time at 119 mph at the Baby Gators Class Elimination event in Florida recently, which is 0.19 off of the car’s record. Casey is chasing the elusive 10-second time though, all while also still enjoying the Camaro on the streets of New York and Florida.