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Old 02-28-2014, 03:43 AM
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A History of the L78 in 1967-

In 1967 Chevrolet had determined that no vehicle would be fitted with an engine that produced more than 1bhp for every 10 pounds of weight other than their flagship the Corvette. At 3,325 pounds for the base V8 convertible the Camaro was the second lightest vehicle available from Chevrolet that year, even lighter than the Corvette by a mere 35 pounds. By the end of 1966 it seemed that the Camaro had received all the engines that Chevy was going to give it with the late introduction of the L35 325hp 396 in November and the 290hp 302 Z28 near the end of the calendar year in December.

On March 17th 1967 that all changed. A rule in both NHRA and AHRA had been introduced earlier giving a special weight break to convertibles and the door was open for any manufacturer willing to shoehorn a high horse big block into the engine bay of lightweight car. On the 17th Chevrolet announced it was adding the potent L78 375hp (rated) 396 to the Camaro engine lineup to its dealers. Although the new engine was said to be a detuned version of the 1965 Corvette 396 which was rated at 425hp many beg to differ. The 1967 version used the same, bore, stroke, cam, compression, cfm, in fact the 1967 specifications were identical in every respect except for one. The hp rating in 1965 was 425 at 6,400rpm, in 1967 the rating had dropped to 375 at 5,600rpm. No matter how you rate it a potent combination was created and the other manufacturer racers were about to be educated in exactly what the rear of a Camaro looked like as they would be seeing it often. When talking to the vintage racers of these cars they all stated the same thing, out of the box with very little tuning these cars were capable of pulling into the low 12’s with 4.10’s in the rear. Unfortunately we have no proof of this in hand and a road test was never done to record it, instead the 1967 L78 Chevelle Coupe numbers were used as reference.

It was never advertised in 1967 that the new RPO L78 was able to be had by anyone willing to check off the RPO and pay the then whopping $500.35 when placing their order. When these cars were ordered they came in all varieties from the ultimate low option stripped race car shown here to wildly optioned examples with everything from disc brakes to tilt wheels. In total 1,138 L78’s were produced for the Camaro line, of which we are not sure just how many were convertibles as Chevrolet did not keep records. If you play the percentages game there would have been approximately 132 produced. Popular predictions from researchers of these cars range from 70 to 140 depending on who you talk to. In the end the one pictured above is one of 36 known confirmed examples (based on the Camaro registry kept by Mike aka 67L78conv on this site) and one of just 5 that are confirmed to retain their original drive line.

The History of the “BATCAR”-

On a cold rainy day in April of 1967, ok, we have no idea what day it was or what it was like. Some time in April Dave Conner of Rod Shop race driver infamy walked into Mahlen Maxton Chevrolet in Worthington Ohio and proceeded to check off the boxes for a new Camaro destined to be an all out terror on the race track. In the end he only checked off three boxes, RPO L78 for the 375hp 396, RPO M21 for the Muncie close ratio 4 speed transmission (yes the Muncie M21 was an option in 1967 that all but 7 L78 buyers purchased) and lastly the G80 Posi rear with 4.10 gears. The final color decision was black, black top with gold interior. After some time word came down that there was a delay in getting the car with the 4.10 rear and he would either have to wait or take a different gear ratio which he opted for to speed things up and had the dealer change the gears out to the correct 4.10’s. Conner wasted no time getting the car on the track, in fact he had only changed the tires, not even taking the window sticker out of it before making his first ¼ mile pass in it. If there was ever any question of just what a brute these cars were like out of the box just take a look at the front end lift in this literally day two photo.
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Old 02-28-2014, 03:45 AM
rare4k rare4k is offline
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Old 02-28-2014, 03:46 AM
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Old 02-28-2014, 03:46 AM
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Old 03-01-2014, 12:09 AM
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Default Re: bat car L78

I've read this story somewhere before, but it's still a great read and an amazing car.
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Old 03-01-2014, 02:51 PM
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Default Re: bat car L78

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: old5.0</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I've read this story somewhere before, but it's still a great read and an amazing car. </div></div>

In the Members Rides...here: Chris P's Bat Car...
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Old 03-27-2014, 06:54 PM
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Default Re: bat car L78

OMG...amazing car, story...I need more...UPDATE, PLEASE UPDATE!
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Old 03-27-2014, 09:11 PM
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Default Re: bat car L78

Awesome story... terrific car!
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Old 05-01-2014, 02:46 AM
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Default Re: bat car L78

Great story and pics !!
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