Is "stance" important?

[black69]

Here is that silver car with a wheel change. Looks like he brought the rear tire in a bit with a different offset (does not go past wheel lip, hard to tell). Even looks a bit different in front (lowered?). I like the slot look just as much actually.

[Stefano]

Very good looking Camaro, however it is not a 427 Conversion.







Story and photos by Geoff Stunkard




Guys like Don Yenko and Dick Harrell ignored GM’s notorious “under 400-cid” rule to make 427 beasts out of Camaros, Chevelles and Novas. Bill Thomas, who spearheaded Nickey Chevrolet’s supercar program on the west coast, laid hands on the car you see here, but curiously it isn’t a 427.

In last month’s MaxChevy, we recounted Tom Billigen’s unconverted COPO 9737 Yenko Camaro. Unlike Billigen’s Camaro, this car was sold new with an L35 396 (325-hp), to a Long Beach, CA, couple. The husband was a performance enthusiast with a small-block road-racing Corvette. The Camaro was for his wife, who really dug the Seafrost Green factory paint.

Bill Thomas Race Cars (BTRC), in Anaheim, CA, was one builder who’d stuck around following the GM racing ban of 1963. He built and marketed his nasty, flyweight, Corvette-powered Cheetah competition sports cars, partnered with Dick Harrell on several mid-1960s racecars, and was known as one of the masters of performance during this era.

After the wife’s new Camaro was soundly beaten in a street race by a 390 Mustang, they asked Thomas about a solution. The obvious would have been the full-tilt Nickey-style treatment by BTRC, with a crate-fresh 427, but the budget wasn’t hefty enough to make that happen. Thomas agreed to increase the capabilities of the month-old 396ci F-body with the idea of beating any other “stock” street car. He began with a solid-lifter cam, 3.73:1 gears, and a tachometer. Out on the boulevard, though, it wasn’t quite enough grunt, so back to Thomas it went.

Here's What's New!

Tweaked iron oval-port heads, tube headers, and big Holley on a single-plane Offenhauser intake manifold were put on top and Thomas’s crew reworked the TH400 with stronger internals and a high-stall B&M converter. The Camaro was moving from grocery getter to ticket collector. Still, the yen prevailed. It returned to Thomas for its grand finale – aluminum heads, another Offy intake with two Carter AFBs, and a 4.56:1 rear. Ancillary to the nearly un-streetable driveline was a fiberglass hood and bigger sway bars for better handling. The owner later admitted that the 396 mover was “dangerously fast, almost too fast and that…it would have cost the same to swap in the 427.”

Parked in the early ‘70s when the OPEC mullahs first tightened the oil spigot, the Camaro was like a lot of golden age street machines: the owner kept it garaged and finally let it go, in 1984. Its new owner held unto it until 2000, knowing nothing about its heritage, and offered it for sale simply as a numbers-matching SS396 Camaro with spare parts. Troy Criscillis bought it and planned to restore it to stock condition at his shop in Maryville, TN.

“There was lot of interesting stuff on the car, but I didn’t know what it was until I began trying to find the first owner,” says Troy. “Luckily, at that time, Bill Thomas was still able to identify some of the cars he had worked on.”

"Here's What's New!

Troy sent a cover letter and several photos and got a polite call back from Thomas soon afterward. There was no paperwork on the cars that he had converted himself, so he was interested in seeing some more photos of the car and the parts on it. After double-checking the details, Bill Thomas agreed that his shop had made the changes, basing his decision on several factors. First, the background story from the original owner, that Thomas faintly remembered and one he knew could not have been faked. Second, some of the special parts would not have been chosen without Bill’s suggestions or the customer specifically requesting them, especially the 1.25-inch front and 1.0-inch rear anti-sway bars. More importantly, there were small changes and identifying marks that Thomas said were on this car but had never been divulged in print.

Troy’s Rat Pack Restorations began a full-tilt procedure. After he and Don Johnston fixed up the bodywork, they took the car Twin City Collision (Alcoa, TN) for the final paint. The interior, a deluxe version with a Strato-back front bench seat (RPO AL4), plus power windows and wood grain steering wheel, needed only a carpet and rear package tray to finish it off. The Stewart-Warner instruments originally installed by BTRC were left right where they were.

While this was going on, a package arrived from Thomas. It contained a die-cast Camaro drag car autographed by Bill to Troy’s son Tyler, who is autistic. Bill also enclosed original BTRC decals. When Troy asked him about the price of the model car, Bill replied, “That is Tyler’s car. You’ll have to talk to him!” When asked how much for the decals, Bill said, “Nothing, just don’t put any of those Nickey emblems on there.”

As the job progressed, Troy consulted with Bill about the engine. They decided to use the original iron heads from the parts stash in place of the worn L89-style aluminum versions and put the twin Carter/Offenhauser set-up between them. They also used a Comp Cams camshaft with specs similar to the one Thomas had originally installed. Fresh Hooker headers feed into the replicated Bill Thomas exhaust system, which Broadway Muffler assembled with removable race pipes. BTRC went through the driveline as well, swapping in those NOS Bill Thomas traction bars for the Thomas rear sway bar, and using NOS US Indy slotted mags wheels instead of the Torq-Thrust versions the car had worn in its glory days.

Rat Pack Restorations finished the car in 2004, and it has been shown occasionally since, with its latest award being a Top Five Mighty Muscle pick at 2006 Shades of the Past and Hot Rod Round Up in Pigeon Forge. " Geoff Stunkard.

[black69]

Great info on that car. Never knew that til today. I remember when I got my 65 vette, I bought a book off ebay that was about steps Bill Thomas used to get 500HP out of a stock L78 396 by just blue printing, and doing nothing else. I bet that 396 was pushing way north of that after Bill Thomas was done with it with the twin carbs and the headers....

[ZiggyL78]

WOW!

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: black69</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Here is that silver car with a wheel change. Looks like he brought the rear tire in a bit with a different offset (does not go past wheel lip, hard to tell). Even looks a bit different in front (lowered?). I like the slot look just as much actually.
</div></div>

[VintageMusclecar]

Every once in a while you run across a car that literally stops you in your tracks.

This is one of those times.

That is hands-down the best looking 1st gen Camaro I've ever seen... [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/worship.gif[/img]

[WILMASBOYL78]

I agree...a simple straight forward muscle car...they got it right!

wilma

[black69]

I cant tell what kind of tires those are on the back. They play into making the stance perfect, not too tall like sportsmans, not so thin, like mickey thompsons N50s....
I would want that exact set up.

[ss427copo]

Stunning car. One of the nicest 67's IMO.
Here again, this link provides all of us some of the best looking and &quot;stance displays&quot; on the 'net!

Keep posting guyz and galz.

[L72copocamaro]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: ss427copo</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Stunning car. One of the nicest 67's IMO.
Here again, this link provides all of us some of the best looking and &quot;stance displays&quot; on the 'net!

Keep posting guyz and galz. </div></div>

It's a 68, and it is indeed period perfect. That guy nailed it.

[ss427copo]

Big fingers.........