The executives who nearly didn't approve the Camaro, the engineer who made it a racer, the designer who ties it to both the Corvette and the Mustang, and the drivers who won with it.
~30 years at Chevrolet
Chevrolet product performance chief, “father of the Z/28”
Vince Piggins spent roughly 30 years in Chevrolet performance engineering without a formal engineering degree and rose to head of product performance. That made him the man with final sign-off on what could be built through the Central Office Production Order (COPO) system.
1927–1987
Racer and dealer behind the Yenko Super Camaro
Don Yenko was an SCCA national champion (B Production, 1962 and 1963) who ran performance work at his family's Chevrolet dealership in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. He made his name modifying Corvairs (the “Stinger”) before turning to Camaros in 1967, swapping in Corvette 427s.
1930–1997
Designer: Corvette and Boss 302
Larry Shinoda links the GM and Ford performance stories. Working under Bill Mitchell in GM's "Studio X," he was central to the 1963 Corvette Sting Ray and the Mako Shark show car. He later followed Bunkie Knudsen to Ford and shaped the Boss 302 Mustang.
1916–1988
Chevrolet general manager at launch
Pete Estes became Chevrolet Division general manager in 1965 and introduced the Camaro publicly in September 1966. At the June 28, 1966 naming press conference he joked that everyone present was a charter member of the “Society for the Elimination of Panthers from the Automotive World” (a jab at the car's code name) before revealing “Camaro.”
1912–1998
GM executive who left for Ford
As Chevrolet's general manager, Bunkie Knudsen reportedly rejected an early Camaro-precursor clay before the Mustang-driven revival of the project. Passed over for the GM presidency (it went to Ed Cole, who revived the Camaro program), he left GM in February 1968 to become president of Ford, where he was responsible for the Boss 302 and Boss 429 Mustang programs before losing a power struggle to Lee Iacocca.
b. 1937
Team owner of the championship Trans-Am Camaros
Roger Penske's Sunoco-sponsored team, with Mark Donohue driving, turned the Z/28 into a genuine championship car, winning the SCCA Trans-Am manufacturers' titles for Chevrolet in 1968 and 1969. Donohue's book The Unfair Advantage describes the team's rules-stretching preparation (the acid-dipped “Lightweight” 1967 car) and its sub-two-minute pit stops.
1937–1975
Driver of the Penske Trans-Am Camaros
Mark Donohue drove the Penske/Sunoco Z/28s to Chevrolet's 1968–69 Trans-Am manufacturers' titles, winning 10 of 13 races in 1968. His book The Unfair Advantage is the primary source for the team's “Team Unfair Advantage” nickname and its meticulous, rules-bending preparation.
42 years at GM
Modern Camaro chief engineer, “Mr. Camaro”
Al Oppenheiser was Camaro chief engineer from roughly 2007 to 2018. He oversaw the fifth-generation revival and the sixth-generation Alpha car, including the ZL1, 1LE and Z/28 programs, and the Camaro led its segment in sales every year from 2010 through 2014 on his watch.
1909–1977
Chevrolet general manager, then GM president
Ed Cole was the GM executive who pushed the Camaro into production. He was running GM's car and truck operations when the Ford Mustang arrived in April 1964, he championed a fast answer to it, and in 1967 he became GM president.
1925–2005
Pontiac chief engineer, then general manager
John Z. DeLorean was Pontiac's chief engineer and, from 1965, its general manager. He wanted a two-seat Pontiac sports car, the Banshee. What GM gave him instead was a Pontiac version of the Camaro's F-body: the Firebird.
1931–1988
Chevrolet Studio 2 chief designer, project XP-836
Henry Haga was chief designer of the first Camaro, which took shape in Chevrolet Studio 2 while it was still known only as project XP-836.
1960s–present
Dana, Nickey, Baldwin-Motion, Berger, Yenko
Independent Chevrolet dealers turned Camaros into cars Chevrolet itself would not sell. A few of them, working with Vince Piggins, got the factory to build big-block cars through the COPO system.
1932–1971
Drag racer and engine builder, “Mr. Chevrolet”
Dick Harrell raced at the front of NHRA and AHRA competition and was the engineer behind several of the dealer-tuner Camaros, even though those cars are filed under the dealerships' names.
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Dealer behind the COPO 9560 ZL1 order
Fred Gibb was a small-town Illinois Chevrolet dealer, not originally a performance dealer at all, and he is the reason the most extreme factory Camaro ever built exists. In the summer of 1968 he went to Vince Piggins wanting a purpose-built NHRA drag car, and the result was COPO 9560, the all-aluminum ZL1 427.
1921–2009
Chevrolet tuner: the Cheetah, then Nickey's 427 Camaros
Bill Thomas connects Chevrolet's racing and dealer-tuner histories: Corvette development, the Cheetah sports racer and 427 Camaro work with Nickey Chevrolet. A period trade-show display documents that Camaro partnership.
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