Model year · Second Generation
1976 Camaro
Still no Z28, while Pontiac cleans up
Camaro sells strongly, but has no answer to Pontiac's Trans Am — the pressure that brings the Z28 back.
With the Z28 still absent, Camaro leaned on its base and Type LT trims for 1976 and sold 182,959 cars. The conspicuous gap was performance: Pontiac's Firebird Trans Am sold over 46,000 units in 1976 — half of all Firebird volume — while Camaro had nothing to answer it. That embarrassment is what pushed Chevrolet to revive the Z28 mid-1977.
A battered mid-1970s Camaro later became the “before” form of Bumblebee in the 2007 Transformers film; the Petersen Automotive Museum labels its displayed example a 1976, though most retrospectives say 1977.
Open questions
Still unresolved:
- Exact model year of the Transformers “Bumblebee before” Camaro — 1976 (Petersen label) vs. 1977 (most retrospectives)