TwitchZ28

There's a thirdgen that's been in my family since new. My grandmother ordered it originally, and my father has had it since I was very little. I always coveted that car, and it's been very disappointing to see it sit broken in the barn for the last 20 years. So now that I'm looking to take on a project car I've been trying to talk my father into selling it to me, since it's clear he's never going to do anything with it.
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I have some questions though, because the car seems like an odd duck. I haven't laid eyes on the car in a few years, so I'm just going off my memory and what he's told me.

It's a 1989 RS that he claims has a "z28 package". He claims he has dealer paperwork showing this, but I haven't been able to find anything online indicating this was actually an option in '89. I'm pretty confident the car is not an IROC. It's got a TBI 305 with a manual behind it, RS badges(I think), and is a hard-top. No IROC decals that I can remember.

Am I missing something here? Is it possible that Z28 was a suspension package for one year or something?

Thanks

gt4373

Their Were No Z28's In 1989,How Could There Be A Z28 Package

chazman

iTrader: (4)

Post a picture of the SPID sticker located in the console and all questions will be answered.

Knucklehead39

All 1989 Z-28s were IROC-Zs, though they could have been ordered without the graphics. If it's an RS, it's almost certainly not a IROC-Z. That said, many of the Z-28 components could have been ordered as options. There should be a sticker inside the console glove box that lists the regular production options and would indicate the IROC-Z model designation (or not).

Drew

iTrader: (58)

Plenty of things a person could call a "Z28 package" but it'd be bench racing shorthand, lingo, slang, layman's terms for those things. Certainly wasn't a "Z28 package" or "option" on the 89 RS.

The RS was the base model Camaro from 89-92. It was pretty much GM's way of making the car more attractive to buyers by making all Camaros look like the earlier Z28. A lot of parts on the RS were right out of the Z28 parts bin, like all the body panels (sans hood), the wheels, tail lights, etc. A well optioned RS and a poorly optioned Z28 could even have close to the same suspension, same engine, etc. So there are plenty of conversational aspects of the car that a person could communicate as "the Z28 package", that the sales brochures might refer to as "Z28 style" or something similar, but there wasn't an actual Z28 package or option available.

The most likely explanation is that an RS is an Orange, and a Z28 is an Apple. Everyone prefers Apples and considers them better, they're more expensive. So rather than to say "I bought an Orange, people like to say "I bought an Orange, but it's JUST LIKE an Apple!" to make themselves feel better about not buying an apple.

Hope that helps without getting too confusing.

scottmoyer

This is an incorrect statement. In 1989, if the car wasn't an RS, it was a Z28! All Z28s, from 1988 to 1990, had what 1985-1987 considered the IROC-Z appearance package. There is no IROC-Z RPO code from 1988-1990 like there was in 1985-1987. If the car has the Z28 RPO code, then it should have IROC-Z emblems on the car and "may" have the IROC-Z decals and stripes. In 1988, Chevy started offering the car with a graphics delete option (DX3).

If you can look at the car, look for Z28 on the label in the center console. If the emblems all say RS, then you may have an RS.

burnout88

Could it be a B4C police package RS?

chazman

iTrader: (4)

The SPID would be definitive, but it sounds like an RS.

Drew

iTrader: (58)

Not in 89. B4C didn't exist until 91.

burnout88

Thanks, was not sure when B4C was first offered. I agree this thing sounds like a typical RS car.

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

Sounds kinda like typical used-car-seller monkey-spank.

Too bad people can't resist the temptation to make up some wild-a$$ bullplop story and try to use it to take advantage of the uninformed.

Knucklehead39

I have some sympathy for the original poster. As noted by Drew in post #5, in an effort to glam up the base Camaro, Chevy re-titled it as the RS, which previously had been an optional/upgraded trim package (and also made the Z-28 a stand-alone model instead of an optional performance upgrade). As most of us know, earlier Camaros could be had as both a Z-28 AND an RS. Forty or 50 years later, only us Camaro fanatics are likely to remember these details -- and who knows what the car's original purchaser was told by the Chevy salesman in 1989?