http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZZAYhtinYM

 

I didn't know this video even existed, nice!

 

Wow....That car was nice.I like the runners on that tuned port.Also those rims look exactly like the 16 inch GTA/GN Rims

 

ya mindlessly seaching youtube finly pays off
one of my onely ??s is y didnt they make them that would have been great seams to me like they would have been the fastest stock 3rd gens ever made

 

Seems like sort of a last ditch attempt to make a special edition though. They threw some better runners on it, and mix-matched parts from other models. Dual cat exhaust, corvette ZF6 trans, B4C suspension, and GTA wheels. You could do all that in a weekend. I think they gave GM too much credit for the "reworked" prototype, it's not really that different.

 

I wonder if the Heritage concept with the higher HP engine & all may have been an attempt to compete with the Firehawk. When push came to shove, Chevrolet saw how well the Hawk did for sales and ditched the idea.

John

 

Damn it! Theres the 5.7 liter with a manual transmission out of the factory that we've all been dying to own!

 

Technically the car did NOT come from the factory with the Manual trans and the L98. THe car was more than likely a 305 Car originally or an Automatic with the L98... I suspect that it was a 305/M5 car that they put a 350 in with the 6 Speed as it would have made the conversion slightly easier...

Lots of people have a 350/M5 combo... Unfortunately no one has the combo that way from the Assembly line, they were all converted... Even the Firehawks which could technically be considered as "Off the factory line" were converted by SLP

 

what about the Pontiac TTA(turbo trans am) with the buick 231 CID Turbo V6?? wasn't the buick GNX one of the fastest production cars in 87 or something?

 

awesome find never seen this video before.

 

awesome vid! what does he mean dated cabin??

 

probley cause its been prety much the same since 82 but hey thats one of my favorit parts of thirdgens

 

Is there any way to download a copy of the video?

 

I got it with a Firefox plug-in & can email it to you. PM me if your interested.

 

It was an RS that was retrofitted with a Vette 5.7L and 6 speed. I have the RPO sheet for that car before it was destroyed.

Mark.

 

Have it as in own it? Pictures?

 

That is one bad*** Camaro, I would love to have that combo, maybe someday

 

you sound like you had a nice little insight in chevrolet to have that.. Pictures PLEASE :-o

 

Mark,
If you post the picture of the RPO sheet, please fudge out the last 4 or so digits of the VIN in the pic so the car cannot be recreated...

John

 

Very true..

 

I found my pics of that car. It was a B4C 1LE car with C60 (A/C). There wasn't any Z28 code either, looks like an RS only. LB9 with 5 speed.

It's sad to see the pics again ... car was cut completely in half. I'll see about putting up a page of pics.

Mark.

 

Thanks dude. Sounds like it sucked for the life of the car but These pictures would almost be historic.

 

There were actually two of these built...one is still in possesion of GM and occassionally makes it out of storage for shows. I've actually just completed restoring an automatic version of this. It's an ex-Texas State Trooper B4C with the 1LE brakes and an L98 5.7 wrapped up in an RS body from the factory. These cars were the only way you could get AC with the 1LE brakes. Very rare...

Here's a link to some more information on these cars...http://www.gmhightechperformance.com...ure/index.html

 

The white with black stripes was the one destroyed. The "other" was a test mule for the 350 6 speed, which went on for other test mule duties. Last I recall it was yellow with a ramjet motor (some GM high tech article years ago).

Neither are around.

Mark.

 

If you rather, you can send the photos to me ( jt@thirdgen.org ) and I'll upload them on TGO's server to display on a webpage.

 

Hey that car just reappeared in the recent magazine of gms High tech magazine. It looks sick.. I bought it and its in the middle of the magazine.

 

From the rarest of archives ...

http://members.shaw.ca/tunedportinje..._never_was.htm

 

Wow these pictures are HISTORIC. How the hell did you get these? damn. I noticed alot of the back grounds are blurred out, is it just because of your jobs safety or something like that? I don't really care but glad these photos have popped up about it.

 

The car that they cut up really was not in perfect shape Hole in the Muffler... I would assume that the other car was in better shape and why they kept it.

John

 

that's just sad. It's amazing that GM does retarded things like this. Why destroy a car when you could auction it off? I'm sure they dont make money by destroying a car. Maybe someone should tell them that some money is better than no money and perhaps they wouldn't be on the road to bankrupcy. Well that, and making cars that people want.

 

look at that factory header

 

i have a book that has pictures of rare prototype camaros, called camaro performance i think (got it a schucks of all places has a blue camaro on front and a history section inside), like throttle body injected 454, a ram jet 454, and a couple more un released ones.......one thing i do know that is rare and on the street is a HARDTOP convertible camaro..it's just a 305, but is a factory hard top convertible...it was a crash test prototype and didn't get wrecked. A friend of mine brother has it and trying to restore it. I will go over and get some pics for everyone.

 

This car WAS the magazine car, as well as the one GM kept and showed - until it's destruction.
----------
It all has to do with liability. It's a test mule. No warranty. Heck, it might not even be "safe" according to the saftey standards. Hence it is easier to destroy it.

Mark.

 

I suspect it probably had more to do with emissions as to sell the car as a corperate entity they would have probably had to get the car tested, and then try to get it certified. The car really had nothing significant done to it structurally did it? If it had a different axel they may have had to backwards barrier crash it like they did the Firehawks to get it certified...

One thing that I really do not understand about one of the articles is they were stating that the car was going through engeneering in 1992, from what I understand it takes at least a year to get all of the certifications like Emissions, Crash tests etc before they can actually sell the car... Normally to my understanding it takes 2 or 3 years to get it all done. If this car was made so late then how would they have had time to actually get it certified???

I suspect that may ahve had something to do with its early cancellation... Does anyone know the NEW cost of a GTA in 1992? I thought a GTA was in the mid $20K's... A $28K Per former Camaro does not seem out of reach for someone who really wants a street racer... Its a WHOLE lot better than a $39,995 Pricetag of the Firehawk...

Of course its all speculation, I was not there, so I really do not know. Unfortunately so much happend to our cars from the emissions & economy standpoint that I would not be surprised if it had something to do with it. Besides If it was me desinging the car I would have been more inclined to use the LT1, it was already being used in the 1992 Corvette IIRC and it made comparible power output.

John

 

damn thats some really cool stuff.

Someone mentioned that the camaro would have probably been outperformed by the Firehawk, but i doubt it would have been by much. Besides mid 20K sticker price is a bit more attractive than 40K....

Maybe it even had something to do with lowly little camaro outperforming big brother vette.....

It stopped the GN and GNX series of cars, so who knows...

Interesting to see GM's design of the ZF6's cross member. Looks very simple, but it works.

 

Mark...when was it that this car was cut up?? Do you know of where those prototype runners might be available anywhere? Wow....amazing story on an amazing car. I'll have to post some pics of my tribute car... mine looks identical right down to the GS-C's and the custom center caps.

 

Reading the articals, IIRC the best 1/4 mile time was 13.9 by the magazine tests (Its been a week since I read them), the Firehawk was a 13.4 or better car IIRC...

John

 

It still makes you wonder why they did not make the 602 limited edition cars, and simply use the SLP package on a B4C-1LE car. It would have all been previous certified, so not much to do. Add a one-off Hounds-Tooth interior and to-da.

I'm sure there are 100's of ideas of what could have been.

The Video is cool to watch.

Mark.

 

I just had to ask a "connection" in GM about this and why it happened.

There were originally about 14 of them built and this was the last one. The destruction of this car happened sometime around the early 00's and without the permission or knowledge of the Camaro Team, such as Settlemire. When it was found out that it happened, many people were very angry over at Chevy as it was a 1 of 1 showcar and a piece of Camaro history. The guy responsible eventually lost the job of taking care of the cars to someone who actually understands the worth of those that are inside GM's collection. Since that car was now gone, they went out and bought a very low mileage 92 Z28 1LE to take it's place in the Heritage Collection for shows and such. (IIRC, it's been out with the 5th Gen Concept a few times) The same guy did this to a few other cars also. So it was a shame and a waste, and wasn't supposed to happen.

 

Mark, that is an excellent point... I personally think it boils down to supply chain, Emissions testing, etc. Even though something might be for sale OTC it may not be certified as brand new OE equipment. Take the 87-89 Firebird Verts, you could sell a car NEW, all certified, BUT GM could not market the car, I am convinced it was due to Fuel economy... The SLP runners, exhaust etc may be certified for use on our cars as they do not contribute to emissions standards BUT they may dip the fuel economy enough to where it was no longer feasable... Take that and look at the lack of sales the Firehawk produced and they decided to back away from the project...

When you "Wonder Why" GM ever did something a good place to start is to look at a few key points:
1) Would the gains be less than the money spent? (Beancounters)
2) How well do other cars in the catigory sell?
3) Does it meet with the current Fuel economy standards?
4) Will it meet Emissions standards?

3 & 4 are more recent (since the early 70's)

Basically any one of these will squash a project, 3 & 4 can be worked around with enough time... 1 & 2 if either of these come into play then you might as well kiss it goodbye.

Just a guess... Follow the money...

John

 

Those pics are great. I can't get enough of this car. I'm just glad to have people talking about it.

 

Can someone repost these pictures?

 

Seems my ISP does not host web pages any longer ... so my pics are down for the moment. I`ll find a new place to host them and have the links.

Mark.

 

Thanks! I just found this page, and was disappointed I couldn't see anything.

 

 

Pics are now here:

https://goo.gl/photos/BeZbugnLQLn3njfD9

 

Who owns that car now. I was at Englishtown in 92 Senior year at a track rental. My friend wrote for a magazine. This car was there along with a Red with black stripe car. The the guys were getting mid to high 14s in the white car spinning it to death. I had my yellow 68 SS/RS Camaro with a 327 4 speed. I think the white car would have gone low 13's with a slick but they couldn't get it to hook up at all that day. I remember that day like it was yesterday.

 

Sadly, it was cut up.