by Many muscle cars from the late 1960s are rotting away in barns and junkyards as we speak and that’s a depressing thought. However, I keep stumbling across more and more gearheads that are saving them from their graves and putting them back on the road. This 1969 Camaro 307 is one of the lucky ones.
If you’ve been following us recently, you may recognize the car’s entry-level trim and the somewhat faded Rallye Green paint. That’s because we’ve been following the project ever since the Chevy was dragged out of its resting place back in June 2021. We’ve seen it do donuts the very day it was saved and take its first proper cleaning in almost 20 years.
If you ever wondered what happened to it, now it’s in much better shape thanks to a few engine repairs and a new set of brakes. Because a classic car that’s been sitting for decades will try to kill you if you don’t take care of it. Oh, and it also got brand-new suspension components.
If you’re into things that get your hands dirty, there’s plenty of footage showing how you can add modern brakes and suspension parts, as well as a brake booster and master cylinder, to a classic Camaro. And you’ll learn a few tricks as well. If you’re here just for the V8 action, things get a lot more interesting around the 22-minute mark.
And don’t let the fact that this is a base V8 model fool you. The 307-cubic-inch (5.0-liter) mill has plenty of life in it. Sure, it’s no COPO 427 at 200 horsepower and 300 pound-feet (407 Nm) of torque, but it sounds meaner than you’d expect.
The owner isn’t exactly happy with how powerful the 5.0-liter V8 sends to the wheels, so this run is basically a test drive to establish if the original mill is worth restoring or an LS swap is underway. Well, at least it can pull a smokey burnout.
There’s no info if it’s a numbers-matching V8, but I do hope he chooses to keep it in the car. It’s a somewhat rare configuration that Chevrolet only offered in 1969. They built some 68,500 of them that year, but who knows how many of them are still around with the 307 under the hood.
