1970 Chevrolet Camaro Sport Coupe

It seems hard to justify the extra $75,000 to own #1, especially as there’s another #1 out there from the Norwood plant

by Jim Pickering

Introduced to the public on February 26, 1970, the 1970 Camaro series stayed in production for twelve years. This handsome design survived gas crises, “big bumper” redesigns, and emasculating emissions. Attesting to its popularity, the last year’s production in 1981 totaled 126,139 units, almost the same as the 1970 model year, when 124,901 cars were produced.

In all, Chevrolet built 1,936,869 second-generation Camaros, which makes the very first one an important automobile. Chevy had two production lines, and this car—L500001—was built in Van Nuys, California. It is the first of one of the longest lines of sports cars ever built. The other production line at Norwood, Ohio, is characterized with the prefix “N.”

The second generation Camaro was dramatically restyled, with a long nose, short deck, and square grille. This first car has a full-width front bumper over horizontal parking lights, as opposed to the half bumpers and round turn signals in...