Some interesting info on that SRD built 70 Camaro

Rich Schmidt · 08-25-2011, 09:06:56 PM

About 2 years ago I won an auction on Ebay for what was advertised as a 1970 Camaro ex prostock car that was built by SRD and last updated in about 1972. It had a 1979 nose and tail lights on it. After looking at pics of the Jenkins 70 Camaro when ZUL owned it I could see that the cars must have been built identical side by side. It had the SRD cage with side bars that ran to the firewall and the A-pillar bars mounted on top of them,and the support bars from the same spot on the firewall to the front subframe,the 3 link backhalf(ladder bars added later)with Dana 60,super tricks,airheart brakes,old pinto rack ect. The deal fell thru,and the car got sold and shuffled around to a few owners and I lost track of it. I placed a wanted ad on Racing Junk looking for the car and had a response the next day. The new owner has a ton of history on the car,and it is super interesting. Back in 1972 Joe Lepone's couson,a guy named Bob Demarco wanted to go pro stock racing. Joe told his cousin that he knew that there was a 1970 Camaro down at SRD that they were keeping there as a spare for Jenkins. He bought the car,and raced it for a few years,and then sold it. The car supposedly floated around the PA area with a Jenkins built 427 under the hood for many years. It seems that the car was probably not built for Jenkins,but somehow it ended up there. It seems that the car was orange at some point in it's life,and it was rumored that Brooklyn Heavy had a car built at SRD. Who knows.It was white when Demarco raced it. The car has what looks to be a non Camaro steering column,maybe an early Chevy 2,it was acid dipped before it was built at SRD,but still has a VIN number,and some of the original interior panels,most of the original firewall,most of the inner 1/4 structure,inner roof structure,floor pans,has a headliner in it,and aside from the updated nose and tail treatment it wasnt updated at all since 1972. When the new owner removed the 1979 rear tail lights,the holes for the 1970 tail lights were there,with just a strip cut out between the lights for the 79 lights to mount to. All the rest of it was stock under the rear bumper cover.

What a find,I really missed the boat on this one,I want to go take a look at the car,and get some more info. This might even be Brooklyn Heavy's Dick Harrell car. An NICB report sure would help. I want to get the new owner hooked up on this forum so maybe he can share sme more info.

BTW,the car was briefly owned by a guy named Jim Frost,who supposedly collects cars. Does anybody here know of him?

Here are some pics of the car as it sits now. in the pic of the back seat area with the passenger side wheel tub in t you can see the top of a post sticking thru the floor,thats the mounting bar for the 3rd link,a real Jenkins setup.

Now heres a real interesting pair of photos. Compare the pic of this roll cage and fiberglass dash to the black and white pic of the Jenkins backhalf 70 Camaro when Richie Zul owned it in about 1973. Cool huh?

CamarosRus · 08-25-2011, 09:25:24 PM

Interesting details Rich. I remember some of the SRD cars, but dont know any facts or details as you do

Rich Schmidt · 03-30-2013, 09:15:28 PM

Here are some pics of the car from back in the day. After it was sold from SRD,the car was raced as a gas class car. I spoke to Pete Huntchinson from SRD about the car,and he said they never built a 2nd gen backhalf car for pro stock,but the front end work looks like a car they built for Wayne Jesel. I contacted Wayne about it,and am also waiting a call back from Derrick Von Bargen,who was the D in SRD,and part of the Jenkins "super crew" back in the day. Here are the pics. They aren't great,but you can get the idea.

rudy · 03-30-2013, 10:08:52 PM

Some interesting facts, and good pics. Thanks

CamarosRus · 03-30-2013, 10:18:31 PM

Rich, NOBODY WOULD CARE
but when I built from scratch the rear suspension for
my C/SM 69 Camaro many years ago i copied SRD's
rear spring sliding setup and ladder bar

Rich Schmidt · 04-01-2013, 04:25:38 PM

My friend ran such a setup on his pro stock 69 Camaro back in the day,and still has it on his record hoilding 67 A/MP car that he still owns since 1970. His son wants to take the ladder bars off and put the rear back on the springs with cal track bars and use it as a bracket car. All the work they had done back in the 70's was done by a shop called Durenheims(it would eventually become NMW) and they pioneered a lot of that kind of stuff back in the day along with places like SRD.