Hi Chuck - Are you ready for Carlisle 2004?
Only 10 months to go!

Daytona Speed Weeks "Press Kit" (I bought this last year from a literature dealer, may have been McLellan's, but I'm not sure. I may have paid $20-25 for it, don't really remember that, either. I was just surprised to come across it as I had never even heard about it!) Comes in a really cool oversized white envelope with the Z28 logo printed in color! Inside are 2 8x10 B&W glossies, the ones that every car mag in the country copied in their release articles, as well as a 3 page PR release and 1 page spec sheet, which all those magazine writers blindly copied from as well.

Auto Week - Feb 26, '77 (Vol.27, issue#9) (has a small 1/2 page PR release from the infamous Daytona Speed Weeks Z28 release event, that's where the Press Kits were distributed to various magazine & newspaper writers)

Motor Trend - April '77 (1/3 page PR release from Chevrolet announcing the Z's return)

Car & Driver - April '77 (Cover shot, many pages, many color pics, comparison with '77 T/A)

Hot Rod - April '77 (6 pages, 1 color photo, plus the well known Chevrolet Z28 ad!!!)

Motor Trend - May '77 (3 pages)

Road Test - May '77 (2 page piece on the prototype car, which had no decals and chrome bumpers!)

Road/Track - June '77 (30th Anniversary Special Edition) (has a one page PR release announcing the return of the Z)

Road Test - June '77 (Cover shot of red '77, 6 pages inside with a few color pics)

Auto Report - July '77 (4 pages which have a 2 page color shot)

Super Stock (& Drag Illustrated)- July '77 (4 pages)

Chevy Action - July '77 (3 pages, not too good, mostly quotes from a Chevy PR piece that is in the "Press Kit", though we couldn't know that at the time!)

Car Craft - August '77 (4 pages with B&W pics includes test of the Z, including that "prototype" car seen in only one other magazine, as well as the L82 'Vette and a Monza Spyder)

Super Chevy - August '77 (Awesome cover shot of a red car, made me immediately wish that I had ordered a red car instead of a brown one like in the original release ad!!! 5 pages inside as well, with many B&W pics)

Street Cruisin' - August '77 (yeah, I know ... who the hell ever heard of THIS one??!!!) (4 pages with several color pics of that same red car!)

Street Racer - October '77 (yep, when the '78s were already out! And who ever heard of THIS one, either??!!!) (5 pages, with color pics of a silver car!)

In addition to these, I have unsuccessfully looked for articles in (Hi Performance) CARS, Popular Hot Rodding, Chevy Power, Chevy Bible, Street Power, Street Machine, and Hot Cars. I have checked every issue of (H.P.) CARS and Popular Hot Rodding for that year, and no articles appear that I know of. I believe that Street Machine may have done one, but I've seen 8 of 12 issues and there wasn't one in those. Auto Week I believe did a road test feature, but I can't track down which issue. The rest were mostly obscure, short lived bi-monthy magazines which are super hard to come by. Also, I have a March '77 issue of Friends magazine, a Chevrolet PR sheet sent out to dealers and favored customers, and the Z ad is in there, but no article, though there may have been one in another issue.

I also recommend "Camaro! From Challenger to Champion:The Complete History", a now out of print book by Gary Witzenburg that can be found at Amazon.com or on E bay from time to time. Has a great behind the scenes detail of the Camaro's (and Z28's) history and developemnet back then.

I also recall (but can't seem to find) an article in the early '80s that talks about the re-released second generation Z's, and specifically said that the infamous '77 hood decal was done because the fake scoop that appeared in '78 was supposed to be on the '77 (but not the fender louvers or wheel spats), but that the tooling for the mold wasn't ready in time, so they did a hood decal in the same basic shape as the scoop.

One last thing. We've all seen the infamous '77 Z28 print ad, but at nastyz28.com there is a different ad, this one using the slogan "The Sporty Car as a Legend"

http://nastyz28.com/camaro/1977/77z28br.jpg

Can anyone tell me where that ad may have been placed? I'd love top find out!

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Mark
4spd Z28's owned '68,'71,'77new,'78new,'80new,70 still,daily driver 87 G/N.
Home Page on 1970 Z28
http://members.rogers.com/mlvd/

Super Chevy - June 1977 - 2 Page article with the same pictures and information.

That 'Ad' on MadMike's Site is NOT an ad. It's a page out of a brochure titled 'The sportiest Chevys from Corvette to Chevette'.
It's a half size, 8 page booklet which is probably available from any of the literature dealers.

Thanks for the info on the Press Kit. I'll try to hunt one down this week.

Thanks again for sharing you list. I'll keep you posted on my quest for a Press Kit. - Nick

COPO, neat car! Not many done in silver! Where did you order it when new, and what's the production date on the cowl tag (that's a clue to the "missing 18" cars, by the way!). Silver and orange I believe were the most rare of the seven colors.

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[This message has been edited by That70sCar (edited September 09, 2003).]

Street Racer - September 1978 (that's right folks, almost a year and a half AFTER the car was released, and about the same time the new '79 model was released!) re-printed the same article that was in their October '78 issue, minus one page of color pics)

Hot Rod Magazine's "Camaro" special issue (Vol.1 No.4)printed in 1983, ran an article entitled "The Top Ten" which claimed the 1977 Z to be one of the top ten best Camaros ever built. Has a one page article which is basically a reprint of the 1977 Chevy PR release.

One other bit of trivia .... did any of you know that the '77 Z was the feature of a print ad, for Western Wheels? It was in the April 1978 issue of Car Craft magazine, which showed what I guess was supposed to be a red Z, but looked more like a burnt cinnamon, wearing Western's knock-off of Cragar S/S rims (I'm going to have to try scanning that for you).

I bought my car in 1991 at a local cruise. It was a 70,000 mile Michigan car but very very unmolested and decent. Had been repainted but original alt, starter, dist, carb, eng, trans and rearend. Yellow 4speed with air, windows, locks, standard interior. I was a GM engineer at the time and did alot of research and buying of NOS parts. In 96 I officially started the restoration and in 99 I finished it and went to Super Chevy Indy for the first time. Been to many shows since and have talked with many other 77 Z28 enthusiasts. It was an affordable car to get into and was a real challenge to restore. Try to find colored emblems, right? We all know that one! Anyways, I may not be the most active on this board, but as winter comes I do better. Drop me an email at 77Z28Jeff@comcast.net and I will help anyone anyway that I can. I need to update my profile here which I will do right now with the correct email.

I'd be glad to set you up with those mags, and a copy of the press kit as well. I'll e-mail you soon about it. By the way, I found the receipt for the Press Kit. I bought it last November, from McLellan's Automotive History for the tidy sum of $35 (ouch!!!!)

As far as seeing my car, remember the "missing 18", and that mine was one of them .... that's all part of the story. A little background to start off with ....

We all know that in 1977, Camaros (and hence, Z28s) were built in two different plants. We've been told that cars ordered from the western U.S. (west of the Mississippi) were built in Van Nuys CA, and cars in the eastern U.S. (east of the Mississippi) were built in Norwood OH. We also know that there is a "plant" code right there in the VIN, correct? L is for Van Nuys, N is for Norwood.

We also all know that there is a 3 digit code on the cowl tags of Camaros that tells the rough assembly dates of these cars (ie: 06A denotes a car built in the first week of June).

OK, let's get into the "Wayback" machine .... it's 1977, March to be exact. At Ft.Polk LA, there is a young MP about to get married, and in need of a new set of wheels. He almost ordered a blue RoadRunner 360 automatic, but had instead put a deposit down on this kick ass new Pontiac called the Can Am. Big car, Trans Am 6.6 400, shaker scoop.

One day, he opens up a copy of the Army Times, and there it is ...... you've all seen the ad by now, but back in the day, it stopped your heart COLD ..... They're making the Z28 again!!!!!! And it's AWESOME!!!!!!!! Cancel the Can Am order, I gotta get me one of these things!!!! And in brown, just like the one in the picture! (which I STILL have, to this very day!!!)

So, it's down to Fontenot Chevrolet, in good ol' Sleazeville (I mean Leesville) LA to see what the local dealer can tell me about it. And that turns out to be absolutely NOTHING. Guy didn't even know the damn car was available! So it's off to the news store to round up some magazines and get educated myself. (Who knew that 26 years later, I'd still have those magazines, and be telling strangers on this thing called the internet all about them???).

Now better educated, and armed with a brochure from the local dealer and an Edmunds price guide, I venture off to Houston TX to order myself a brandy new Z28 from a dealer that knows what the hell they're talking about!

Stay tuned for Part II (or: A.J. Foyt is an a*%-hole !!)