Classic Camaro

A long-time contributor to Our Canada talks cars with the proud owner of a 1967 Camaro SS.

- Clive Branson

It is small, red and has an attitude—that’s how Stacy Wood describes his 1967 Camaro SS. He pulls up to where I’m standing. As the car idles, it emits a powerful, throaty rumble. I view the car more as the reincarnation of a bullet. General Motors thought it was the perfect antidote to challenge Ford’s entrenched Mustang. The first-generation Camaro appeared in 1966, but the ’67 model earned instant muscle credibility with the introduction of a sturdier rear-wheel drive, GM-F body platform and the option of one of two bench-pressing power plants: the six-cylinder screamer or the bicep-flexing V8. We go for a ride and I can feel the car wanting to be unleashed, but Stacy, usually hyper and loquacious, is calm and simply tames what he calls the impulse of “the Beast.”

“The coolest thing is,” recalls Stacy, “I remember as a kid putting up posters of cars in my room and reading car magazines, thinking one day I want to build a car like this.” In his possession since 2008, his Camaro has graced the covers of the 2011 NAPA calendar and has been featured in the pages of Canadian Hot Rod magazine. It has also been a four-time winner at the Atlantic Nationals Auto Show in Moncton, N.B.