Few cars during the muscle car era offered the mechanical presence of the Camaro Z/28. Starting out as an purpose-built Trans-Am performance package as option code Z28, the package earned a proper identity mid-year 1968 when Chevrolet began building them with Z/28 badges in place of the 302 badges, as evidenced by this ’68 Camaro Z/28 in the below video.
![](https://i0.wp.com/shacklemedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/purpose-built-racer-for-the-street-camaro-z-28.jpg?resize=640%2C480&ssl=1)
The Z/28 is unique in that it’s one of two cars during the era (the other is Oldsmobile’s W-Machines) where a name was derived from its UPC code. Chevrolet was out of racing since 1963, but that didn’t mean Chevrolets were absent from racing – on the contrary, Chevrolets were racing successfully in several types of competition, though not with factory sponsorship. With the Z/28, it was a race car built for the street, so all that was needed to race one competitively was to prepare it per the rules of the circuit.
![](https://i0.wp.com/shacklemedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/purpose-built-racer-for-the-street-camaro-z-28-1.jpg?resize=640%2C480&ssl=1)
Joel Newberg bought a 1968 Camaro Z/28 new and, over time, sold it. He had a desire to find another one in the same color combination but was not successful, so he went with this red-on-red 1968 Z/28. It doesn’t have many options – not even power steering – but he added the center console due to the integrated gauges.
![](https://i0.wp.com/shacklemedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/purpose-built-racer-for-the-street-camaro-z-28-2.jpg?resize=640%2C350&ssl=1)
Join Muscle Car Campy as he and Joel go for a nice jaunt through western Florida, that sweet sound of high-revving small-block goodness emanating from under the hood and through the tailpipes.
Source: www.classiccars.com