Yes, when I first bought it, I put a 1970 350, 300hp SBC with a turbo 400 auto, a combo I had just built and had in a 73 Camaro which got totaled. That's why I bought the 68. Only about a year or so later I put the BBC in and switched from the automatic to a Borg Warner Super T-10 4 speed.

Great pics!! Thanks for posting.

Here's a few pics when the first hood went away, replaced with a snorkel scoop hood. Bob still owned it at this time, and the same two drivers campaigned it around the New England and North East areas. I know it ran CT. Dragway, New England Dragway, and might have ran Lebanon Valley too among others.

These photos are from when Bob got the car and ramp truck back from the two guys who raced it, and sold both. As said previously, the ramp truck was believed to be sold to someone in CT, and the car was sold to a man from Cranston RI who continued to drive it with the Bob Johnson lettering on the sides. The car ran E/MP (Modified Production), F/MP and here you can see it ran C/SM (Super Modified). It ran with numerous engine combos and in numerous weight classes.

You can now notice the ladder bar set up with wheelie bars, this is when the 12 bolt was removed and a full floating Dana 60 was installed. (still in the car today)

Hey, 10.55 dial in shown in that first picture,...not bad for the mid 1970s.

So, the race history for the car ends in 1981, when a buddy of mine trades a front engine dragster he had for the Camaro. I can't remember if the car had no engine/trans in it when he got it, or if he took them out himself,...but he only had it for a very short time when I got into an accident with my 73 Camaro, and a deal was struck to purchase the Z28. The car was till set up for the drags. 4 point roll bar, Dana rear, ladder bars, frame connectors, drive shaft safety loop. 50/50 drag shocks in the rear, 90/10s in the front, solid body mounts, no rear seat, (it was carpeted back there), no hood, no radio or speakers, removed power brake booster, 6 cylinder drum brakes replaced the front disk set up, (common practice back then, and most if not all of the Bob Johnson drag cars got that same treatment, for less weight reasons),...etc....etc...and was still covered from bumper to bumper with lettering and sponsor decals. Pictures to follow.

Here's the semi-barn find feel to the story. It wasn't in a barn, but in the back of my buddy's mechanic/body shop. Like I mentioned before, I wrecked my 73 Camaro, just built the engine and transmission in it, so I needed a body for them. He said "I got the Z in the back", and with a little reluctance because I was into early 2nd Gen Camaros, not really 1st Gens,..I said yes and we struck a deal. Here's what it looked like in that back garage.

Notice, I installed a 68 SS hood on it, and front and rear spoilers, (straight from Scuncio's part dept. because they were still open in 81 and were one town away from me)..before I even took the dust off of the car...lol. You can see the Dana 60, complete with wheelie bar brackets, narrowed leaf springs, and still wearing slicks.

Next photos are of the first reincarnation of this car when I was 19 years old. It's the first of 3 looks it has had.

This first photo shows the car in 81 when I started to get it back on the street, I have many pics of it but they are all in print form and haven't got a chance to scan them. This one photo shows it right after a complete lacquer paint job that wasn't buffed yet. This is when it had the 350 and turbo 400 in it, complete with 4 into 1 Hooker side pipes, SS hood, and Cragar SS wheels.

The car was lightened so much, that the new V8 coil springs I put in it were obviously too stiff, and I ended up using 6 cylinder springs, and they are still in it with the BBC I have it now.

Bad polaroid phot next..After buffing out the lacquer paint job, and with the 6 cylinder springs in it.

Very cool!!!

Oh,...forgot to mention, those are the sport mirrors off the 73 Camaro that I wrecked causing the purchase of this Camaro body. I thought they looked really good considering they were from the next gen cars,...but today, although I think they still look OK in those photos,.... I would never...LOL.

Here's the second version of the car after I bought it. This was during the Pro Street days, and I leaned toward that, without butchering the car up by tubbing it...but I did do some major changes to it.

Still had the roll bar in it, (although it was now a 3 point instead of a 4 point, so I could get in the drivers seat easier), took the SBC and automatic out and installed a 396 and 4 speed, removed the side pipes, removed the one piece rocker mldg. and installed the 3 piece RS style mldgs. and painted the lower doors, rockers, fenders and quarters black, (always liked the thinner Coke bottle look it gave the car when done like that, especially with a black vinyl top.) And ironically, installed a fiberglass hood with 7 inch snorkel scoop, similar to one it raced with and also installed chrome wheelie bars on the already installed welded on brkts that were on the Dana,.......and painted white Z28 stripes on the car.

If I can dig up more pics of these two early versions of this car since I took ownership of it, I will be sure to scan them and post them here.

Speaking of ownership, I am only the second registered owner of this car, aside from the original owner who bought it in 1968 from Varnell Chevrolet Company in Traci City Tennessee. He then traded it in at Scuncio Chevrolet in Smithfield RI in 1972.

Over the next 9 years it was never registered or driven on the street, only raced. I've owned it and have been the 2nd registered owner since 1981.

Aside from tweaking the engine compartment, (different carbs, ignition wiring, relocating the battery back into the engine compartment, installing exhaust dumps after the headers, ..etc) these next batch of photos are how it has looked for the last 20 to 30 years.

Switched the Cragar SS wheels out for some Cragar/Weld wheel Superlites wrapped with Micky Thompsons, removed the wheelie bars, installed a 69 cowl hood, removed the roll bar and installed the correct Deluxe Interior door panels, and found a correct rear seat and all seat belts to install. Now the interior is and looks 95% stock, and the exterior is also stock appearing except for the wheels, tires and hood....and of course, I had painted the white stripes on the car decades before finally getting to speak to the original owner and seeing that it had black stripes originally.

This look is perfect 70's, awesome!

To put the icing on the cake,...on the hood scoop it says in hand painted lettering... Running With The Devil,.......released 1978 Van Halen,.....lol,

How it looks today.

Looking at the photos, I forgot to mention that I also added wheel opening moldings and front and rear bumper guards.

Those are all original body panels, (except the hood), original grille and headlight trim, Z28 emblems, Camaro emblem on the front header, (I still have the trunk lid Camaro emblem I took off when I installed the rear spoiler), original vinyl top, all original glass and stainless trim except for the left rear quarter glass, original tail lights, marker lights, bumpers, (had the rear one re-chromed because it had a small dent in it.

That's still beautiful.

Thanks for explaining the Mirror switch,but even moreso for putting the originals back on. ;)

Engine compartment.

Lol,....I agree. Things looked cool back then, not so much now.

The drive train and suspension are still on the drag race side, but the interior and exterior look a lot more original and street driven then before.

Very nice !

My personal preference for wheels would be the Cragars.

Thank you. I am a big Cragar SS fan myself, but the ones I had on this car had the wrong rear offset, and were 14 inch. I had already purchased them for my 73 Camaro but never had a chance to put them on.

The Superlites were the hot item then, so I went with them and bought 15s with the right offset,....plus when Cragar bought out Weld, the center caps went from black to blue and matched my paint....lol.

Maybe someday I might go back to the SS's, but I'd rather find an old set and have them chromed,... the newer ones have a little different look and the centers seem to not even get any chrome on them.

At the station in my town where I can get 110 Sunoco racing fuel right from the pump.

A little glimpse at the Dana 60, the Competition Engineering ladder bars, the Flowmaster 2.5 inch two chambered mufflers, and the wheelie bar brkts. hanging down.

Thanks,I'm really enjoying the story and pics!!

A few other angles..........

Back in 80s I decided to bring the car to Scuncio Chevrolet to show Bob his old drag car. I had never met him, but knew he was still at the dealership. He used to be the high performance manager of the place, and obviously a salesman. It was a place I had bought part from, and a place I even test drove an 80 Z28 when I was 18, it happened to be Maryann Scuncio's car that she was driving, the daughter of the owner.

Anyway, I went in, a 20 something year old kid, asked for him, and told him I had something outside to show him. Lets just say he was quite surprised, and loved that I had put the car back on the street. This was the first of two meetings I had with him.

I like this look!

Me too...

Between seeing your pics and parking next to a day 2 '68 at a local show yesterday, I really got the itch to have another 4 spd 1st gen.

So is your vinyl top original still? And car has been painted twice?

Yes, original vinyl top. The car has the original lacquer paint job, the one the original owner did after he put the cowl hood on where the stripes were removed, and I did one when I bought it. 3 paint jobs, but the door and trunk jambs are all original.

Also along the way, I painted the rockers black, and put the white stripes on it.

The stance is spot on!!

Thanks, I think so too. It's nice to hear that others agree.

The second time I met him is when he came to my house to verify that my car was indeed a real Z28 that he took in trade at Scuncio and then immediately purchased it from them,... and to also confirm that is was one of his former drag cars.
This is a couple of pictures of him sitting in the drivers seat of my car, ...I also took him for a little hell ride in it just to get his blood flowing a bit...lol. I'll take a picture of the official Bob Johnson Racing Enterprises certification certificate I have at home.
This was probably 20 to 25 years ago and unfortunately from what I have heard, Bob is in very poor health nowadays.

Here's Bob's certificate of authenticity for my Camaro.