Ordering a new L78/L89 Camaro/Chevelle

[William]

Why Chevrolet marketed certain options and ignored others is a mystery. For example JL8 is mentioned in the Camaro showroom brochure twice but the L34/78/89, M21/22 are not. JL8 wasn't available much of the year and was exteremly expensive. But thousands of the unmentioned 396 engines were produced.

Speaking of brochures the Canadian version is strange. It is several pages shorter and nearly all of the text is slightly different. It refers to the VE3 bumper as the "Astro" bumper [US version calls it "Color-Matched" nowhere is it called "Endura"] and shows the Z/28 as having F70 x 15 tires.

Must have been some marketing reason.

[427TJ]

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Why Chevrolet marketed certain options and ignored others is a mystery. For example JL8 is mentioned in the Camaro showroom brochure twice but the L34/78/89, M21/22 are not.

[/ QUOTE ]

GM was afraid of alarming the insurance industry and kept quiet about the real high-perf goodies like L78s, etc. Remember that Chevrolet initially rated the '66 L72 Corvette at 450 hp and then derated it to 425. They did that to calm the insurance industry. Remember also that it was the insurance industry that had killed (or neutered) the musclecar by 1971. They were losing big money paying claims for totaled and stolen cars and kept the pressure up until the government stepped in and spoiled the party. The insurance industry lobbied Washington ($$$) and the feds applied their regulatory weight and the rest is history. As for JL8 brakes, those could be looked at as a "safety feature" and thus made it into the brochures.

Today the insurance industry simply charges up the wazoo for policies on cars like Z06s, etc.

[William]

The comment about insurance brought back memories of those days. By about '70 insurance for anything remotely close to a musclecar was tough to get and expensive. As a result they quickly depreciated. Dealers wouldn't take them in trade and they were tough to sell privately. A friend owned Yenko N615046 in the '72, took weeks to sell for a lousy $2000. I think he was paying about $400/3 months for insurance at the time. A lot of musclecars bit the dust because of it.

[Keith Tedford]

They were just V8 Malibus. No insurance problem there

[mockingbird812]

Is that why in '69 they changed the Chevelle SS to an option versus a stand alone model as in the previous year?