Grumpy's Toy Camaro's

[deluxe]

Sounds like your talking about Toy VIII Rich. When it was brought to Bill, the only thing that remained of the original car was the roof and 1/4's. Their was no identifying marks (vin etc) to say that it was, or use to be his car.
Theirs no doubt the '69 car survives with word of it being "down south". The '68 car has been back halfed and basically modified beyond recognition. Bill is aware of this.

[iluv69s]

That was actually me asking about the 70 car.
When I saw the car, it looked like a much later camaro..I believe a 79 or 80. It had the later style glass nose. The tailights were the wraparound 1980 style also. It was (obviously) tubbed and caged with an aluminum dash.
I would not have even believed that it was Grumpy's real car except that when I looked inside the trunk, I could see the partial cutouts from the original 70 marker lights on the inside of the quarter panels. The car was definitely an original 70 Camaro!! That really made me much more interested in buying the car. Unfortunately..(or fortunately, I guess) I had my mind set on buying the other car the owner was selling!! The car later came up on Ebay and I always wondered if it was the actual car or not.

..one that got away???

[300deluxeL79]

the '68 car was an original yellow car when he bought it, repainted white before raced.

[SSRSBOB]

The '68 Camaro was a real L89 car too. Saw it when it was brand new. Jenkins will confirm this too. Sold to Carmen Rotunda when he was done with it.

Bob

[Salvatore]

[ QUOTE ]
The '68 Camaro was a real L89 car too. Saw it when it was brand new. Jenkins will confirm this too. Sold to Carmen Rotunda when he was done with it.

Bob

[/ QUOTE ]I believe the 68 car was sold to Brooklyn Heavy. I think Carmen had his own 68 car unless Heavy gave him Jenkins car to race after he was done. Somehow I think that both those cars were in action around the same time, Carmens 68 and Heavys 68. But a long time ago.

[RichSchmidt]

You mean the green car right?There was a vinyl top car that Heavy had that I beleive wasnt the Jenkins car.There is also a magazine article from back in the early 70's speaking of Heavy's 68 Camaro M/P car and also mentioning his newly aquired "secret" camaro meaning the Jenkins car.Many people have suggested that they were the same car,and some have even stated that the Jenkins car was delibratly repainted and fitted with a standard nose to disguise it's appearance as to not intimidate potential competitors on the money racing scene,or that the car's appearance was changed to keeep the feds from finding it.Lots of stories,but no real answers so far.

[Salvatore]

Yea, Carmens green car and Heavy's orange car. I think Heavy's car had the back wheels wells cut more than the green car if I remember correctly. I also think there are pictures somewhere on this Site of the 68 car of Heavy's not to long ago.

[RichSchmidt]

The 70 camaro Toy #8 was found as a tube chassis race car with some of it's original body shell remaining,and was restored and featured in a magazine.It had been discussed extensivly around here.

The 68 Camaro was sold to Brooklyn heavy back in 1971,the feds came to confiscate all of heavy's stuff back in the early 70's for some legal problems that he had.Witnesses to the raid said that the Camaro was not at the shop during the raid,and Heavy claimed it was at his "down south" house and was taken from there by the cops.A driver for Heavy at the time by the name of Carmen Rotunda,a speed shop owner form New Jersey,was said to have had that car the entire time and raced it in Modified Production back in the 70's after Heavy was arrested.There was some confusion since Heavy owned another 68 Camaro That he owned since before he bought the Jenkins car and it was believed that the car that Rotunda had was the other car not the Jenkins car.

I never followed the history of the 69 other then to say that I have heard that it was originally a non RS L78 car.This was stated by a few people to clear the air about the specualtion that the car was really a ZL1 because it was raced with an aluminum block in Stock classes.

A car being backhalfed wouldnt be reason to chalk it up to history,today they restore cars based off finding the original roof,quarters and doorjambs,and they replace everything else.

[markjohnson]

Mr. Jenkins had worked in conjunction with the SRD chassis shop and developed an unusual 3-link rear suspension that was similar to a 4-link, but it only used one upper suspension arm on the right side only. My '70 Camaro that's beem discussed on this site before had this particular bracket in place. It had the Ramchargers' Magnesium Dana 60 with a conventional 4-Link currently, but you could see the unused upper three link mount still in the chassis. I don't know of any other '70's Pro cars using that 3-link rear suspension besides Grumpy's Camaros and Vegas.

[RichSchmidt]

There must have been a few 3 link cars built.A while back when Jenkins' 70 was first found I threw a hissy fit because I know of a 2nd gen camaro that is absolutly Richie Zul's old car and I know right where it it right now.The car was a 70 Camaro converted to a 74 then a 79,and had a 3 link rear suspention.After a lot of leg work some calls to Richie Zul himself and more confusion iit was discovered that Zul owned 2 2nd gen camaros,one which he bought from Jenkins and one that was bought from Joe Satmary.As it turns out the car I know of was the car he bought from Satmary.That car like the Jenkins car had a 3 link rear suspention installed very early on just like the Jenkins 70 and the Vega.Most racers didnt like the 3 link and swapped to ladder bars early on.