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Automotive Lifestyle
AUTOS: Four-Of-A-Kind Camaros At Auction
Barrett-Jackson features winning hand of tuxedo-black custom 1967-70 coupes at Las Vegas auction.
Bob Golfen  |  Posted September 20, 2011   Las Vegas, NV
The 1969 Camaro SS packing a 427ci V8 under its gleaming black hood will be third in the lineup of custom coupes. (Photo: Barrett-Jackson)
“Four of a Kind” is a winning hand wherever you go, but especially in Las Vegas where Barrett-Jackson is bringing a very special quartet of Chevy Camaros to the auction block. The cars are each all-black, big-block, air-conditioned and with the same-style custom wheels. And most notably, they will be sold in consecutive order by year: 1967,1968, 1969 and 1970.

These were the first four years for Camaro, which along with the Pontiac Firebird was General Motors’ response to the highly successful Ford Mustang introduced a few years earlier. Camaros and Mustangs have been duking it out on the streets and race tracks ever since.

The custom '67 Camaro spent most of its life as a drag racer before being restored and updated. (Photo: Barrett-Jackson)
The Four of a Kind Camaros are from the family-owned Frank Collection of Scottsbluff, Nebraska, owned and operated by Bryan Frank and his dad, Roger.

The '69 Camaro packs a 396ci engine, four-speed Muncie manual transmission and 12-bolt posi rear. (Photo: Barrett-Jackson)
“It will be cool to see them go one after the other,” said Bryan Frank, who started up his business several years ago to buy, sell and enjoy collector cars, mainly General Motors products from the 1950s and 1960s. That’s a perfect fit with Barrett-Jackson, and the Franks have been buying and selling at Barrett-Jackson auctions ever since.

The '69 Camaro is equipped with the classic Rally Sport/Super Sport package. (Photo: Barrett-Jackson)
The Camaros are not particularly rare cars, and they have been restored and rebuilt with modern performance parts for improved drivability rather than originality. But when they come up on stage in their gleaming black-and-chrome livery, one after the other, the auction crowd should go wild. And hopefully, so will the bidders.

The '70 Camaro is powered by a big-block 454 V8 that generates 450 horsepower. (Photo: Barrett-Jackson)
The first Camaro coupes went on sale Sept. 19, 1966, soon followed by the convertibles, with the mission of beating Mustang at its own game. GM had been caught flat-footed in 1964 when Ford first unveiled Lee Iacocca’s masterful stroke of marketing genius, the sporty and modestly priced Ford Mustang.

Chevy marketing people made no bones about Camaro being launched as a Mustang fighter. When folks first asked them about the meaning of the word “Camaro,” they were told: “It’s a small, vicious animal that eats Mustangs.”

Although the first three years of Camaro are considered a single first generation, the unique styling differences of the 1969 model makes it stand out as especially desirable.

The Frank’s Four of a Kind collection of Camaros actually spans two generations, with the ’67-69 models in the first generation and the 1970 car in the second. But they still represent a continuum of Camaros in its first four years, all of them custom coupes and all enhanced with modern performance equipment.

“They’d been in our collection for a quite a while so I thought I would make a series of them for Barrett-Jackson,” Bryan Frank said.

Here are the details on the Four of a Kind that will be auctioned on Saturday, Sept. 24. All of them are black and all are in excellent restored condition:

The first one up is the 1967 Camaro (Lot 653.1) badged as an SS with black interior and exterior, a big 454 V8 crate engine, Turbo 350 transmission, 12-bolt posi-traction rear, power steering, power disc brakes, tilt wheel, console, factory air conditioning, billet aluminum Rally wheels, front and rear spoilers, and a cowl hood. The car spent most of its life as a drag racer before being restored and updated.

Next up is the 1968 Camaro, (Lot 653.2) which also started off as a rust-free California drag car. It now has a 396 V8, four-speed Muncie manual, 12-bolt posi-traction rear, black deluxe interior, front and rear spoilers, rear antenna, billet Rally wheels, SS hood, power four-wheel disc brakes, tachometer, factory air conditioning, console with gauges and AM/FM/cassette.

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