The 1967 Camaro Convertible That Started a Rivalry

Chevrolet had less than two years to answer Ford’s Mustang, and the result was the 1967 Camaro convertible — an F-body built on a subframe design shared with the new Firebird, offered anywhere from a 140-horsepower six-cylinder up to the 375-horsepower L78 396. The SS350, Z/28, and hidden-headlamp RS packages all launched that same year, giving Chevrolet an instant, credible answer to the pony car Ford had invented. Today, first-year SS and RS convertibles remain among the most sought-after Camaros ever built.

Chevy needed an answer to the Mustang, and it needed one fast — the result was a car rushed to market in under two years that somehow didn’t feel rushed at all. The ’67 Camaro convertible pictured here, dropped top and all, wasn’t just Chevrolet’s opening shot in the pony car wars; it was proof the General could build something with genuine personality on its very first try. What’s easy to forget looking at a clean orange example like this one is how much was riding on it — an entire model line, and Chevrolet’s credibility in a segment Ford had just invented. So did that first-year Camaro actually deliver, or did it just look the part?

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An F-Body Platform Built to Answer, Not Copy

Underneath that orange sheet metal sat Chevrolet’s new F-body platform, engineered to answer the Mustang without simply cloning it. The Camaro shared its basic architecture with the Firebird, which Pontiac launched the same model year, though each division tuned its own suspension geometry, body panels, and instrument layout. Chevy borrowed conceptually from the compact Nova but didn’t reuse its unibody; instead, engineers bolted a rigid front subframe carrying the engine and front suspension onto a unitized passenger compartment. That hybrid approach isolated road noise better than the Nova’s structure while leaving room for big-block V8s under the hood — something the smaller car’s engine bay was never designed to handle.

Six-Cylinder Value Versus V8 Bragging Rights

Order a base ’67 Camaro convertible and you got a 230-cubic-inch inline-six making a modest 140 horsepower, paired with a standard three-speed manual or optional two-speed Powerglide automatic. That buyer wanted the open-air styling statement more than outright speed — a first car, a second family car, something affordable that still looked like nothing else on the road. The V8 buyer was chasing something different: bragging rights against the neighbor’s Mustang. Because a convertible already carried a premium over the hardtop, most drop-top buyers stretched further into the options sheet once they’d committed to the extra cost, which is a big reason V8-powered convertibles significantly outnumbered six-cylinder ragtops by the time the ’67 model year wrapped.

The SS350 Package Up Close

Step up to the SS350 and the convertible announced itself immediately: twin simulated air-intake humps stamped into the hood, SS badges on the grille, fenders, and gas cap, and a blacked-out grille insert setting it apart from a base car at a glance. Under that hood sat a 350-cubic-inch V8 rated at 295 horsepower, backed by dual exhaust as standard equipment. Buyers could add a bold stripe kit across the hood and deck lid, plus wider wheels and F41 heavy-duty suspension for sharper handling. It wasn’t the fastest way into a ’67 Camaro convertible, but it was the version most showroom shoppers actually drove home.

L35 and L78: Big-Block Muscle Under the Hood

For buyers wanting more than the 350 offered, Chevrolet dropped its big-block 396-cubic-inch V8 into the Camaro, and the convertible could be ordered with either version. The L35 used a hydraulic camshaft for 325 horsepower and strong street torque, while the solid-lifter L78 pushed output to 375 horsepower thanks to 11:1 compression, big-valve heads, and a four-bolt main built to survive abuse. Ordering either big-block meant checking boxes for heavier-duty cooling, a stouter rear axle, and usually power front disc brakes, since Chevrolet wanted the chassis to handle what the engine was writing checks for. These were rare, serious cars.

The Z/28’s Parallel Debut as a Trans-Am Special

1967 also marked the debut of the Z/28, though it lived a different life than the SS and big-block cars. Homologated so Chevrolet could compete in the SCCA’s Trans-Am series, the Z/28 combined a 283 block with a 327 crankshaft to land at 302 cubic inches, just under the series’ 305-cubic-inch limit. Chevrolet conservatively rated it at 290 horsepower, though the small-block revved eagerly past that figure on track. The package paired a close-ratio four-speed with front disc brakes and quick-ratio steering, and Chevrolet built barely 600 examples that first year. Crucially, the Z/28 was never offered as a convertible — it was a hardtop-only tool built for the track.

Hidden Headlamps and the Rally Sport Package

Layered on top of either SS or Z/28, or ordered alone, the Rally Sport appearance package gave the ’67 Camaro its signature hidden headlamps. Vacuum-actuated doors covered the lamps when off, then rotated open in sequence at the flip of a switch — a genuine novelty for a mainstream Chevrolet in 1967. The package also swapped in a revised grille without the usual Camaro nameplate, distinctive taillamp trim, RS badging, and different parking lights below the bumper. Because it was purely cosmetic rather than mechanical, buyers could combine RS with SS for an RS/SS convertible, or stack it on a Z/28 hardtop, producing dozens of possible ’67 Camaro configurations.

Engineering a Convertible That Wouldn’t Shake Apart

Losing the roof meant losing a major source of structural rigidity, so engineers didn’t simply cut the top off a hardtop and call it finished. Convertible-specific Camaros received extra underbody bracing and boxed rocker panels to fight the cowl shake that plagues any open car without a fixed roofline. The standard manual top folded down into a well behind the rear seat and tucked under a vinyl boot, while a power top was available for buyers willing to pay extra. That reinforced structure added weight over the hardtop, part of why the six-cylinder convertible never felt as quick as its coupe counterpart, but it also meant the drop-top held together far better over time than buyers might have expected.

How the ’67 Camaro Stacked Up Against the Mustang Ragtop

Against the Mustang convertible it was built to chase, the ’67 Camaro arrived with real advantages and a few gaps. Ford’s pony car had a nearly three-year head start and a loyal buyer base, but the Camaro’s subframe construction gave it a noticeably more planted ride than the Mustang’s fully unitized body allowed. Chevrolet also topped Ford’s engine chart that year, since the L78’s 375 horsepower comfortably beat anything Ford offered in a ’67 Mustang convertible, where the 390 GT fell well short of that figure. Ford still outsold Chevrolet on raw convertible volume in 1967, but the rivalry Mustang had been fighting alone for two and a half years suddenly had a legitimate opponent.

Why First-Year SS and RS Convertibles Command a Premium Today

That rarity shows up clearly in today’s collector market. Chevrolet built more than 25,000 Camaro convertibles for 1967, but only a fraction carried SS or RS badging, and documented big-block L78 convertibles are scarcer still. A numbers-matching ’67 SS convertible with the right build sheet routinely commands a real premium over an equivalent hardtop at auction, and a verified 375-horsepower L78 example can push well into six figures. Condition, originality, and paperwork matter enormously here; reproduction trim and re-created build sheets are common enough that serious buyers lean on GM’s original documentation before writing a check. For collectors, the first-year convertible is the most historically significant Camaro body style Chevrolet ever built.

A Rushed Debut That Built a 55-Year Legacy

None of what followed — the second-generation restyle, the Z28’s return in the ’70s, the fourth-generation LS1 cars, or the modern sixth-generation revival — would have happened if that rushed 1967 debut had flopped. Instead, the Camaro convertible proved Chevrolet could match Ford’s pony car on style, engineering, and outright performance without years of development time to lean on. More than five decades later, that orange drop-top’s mix of subframe engineering, big-block muscle, and open-air style still reads as the moment Chevrolet found its footing in a segment it hadn’t invented but quickly made its own.

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