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Chevrolet rated the 1969 Camaro Z/28’s DZ 302 at just 290 horsepower — a number dyno testing later proved wildly conservative, with real output closer to 400. Built from a hybrid 327/283 combination specifically to slide under SCCA Trans-Am’s 305-cubic-inch limit, the small-block powered Chevrolet to back-to-back championships against Ford’s Boss 302 Mustangs. Read on to find out how a rulebook loophole became one of the most respected engines Chevrolet ever built.
Boosted Bertha is a 1965 Chevrolet C10 wearing a supercharger and a stance that puts the rocker panels within an inch of the pavement, but the reason a build like this works starts with a decision Chevrolet made back in 1963. Underneath the boost sits a coil-sprung chassis that was already better than anything else in the segment, plus a small-block architecture that takes to forced induction easily. Read on for what Chevy actually sold in 1965 and what these trucks bring now.
1957 was the year the Corvette stopped being just a pretty face, and this Polo White Roadster carries the 283-cubic-inch engine option that made the case. Bill Kotzum of Corvette Mike Midwest walks through why the rare, temperamental fuel-injected version briefly made this America’s quickest production car. Ford had an answer of its own that same year. See how the two rivals compared.
Fifty years is long enough for a car to outlive the reasons someone parked it in the first place. This 1961 Corvette finally rolled back into daylight after five decades in storage, and the timing matters: 1961 was the last year Chevrolet built the Corvette exclusively around the 283 small-block, including a rare fuel-injected option. Here’s what makes a survivor like this one worth a second look.
Chevrolet rated the 1969 Camaro Z/28 at 290 horsepower, a figure that racers who put one on a dyno treated as an inside joke. The car existed to satisfy a racing rulebook rather than a sales brochure, and its 302-cubic-inch V8 was engineered backward from a displacement cap. That understatement explains more about Chevrolet’s ambitions than the sheet metal does. Read on for what was really under the hood.