Original vintage 1974 Cheverolet Camaro advertisement for the company's Z28 performance package - "With Camaro, you can be practical.  Or go bananas."
 
Dimensions: This advert measures 8 inches wide by 11 inches high.
 
The Chevrolet Camaro was a mid-size pony car first offered for sale in September 1966 for the 1967 model year.  Designed to compete with the Ford Mustang, the Camaro shared its platform and major components with the Pontiac Firebird, produced by General Motors, also introduced for the 1967 model year.
 
Four distinct generations of the Camaro were developed before production ended in 2002.  The nameplate was revived on a concept car that evolved into the fifth-generation Camaro, with production starting in March 2009.  Production of the sixth generation of the Camaro ended in December 2023, for the 2024 model year.
 
1974 marked roughly the middle of the second-gen Chevrolet Camaro run.  An American pony car through and through, it was introduced spring 1970 and produced by Chevy through the 1981.  Longer, lower, and wider than the first-gen Camaro, the second-gen line didn’t include a convertible like the first-gen models, with GM engineers asserting the second gen as much more of "a driver's car" than its predecessor.  With the second gen, the high-performance Z/28 option – like that in this vintage advert – remained available through 1975, and was redesignated as the Z28 in 1972.
 
The second-generation Camaro was an all-new car, with its basic mechanical layout familiar and engineered much like its predecessor: a unibody utilizing a front subframe, A-arm and coil spring front suspension, and rear leaf springs.
 
However, the second-gen chassis and suspension were refined in both performance and comfort; base models offered significant advances in sound-proofing, ride isolation, and road-holding.  Chevy engineers used their by now extensive experience gained racing the first-generation to advances in second-gen Camaro steering, braking, and balance. High-performance configurations were initially available, but the marketplace changed as 1970s progressed with fuel crisis, higher insurance rates, and tightening emissions regulations.  Major styling changes were made in 1974 and 1978; 1981 was the final model year.
 
The 1974 Camaro grew seven inches longer, thanks to new bumpers required to meet U.S. Federal Government standards; forward-sloping grille and round taillights replaced with a rectangular wraparound design.  1974 was also the last year to have a flat rear window, with thick roof pillars – all later years had slimmer roof pillars and a wraparound rear window for better visibility.  This was the last year of the regular production option Z28, which shared the same drive train and engine as in the previous year (1973), based on the Corvette L82 special high-performance engine; the Z28 would re-emerge in 1977 as its own model.
 
Camaro sales increased to over 150,000 units, of which 13,802 were Z28s (the highest 2nd-generation Z28 production to this time) despite the energy crisis fueled by the Arab oil embargo at the time, which would soon cause – due to a dramatic increase in gasoline prices – an equally dramatic reduction in production numbers as consumer interest led to more fuel-efficient automobiles.
 
A Motor Trend 1974 Chevy Camaro Z28 road test can be found here.
 
 
https://www.motortrend.com/features/look-back-road-test-1974-camaro-z28/