Video: Story of the First Camaro Ever Built

We posted an article the other day detailing several Camaro engineers’ and designers’ perspectives on the five generations of Camaro that we’ve seen over the years. Well, now we’ve got another piece of Camaro history. The video above tells the story of the first Camaro ever built.

On May 17, 1966, Camaro number 1 was delivered in secret from the Fisher Body factory to General Motors for assembly. General Motors cut corners on the car, using it mostly for developmental and promotional purposes. The car was given a 3.8 liter in-line six cylinder engine and a three-speed transmission.

Camaro number 1 was sold to a dealer in Oklahoma after being used by GM for a variety of promotional and engineering purposes. The dealer proudly displayed the car in their showroom after the model took off, before selling it to a private owner in 1969. The car saw its ups and downs before being finally restored to original condition in 2010.

The above video chronicles the history of Camaro number 1, including the ups and downs and everything you’d want to know about this prodigal son in just under 18 minutes. Well worth watching.