Ten years after the first '82 Camaro hit the streets, Chevy was readying its replacement, due out in 1993. It was rumored to be a real heavy hitter, with tons of power, improved suspension and futuristic styling. The gang at Bowtie Headquarters was proud of it, but it wanted to do something special to send the 3rd-gen car on its way. Ford had been successful with a series of special edition Mustangs--little more than paint and trim, it was able to attach a premium price that would move them in high volume.

Someone at Chevy came up with the idea of the Heritage/25th Anniversary Camaro. The police-spec B4C RS would pack a special L98 engine making 300 horsepower; a revised suspension would not only give it a softer ride, but improved handling. It would have a ZF 6-speed, just like its big brother, the Corvette. The front seats were modified to better hold their occupants. The design, development, validation, testing, and production tooling for these goodies would be handled by Detroit specialty house TDM. To make it special, there would be just 602 produced--the exact same number as Chevy had built of Z/28s in 1967.

Two prototypes were assembled (one of which you are looking at on these pages) and the $28,000 bombshell would be called the 25th Anniversary Collectors Edition Camaro (option code Z4F on the RS). The engine had a trick cam, a one-of-a-kind intake system, one-off tube headers, a 3-inch exhaust system and ported aluminum Corvette heads. Equipped with 245/50ZR16 Goodyears on "diamond spoke" wheels, the car ran 13.50s at 104 when tested at Raceway Park in Englishtown. It rode like a dream, yet handled like a true thoroughbred.

But it wasn't to be. When the car was scheduled to be introduced, the country was again in a recession and ponycars weren't exactly flying out of showrooms. It would cost too much to federalize all the hardware; ergo, the good stuff got cancelled. The only thing that made production was the Heritage edition tape stripes.