A ’71 Camaro RS raises curiosity at a local car/bike meet

Bill Smith of Santa Clarita shares the story and experience of his latest Chev effort

The texts that have been written in the past about American muscle car history have usually pointed, with a sad face, to one particular portion of the 1970s when the Arab Oil Embargo caused a major spike, during around the ’73-’75 sales window, in gas prices. On top of this, newly-established regulations in the U. S. regarding emissions and fuel consumption caused the major, American automakers to build engines with considerably lower compression ratios, which meant that actual net horsepower gains dropped by a ton.

But the popularity of the second-generation Camaro still managed, even under the umbrella of a suffering, nation-wide economy, to flourish; for the 1975 sales year, Chevy dropped the Z28 option, despite the manufacturer’s sales success of over 13,000 units for the ’74 sales year, and a similar fan-base also followed Pontiac’s Trans Am.

From 1970 till the ’71 sales year, Chevy offered several premium performance options in the SS and Z28-optioned models, the highest-output motor for ’70 being the L78 396, which actually had a 402 cubic-inch displacement due to a factory flop involving oversized pistons. That motor, rated at 375 horse for the ’70 production year, eventually dropped to a solid 300 horsepower for the 1971 production year, due to a compression drop from 10.25:1 to 8.5:1, a dramatic decrease caused by the ever-tightening, U. S. emissions standards.

But demand for the lower-output Camaros was still relatively high, and though a certain “magic” might have been lost during the greater part of the ‘70s, there was still a small remnant of “Muscle car America” visible in the milder atmosphere of the decade. After all, most of the 1969 Camaro’s engine and drivetrain components were carried-over into the 1970 models, which were notably wider than the ‘69s, had radically-different bodylines and features heavier-duty bumpers to meet the new, federal regulations.

At Santa Clarita’s Route 66 diner on Saturday, April 2, 2011, local enthusiast Bill Smith brought to share his own, ’71 Camaro RS, a car that might be too-often overlooked by the motoring community. The reason is because this particular, RS-optioned car has many features and styling cues still ahead of the curve of that decade. For example, Smith’s “bumblebee” paint scheme, black, Z28-style stripes on a Daytona yellow paint, is choice for the car’s bodylines, and matches perfectly with the car’s all-black interior.

Upon viewing Bill’s car and cross-comparing it to Discount Closets’ ’69 RS/SS, I became curious about the differences in interior options, so I took a look inside the ’71 RS to find that the car did indeed have a center console, which in this case, was fitted by Smith with a B & M trans and shift kit. According to Smith, he chose just enough of a stall-converter to not launch the Camaro too hard, but enough to where it still had a firm pull, as Smith himself describes the trans’ running dynamic.

Whether or not Bill Smith’s second-gen, RS Camaro represents a milestone in muscle car history or a new chapter in its gradual decline, one thing can be said for sure: it looked nostalgic in front of the suburban diner this last Saturday in Santa Clarita, and we were all happy to see it parked next to its predecessor, the ’69 RS/SS, now made famous by Discount Closets of Northridge. Together, the two legends of muscle car “mania” made for a classic scene that we don’t get to see, nowadays, too often.

- Sal Alaimo Jr., B. A. (4/4/11)

S. J. A.