Dateline: 9.14.11
By Popular Demand! The 1969 Chevrolet Camaro is the Most Popular Chevy in the Last 100 Years!
Chevrolet is making the most of their 100th birthday. For the Corvette community there’s the 2012 Centennial Edition option that is available on every model Corvette. It’s a beautiful aesthetics package and I’m sure that when combined with the other customer options will make for some very interesting combinations.
Several months ago, Chevrolet launched a popularity contest asking, “What’s the Best Chevy Ever?” On August 31, 2011 we covered the story because it had come down to the last two finalists – the 1969 SS Camaro and the 1970 SS Chevelle. Like we said, this is strictly a popularity contest, because if performance and technological achievement was the objective, the clear winner would have been the C6 ZR1. But, that was not the case.
Yesterday, Chevrolet announced the winner. So, as voted on by Chevy fans around the world, the most popular Chevy of all time is… The 1969 SS Camaro!!! Chevrolet points out that not only was 1969 the last year of the original Camaro design, it had the following accomplishments.;
* The ‘69 Camaro paced the Indy 500 for the second time.
* The ‘69 Camaro was the first and only year for the Corvette all-aluminum ZL-1 427 engine.
* The ‘69 Camaro’s Z-28 and SS/RS packages qualified the car to compete in the Trans-Am Series.
* The ‘69 Camaro sold 243,095 units.
Here are some of my favorite 1969 Camaros…
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This was a solid win for the 1969 Camaro over the 1970 Chevelle. The Camaro received 25,058 votes, while the 1970 SS Chevelle received 18,449 votes. Corvettes received the following votes:
1953 Corvette – 13,297 votes
1963 Corvette Sting Ray – 10,597 votes
2009 ZR1 – 10,188 votes
Here are the totals for all 16 cars:
1912 Classic Six – 758 votes
1932 Deluxe Sport Roadster – 1,072 votes
1969 K Blazer – 1,541 votes
1989 Pickup – 1,822 votes votes
1964 Malibu – 2,135 votes
1962 Impala – 2,597 votes
2011 Volt – 3,140 votes
2010 Camaro – 4,861 votes
1936 Suburban – 6,459 votes
1948 Pickup – 9,242 votes
2009 ZR1 – 10,188 votes
1963 Corvette Sting Ray – 10,597 votes
1957 Belair – 13,151 votes
1953 Corvette – 13,297 votes
1970 SS Chevelle – 18,449 votes
1969 Camaro – 25,058 votes
So, there you have it, the most popular Chevy of the last 100 years – the 1969 Camaro! I’m sure that 2012 Camaro will all be a special badge of honor. There’s time for a special edition of the 2012 Camaro possibly as a Winter or Spring 2012 option. I’m sure that Chevrolet was working on contingent plans for a Special Edition Camaro and Malibu were on the drawing board. Maybe even a new slogan for the ‘12 Camaro – “See the USA in the most popular Chevy ever, the Camaro!” – Scott
PS – To review the official announcement page for the contest, CLICK HERE.
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