I don’t know about you, but I always find the sight of a stock 1970s pony car refreshing. So many of them have been lowered, raked, painted loud colors, striped, supercharged, and otherwise altered that it’s instructive to see one as your neighbor may have bought it in, say, 1974. That’s what you’re looking at here, a stock 1974 Chevy Camaro Sport Coupe in a nice shade of what appears to be Medium Red (which, interestingly, could be ordered with or without the “metallic”). The seller here on eBay in Newbury, Ohio, says that it has 34,000 original miles (the odometer in the pictures says 33,274), and although it’s been sitting for most of the ten-plus years they’ve owned it, it’s a running, driving vehicle that looks like it would be an easy rehabilitation project. Thanks to reliable Barn Finder Curvette for sending it our way; the high bid is currently $6,200.
The 1974 Camaro and its corporate cousin the Pontiac Firebird are one-offs in one way; they had updated front and rear styling with five-mile-per-hour bumpers, but they kept the original 1970-73 back window; in 1975, the familiar wraparound backlight took its place. While some will argue that the Pontiac handled the new bumper regulations with more aplomb (Author raises hand: He owns a ’74 Firebird.), Chevy didn’t do a bad job, and the Camaro still looked great, if not quite as great as the ’73.
While the Sport Coupe seen in our ad came standard with a 250-cubic-inch six, this car has one of the optional 350 small-blocks (the seller doesn’t say which). Given this car’s single exhaust, I’d argue that it’s the 145-horsepower two-barrel. Considering the car’s low mileage, I’m going to say it’s seen some damp storage over the years, not a surprise if Ohio is as changeable as Michigan (where I live) in terms of temperature and humidity. This is the only engine picture we get in the ad, but we can tell that the Camaro has power steering and power brakes, so it should drive like a newer car; these second-generation Camaros and Firebirds handle amazingly well.
We can also see that the Camaro is a lightly optioned car, with an AM radio and Turbo Hydra-matic transmission.
The black vinyl buckets and console appear to be in great shape.
Now for the bad part: The seller says that they’ve “done nothing to the car since owning it other than [changing] the oil and refreshing the air in the tires over the years.” Those tires clearly need to be replaced, and who knows what else is just waiting to go bad from sitting? The driver’s side floor pan is also in need of replacement, which means that the seller’s invitation to check the car out before bidding might not be a bad idea.
The bumper appears to be a little tweaked from this view as well, but if a little bumper attachment massaging, a readily available floor pan, and a set of tires are all it needs, this could be an opportunity to own a Camaro that’s more uncommon than you’d think for being one of 151,008 sold in 1974. How often do you see an unmodified 1974 Camaro Sport Coupe?
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