The second generation of the Chevy Camaro ended its 12-year run in 1981. The design had been getting stale and an all-new car was just around the corner. But that didn’t stop more than 126,000 buyers from scooping up one from the last of the line. This ’81 Camaro looks pretty good, though its engine and transmission are on a dolly. It also wears decals identifying it as a C-150, but not much about that can be found online. Sitting atop a trailer in Essex, Maryland, this Chevrolet, and its parts are available here on Facebook Marketplace for $6,500 OBO. Thanks for the tip, Barn Finder Mark!
Chevy didn’t make many changes to the ’81 Camaro, so it was largely a carryover from ’80. Except in one interesting way. It was the first Camaro to have a computer at the helm – the new CCC ((Computer Command Control) emission system. This technology controlled the carburetor mixture (yep, no fuel injection yet) and added a check engine light if something with it went amiss. The CCC also had some control over the lock-up torque converter associated with the automatic transmission.
We understand that this 42-year-old Camaro is a one-owner car that may have been rescued by the seller (hence the trailer pics). The body, paint, and interior all look good, although we’re told there is a touch of rust on the floor pans. For reasons unknown, the 350 cubic inch V8 and TH-350 transmission were extracted from the auto. We don’t know if they need any work or if their numbers match. The seller has a set of headers and a new exhaust to accompany the project.
Have any of our readers ever heard of the Camaro C-150 and what was it? A couple of online sources suggest this was a dealer add-on, but what did it come with and what is the significance to the C-150 name? And how rare is it? The body stripes prominently feature this moniker.
Greg may know 🤔
This is likely a dealership package . My brother had a GMC ( 2500 ? I’m not a truck guy ) that was specially built by HEART GMC/CHEVROLET. It wasn’t like any 90s ( I think it was a 98 ) GMC on the road . Had a Earnhardt 383 stroker , headers , borla exhaust and matched painted grill ( though a few dealers did the match paint ) with a modified z-71 performance package dialed into street performers over off road . The truck also had a full k&n intake package . All the work was done on the truck by the dealership as a DEALER MODEL to show off what could be done with trucks ( as well as cars … I think there’s some hellacious HEART MODEL SS IMPALAS out there as well from the 90s ) . This might be that kind of dealer build . Probably has specially order heads , intake , carb , cam and even different valve covers . Won’t surprise if me if motor is even 60 over with modified Trans and exhaust giving it 150 extra horses or foot pounds of torque ( People used to pull 200 or more extra horses under trees in back yards back then so it’s not an actual stretch ) . All came down to state emission standards in 81 and I’m sure in 81 Maryland probably had laxed emissions making the build easily street legal .
It was a dealership package. The Chevrolet Baltimore Zone was closing out the 1981 Camaro assembly run. Local custom conversion companies were contacted to submit proposals, with the prize of being the installer of the package. I did the actual design for Paymer and Phillips. I patterned it after the Z28. It sold well.
Amazing. I have a very clear memory of seeing a new Camaro C-150 displayed in front of a dealership. Until now, I never.knew if it was a real memory or something I made up.
What I know about these cars is just from seeing a few in person back in the day and from ones I’ve seen online when you Google search them. It would appear that they are all white with red interior, and all of them seem to be 1981models. As for the C-150 name, it’s all speculation, but some people believe the C is because 1981 was the first year for computer control, others seem to think it may just stand for Camaro, and the 150 may be a reference to the horsepower rating, the base 305 was rated at 150hp in 1981. I’ve seen three of these cars in person over the years, so it could be a local thing, I live in Maryland about 1 1/2 from where this car is located, but there are at least two others that show up on a Google search in salvage yards in other parts of the country, so I always assumed this was some limited factory model perhaps just partial year? I also assumed it was a replacement for the rally sport option because if you look at the small stripes that go over the hood, along the doors and over the roof, it kind of mimics the rally sport paint scheme of the previous years.
That’s 1 1/2 hours away that I live. Not miles. I just realized I forgot the hours. Lol
In 1981 the Z28’s exported to Canada were rated at 185 HP and was the only way to get a 350 with a 4 spd. The American 4 spd models only came with a 305. Mine was made at the Van Nuys California plant and sold new in Vancouver BC Canada.
Who on earth would brag about 150 horsepower, much less call it out with 12″ decals? That literally makes no sense! Even for that era, when 350 horse late 1960s/early 1970s Muscle cars could be had for about two grand on the top end.
It has to mean something else.
These cars were made in the days of low horsepower figures. The Z-28 in 1981 was only rated at 165. I remember it was a big deal when the fox body mustang gt was factory rated at 225 in the mid 80’s
Late malaise era. You needed a 400 with a 4 barrel to get a claimed 200 BHP, which may have been overrated.
@Mark – Oh I agree with you. In 1981, 150 was a decent HP rating and anything over 200 was practically super car territory. For a new car. But there was still some embarrassment over that, given that cars just over 10 years earlier had double that power.
I was thinking the same thing. The 81 Corvette was also a dog. I had a 79 Z-28 that was a dog until I put a better engine in it. Weak shock mounts in these cars prone to rust and twist easily when it gets any kind of horsepower
You may be applying today’s standards to yesterday’s cars. Today, 150HP is economy car territory, but in 1981, it was enough to celebrate. Be thankful you don’t understand.
@CCC, I had to laugh at that, lol! It’s good indeed they don’t know. Starting around ’75, cars became emasculated and pathetic to the point where a ’75 Grenada wheezed out 70 horses and took in excess of 22 seconds to hit 60 with the 200 six. Sad times in the showroom, they were. Thankfully, you could buy a late ’60s or early ’70s muscle car for less than a couple grand back then, so they were also good times.
Still, this car would feel a mangy wet mutt with only 150 today, especially given how heavy these late 2nd Gens were. Woof!! Good news is you can modify an SBC pretty readily,. You’d just have to take off that “1” with the hair dryer and add a “2!”
The climate in the Baltimore area is hell on vehicles as you know all too well. They’ll rot in your garage if it’s not integrated into your home due to humidity alone. With that said, this is a very minty Camaro of this era. It couldn’t have possibly been repainted because…. No one in their right mind would have bothered retaining the silly “C150” graphics. (I believe that was a dealer promo package, like the Shark Nova was) All in all it’s an honest car that will serve its next owner very well as a weekend warrior, whatever color they decide to paint it. Simply install a new gas tank, lines, battery, drop in a healthy small block chevy, and have a nice day! 🙂
I’m not a fan of a lot of stripes on cars either, I like a nice single color paint job, but let’s be honest here, these stripes are no worse than the the factory Z-28 stripe kits of the same era.
Yes the 305 Z28 was 165 hp. And the 350 was 185. If you just ordered the Z28 package you got the 305 unless you checked the box for the bigger engine. IDK much about the production numbers of how many of each were made though
“My 6.6, gets a little too heavy. For a big boss Ford, or a 350 Chevy!” Sammy Hagar- “Trans Am”. 1979. He knew the story.
I believe that you could not order these from the factory, so my vote is for a regional special model.
When I ordered my ’81, there were 3 model choices: Sport Coupe, Berlinetta, and Z/28.
I was very familiar with the option sheet because I pored over it so many times trying to decide exactly what I wanted. There really weren’t any add-on packages that I can recall.
I really like the idea of this model and glad that it is featured here.
My first car was a 81 Berlinetta, I paid 138 bucks for it 1990 from an insurance company! It caught fire and had a big burn mark in the middle of the hood that I never fixed other than that it was in good shape. It was a great car and it had enough power to roast many tires off.. I drove it for a year and someone rear ended me and it got wrote off, they gave me 2500 for it!
I can honestly say that I have never seen or heard of a Camaro C150. My bet is it’s a dealer add-on.
This had to be a dealer special add.
I have seen this referenced in past Camaro user group threads.
Its a talking point at car shows but in my book unlike the $$$$ Texas Twister or Nicky Camaro
I bet this is like the rare M-80 special edition Malibu
https://www.motortrend.com/vehicle-genres/junkyard-1980-chevy-malibu-m80/
Dealer Ads, Good article of yet another dealer special that I have never heard of.
Very similar to the C-150, and I’m betting that the Camaro special had some extra go fast goodies added in the package.
That article brings up a good point, if this C-150 were a regional thing, then COPO probably would have been involved in supplying all the identical white with red interior cars to someone for the stripes and whatever else.
A Nickey Camaro was a high-performance car. Not a decal. No comparison.
C for Camaro. 150 for the amount of horsepower avaliable.
There were quite a few of these around back then. several passed through the wrecking yard. All were white all were automatics. If memory serves me alot of them were those horrible metric 200 automatics. After this came the ones with Team Camaro down the side in big letters. I recall scrapping 3 or 4 of these. All were light on options also, no power windows and so on. I always thought it was some gimmick to dress up a base car, not sure just going by memory.
I remember the Team Camaros. Early 3rd gen. Fake hood scoop, rear lip spoiler, & TEAM Camaro graphics on the doors w/body length stripes similar to the ones here. They were dogs. 👎
I agree with Travis, clean this car up, sand those awful graphics off, fresh paint, the way you like it. Same with engine and tranny, fresh crate options galore out there. I’d get the cowl induction hood if it doesn’t already have it…I can’t tell from the pics. Make it what you want, do this poor car a favor and give it some glory after 42 years!
I grew up in MD and a neighbor bought one new. I’ve always believed they were a dealer sticker package.
If you’ve seen one of these, what state was it located in? This one has MD tags, maybe it was a local thing.
Seems there are too many people who have crossed paths with one of these for it to be just one dealer, why would one dealer make a special edition, only in white? I’m starting to lean towards maybe it was a regional thing though. Multiple dealers in in the same sales region
All the ones I’ve seen in person (3) were in Maryland. I live in the Western more rural part of the state, an area that wouldn’t have the sales volume to justify a special edition, especially back in the 1980’s there had to be enough of them made to justify creating a graphics package which wasn’t as easy then as it is now, so I always assumed factory, but also the way car sales works there is such as a thing as regional special editions. Off the top of my head I can only think of Mustangs that offered regional specials, California Special, High Country Special, Twister Special were the most well known of those. So it’s not impossible that this was a special regional model. Everyone is focused on the big stripes because they catch your attention more, but this stripe package also has those small stripes that mimic the outline of the 1980 rally sport two tone design as well. It was a pretty detailed package, a dealer would of had to of had this done somewhere else, like a specialty shop
Well, if a dealer’s body shop can repaint your z28 and install new stickers, they can do this. They could also farm it out to a trim shop. The Chevy dealer I worked at in the late 80s did that for some stripe work. Certainly could have been a regional thing, maybe the regional zone management came up with the idea and the package got installed locally.
IMHO if it wasn’t for the lettering, it’d be a nice looking stripe set. But the Rally Sport was beautiful!
I was in Montgomery County, BTW. NW of DC.
Looks like a dealer add on package. I’ve owned numerous 2nd gens……if I had this, that stripping would be gone.
If someone told they drove a C-150, I would think they drove a Ford product. What a ridiculous name! I can’t unsee it.
“C” for the 150 people Crazy enough to buy one.
After ruining the horsepower of engines manufacturers had nothing left but the coup de gras of a stupid name like c-150
I’m sure if the original owner had kept all their paperwork it would have mentioned the C-150 package in some form either as a regional thing or their own. No dealer is going to give you something for nothing, so it had to have a line item on the window sticker or original paperwork. And for the first two years Yenko was not backed by the factory. It wasn’t until 1969 that the factory started working with Yenko and started sending them COPO cars to modify. So if you had a 1967 or 1968 Yenko car, would you restore it to the way it left the factory or the way it left the dealer? This is an extreme comparison and I know this car is far from a Yenko, the comparison is just meant to show you that dealer modifications are still considered original as long as they were done before the first owner took delivery.
Now that this Barn Find article is posted on the interweb, there is a chance that an original owner will find this article someday and post the information we are looking for.
I still get comments from articles I subscribed to 10 – 12 years ago here and on Bring A Trailer (before it became an auction only site).
Congress ruined the horsepower, manufacturers didn’t have any choice.
Tons of researching has turned up nothing but speculation……from the early 2000’s till this post, it appears most feel it was a large dealership/group of dealers in Maryland that used this moniker. Speculation is “c” for Camaro, “150” for the hp (like you should brag about that-even then). Anyhow, it’s a non original, “stickered” up, smog equipment overloaded 2nd gen. Unfortunately, it it isn’t documented and can’t be clearly verified, it’s just another low power 2nd Gen. car. Cool to build and cruise to cars and coffee. Maybe leave the decals for some giggles.
I wouldn’t call it non-original. It’s just as original as any other dealer accessories. These cars were purchased brand new exactly like this, so it is as original as say a yenko Camaro, it’s just not a value adder. I just realized in all my posts I never mentioned that in my opinion it doesn’t add any value to the car, it’s just an interesting original model.
Back in the early 80s , I was around 13 or
14 years old. My cousin had one as her
own first Car. It was white with red
Interior and the stripe packet. She lived
In Frankford Delaware.
But dealer added parts aren’t original……i sold cars……if we added it at the dealership, it wasn’t original installed equipment, it was dealer added. Yenko and several others were manufactured authorized. They had dealer support. Plus you got tons of paperwork and info for their packages. If this is anything special, there’s got to be at least inter-office memos/correspondence, a window sticker, ad, something……otherwise, it’s as I sad…an interesting cars and coffee conversation piece. May even get some giggles.
Ten50 boy. 1967 and 1968 Yenko cars came from the factory with 396 big blocks. The dealership swapped them out for the 427. If you owned one of those cars would you find a correct 396 for it?
Canadian Camaro?
Engine is not all original look at the valve covers and intake manifold that’s one foo a cc carburetor
Well it’s probably not the original engine at all. It shouldn’t have had a 350 in it at all.
Who cares? It isn’t worth doing anything with.
Are we looking at the same car? I’m not saying restore it to original. But that is a very solid body for a Maryland car, and the interior looks to be in good shape too. Very little work and this can be a really nice car. Want more power? LS swap it. You checked the prices on these cars lately?
Is it possible the “150” stands for the number of Special Editions? I agree, who would brag about 150 HP even back in 81!
You are missing the point. It doesn’t say 150 horsepower, that’s just where the name is believed to come from. Just like a GT-40 doesn’t say on it that it’s 40 inches tall but that’s where the idea for the name came from. And Z28 is just an option code, it has no other meaning whatsoever.
No, I’ve never heard of this car.
These were the days of labels on cars.
The horsepower was pitiful so dress up the car in stripes and interior and sell it.
Its like baseball when the owners never spend to get good players then its bobble head nights often. 😜
The prior decades had muscle added like Shelby or Nicky.
To me this doesn’t add flavor or worth to me.
If one likes the design of the Camaro then buy and get the heads worked , engine bored and add a perf intake, carb and cam. This then is your special day edition and one of one of .. car.
Good luck on sale and hope to see it on a Barn find where is it now article.
First new car I ever bought was an ‘80 Camaro Berlinetta in the California Bay Area…
305 4 bbl
It had a “check engine” light directly between the 2 gauge pods.
I remember it vividly because the Stealership could never figure out how to turn it off…
A piece of black electrical tape covered it up and nobody was the wiser…
Lol
Future ex wife got it RePod in AZ not long after leaving the Golden State in ‘82
Lol
I wonder why she left?
The 81′ turbo Trans Am had a computer in it as well.it is the CAN/OBD 1 system.trouble codes were identified by flashing lights.the number of times it flashed was the code number.it was state of the art tech back then…
It also appears ito be sporting Rally II wheels which I don’t think we’re ever an option on Gen2.
Yeah, the original wheels I’ve seen on these cars are the same rally wheels that were on the standard sport coupe. Painted white of course. The ones on this car look better than the original wheels in my opinion.
Why not send the VIN to GM Heritage care of Allied Vaughn and $50 and they will find a copy of the original invoice that will tell the owner what dealer received it and the options that it came with… IE Z28, LT, Sport Coupe, Berlineta etc etc…
“The owner” was not ment to be in that sentence
One pic shows stick shift with cloth seats, all the rest show auto with vinyl seats. That’s as strange as C-150.
If you know your muscle cars you’ll know that one picture you are talking about not only didn’t belong, but it’s of a bench seat Chevelle SS or El Camino SS. My bet is El Camino because of the bench seat but either is possible. Round gauges indicate the SS dash, cowl induction hood is visible through the windshield.
My memory on this…There was a 1/25 scale model kit made back in the day and I am pretty sure this was on the cover of a Motor Trend magazine from that era with the caption ‘beauty treatment’. Or maybe that caption was on the scale model box…my memory is fuzzy on this, but I remember that caption with a picture of the C-150. That probably means it was some sort of factory backed option to me. [even though I am in MD.]
I don’t remember that, but I was more of a Hot Rod and Car Craft magazine person myself, didn’t really pay much attention to Motor Trend. Lol
Ok ‘ C ‘ if C stands for Camero, or computer, then we know 1981 was the last year of this body style 150 might be how many months old the Camero was old , better than bragging on 150 HP , maybe 150 cc heads just guessing, kind of reminds me of the mobetta chevy trucks from Oklahoma in the early 1990’s , they weren’t more better but the name was fun !! 😂
……..”Camaro”………
hi all, if this had a option code, i would check the build sheet and translate it all, if not, this would be a dealer special build appearance package, and could mean 1 of 50 built by that dealer, back in the late 90’s i worked at a auto sound sytems installer / store, me and the owner chatted with the owner of norwood chevy in warwick ri, i came up with a idea of a appearance for the base chevy cavalier , it was called a heartbeat package, which included a am-fm cassette, sunroof install, a/c install , rear defogger install, and a heartbeat oscilloscope pinstripe kit, which we worked out with stencils and stripes way back then, and can only be done on red/white/blue cars , so to say alot of dealers just wanted to have there own sub model to sell to the public , like yenko,baldwin,ect,,,,,,,,all to make a sale, , most likely some of you are correct, just a dealer imposed package, i own a rare 86 xs firebird that was only sold from a san Fransisco dealership. basically it was like the camaro rs, that used the z28 body panels, well the xs was the only non trans am body package used on the base, and 6cyl models only from this dealer
I was just thinking, the C probably does stand for Camaro just like the M in the M80 Malibu stood for Malibu, but another possibility if this was a regional model is that the C could have stood for Capital Area Sales Region. Washington D.C., Maryland, and parts of Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Virginia are in the Capitol Area Sales Region.
Recalling the conversation that I had with the Chevy Sales Manager back in ’81 when I was ordering my Camaro makes me think that a Regional Special would be a great recipe for selling more cars.
He made it very clear that he was having a hard time moving the Camaros that he had on the lot and told me he would make me a very good deal on one. I did have a look, but I was set on ordering the car I wanted.
for perspective, the Ferrari 308 that Magnum PI drove in 1981 had 208hp, an Astin Martin Lagonda, when it did run was approaching 300, when it did run, the 911 SC was 204, and the Lambo Countach was at a mind blowing 375! A Honda Civic type R now has 329 hp, and 4 cylinder Mustang and Camaros have over 300hp. just a pitiful time to be a car guy in the 70’s with the greatest muscle cars less than a decade prior.
I wonder if it had something to do with IROC. They ran camaro’s during that time period.
To fool insurance companies manufacturers went from Gross HP numbers to Net, and the government wanted a true realistic accounting of actual specifications.
To get any new manufactured vehicle the dealer could only change, install options that were blessed by the manufacturer. If the dealer did something the manufacture did not like the inventory would be pulled from dealer. Dealers are only brokers to sell not create sub models without an ok from the factory. The manufacturer to this day tell the dealer what his building will look like and the paint colors.
Stickers of the 80’s were cheap to make and with more color options the base color car could have 2 or 3 different sticker options to cater to the new car buyer. Instead of performance options stickers made them look fast.
Years prior cars from factory with white stripes or owner added became insurance adjuster pain in the ass because they were “racing stripes”. How things change.
With gasoline fuel mileage issues with government control, and generation 1 computers becoming mandatory my guess would be a special stripe package to those 1st generation save the whale purchasers to make them proud to be the first to be in a computer emission controlled car.
Somewhere in Chevrolet archives is a request from a dealer asking for permission to apply this sticker option. And maybe only two or three companies nationwide could even make the stickers this size. A request might turn up more information because someone would be paid before the time to design and produce them to be approved.
C Computer 150 Horsepower Save the planet even back in 1981.
Just last week at the Carlisle, PA meet there was a Camaro C150 for sale. More of a parts or tough restoration car actually.