While smaller engines and less horsepower are usually not reasons for celebrating, this 1967 Chevrolet Camaro RS is such a rare bird that it deserves a closer look despite not being a V8-powered muscle car. The Camaro is a genuine RS model with a three-speed, floor-shift manual and inline six-cylinder engine. The bodywork is decent thanks to living in Colorado and California for most of its life, and it wears a sharp color combination of burnt orange paint with black decals. The seller notes it will run off a gas can, and that it’s been off the road for 25 years. Find it here on craigslist with a firm price of $19,500.
The Camaro looks tough with its rear spoiler and patina’d paint, not to mention the Cragar-style wheels. The inline-six Camaros weren’t drag racers, but they still made good torque and paired nicely with the three- or four-speed manual transmissions. The seller notes that while the car is by and large not crusty, there is evidence of rust in the bottom of the quarter panels and fenders. Still, it’s not catastrophic and strikes me as the kind of rust you can live with for a while and repair in stages. The floors and subframe are said to be solid with no rust, aside from some surface damage on the trunk lid.
The engine bay may look surprisingly empty to those of you who always expect to see a V8 under the hood, but I’m more struck by how clean and organized it remains despite over 20 years off the road. The seller notes that the next owner will want to drain the gas tank of any old fuel and perform a proper tune-up before driving the Camaro very far, and that makes sense if you want to extract every last bit of performance promised by the six-cylinder, which produces 140 b.h.p. and an impressive 220 lb.-ft. of torque. Paired with a manual transmission, it likely still moves out fairly well. The seller notes the Camaro is optioned with power steering and retains manual drum brakes all around.
The interior appears to be in good shape, although the seller references that it was “…done in the late 70s and should be sent back,” which I can only assume to mean the upholstery pattern is far more unusual in person than it appears in the listing photos. While I was initially surprised to see a three-speed floor shift, there is an option code M11 which allowed for the column shift three-speed to be relocated to the floor with a proper console. The overall presentation is that of a very cool car, with the RS package, hideaway headlights, and console-shift manual, and the six-cylinder will make it a conversation starter at any car show or Camaro gathering you take it to. Would you restore a six-cylinder?
I hope whoever buys this keeps it stock. The RS with the base engine and transmission is crazy. Maybe someone has some production notes and can chime in.
The rear of this car should not be black, unless it was a big block.
RS gives the camaro a std 3:07 rear, even with the 6. Mode than adequate for normal driving & peppy even with the Glide(if shifted manually) & a substiitute turbo muffler. I’ve seen a few ’67s & ’68s, but never a ’69 RS 6, tho Chevy could have built tens of thousands that way. Back then tho, if you were on a budget & had to choose between RS with std 6 & a non RS with v8, & could not afford both options, you just got the non RS with v8.
Chevy, i believe, did not keep RS records broken down by type motor.
Theres a bright yellow ’69 RS Camaro convertible that I see locally in the summertime, and it’s and oddball too. It has the original 6 cylinder, a floor shift 3 speed manual, and is still owned by the original owner who’s a very sweet lady. I definitely did a double take when I saw the RS front end paired with a 250 badge on the side of the car!
Joe, my first car was a 67 Camaro RS, in Mountain green with black vinyl roof and pinstripes. It only had a 230 ci 6-cyl with powerglide. (250 cubic inch 6 was the next engine upgrade. The car had very rare front bench seat with fold-down arm-rest.
Looks bone stock, but has been upgraded to high energy ignition distributor.
I wondered about that too, but the HEI beats the stock ignition hands down.
Unless you got a pontiac 400 v8 in ’74(any other makes or years?) when they 1st switched over to HEI mid model year. Mine would not start twice – the original white rotor’s plastic was substandard & the HEI spark burned a hole through it, sending the spark into the distrib instead of to the wires. lol
Also the module failed once. & another time, i barely made it home – car was bucking & backfired terribly – the thin wires to the pickup coil were too taut from the factory. & the back & forth motion of the advance weights/vac advance- repeated countless times – eventually partially severed the connection. Ridiculous. The latter is not an ez roadside repair!
Later, all problems were corrected with updated parts.
My friend’s bird with an early ’74 still had points & condenser & never had such problems. & he had some good laughs at my car. BTW the sd-455 never had HEI(would not fit) & had no problems turning 13’s with its ancient ignition system.
The unified ignition of ’72(not high energy tho) was even less reliable with its silly wires & cap, but the module was at least mounted on the outside of the distributor.
Looks like a dual chamber master cylinder too. Maybe a brake upgrade?
I believe 1967 was the first year the dual master cylinder was required.
$19,500.00? Dream on, pal!
Patina, a fancy word for a faded, rusty paint job.
The price is insane! I had a 68 Camaro with a straight 6 250 that won Camaro Nationals 2 years in a row in mild modified and it only bid up to 15k on ebay!
https://imgur.com/Es6lAFb
Unlike this guy my car ran, drove and looked immaculate.
That’s a very attractive engine/engine bay. Very clean and tidy. I prefer that to the chrome everything approach.
It is an interesting car, and the 3L on the trim tag identifies it as a true Rally Sport. It has been played around with a little though. The trim tag shows the original colors were Granada Gold with a gold standard interior. It’s a little hard to tell from the pictures, but it looks like it has 2nd generation Camaro high back bucket seats in it, and a matching later steering wheel. Also the the dash has been cut up for a radio, and it has a 75 up GM HEI distributor. The seller doesn’t note whether it’s the base 230/140 6, or the optional 155 horse 250 6.
$19,500 seems way out of line. The seller admits this, and tries to justify it, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s overpriced. A 6 cylinder 3 speed RS is rare, but this is a case were rare doesn’t translate into more desirable or more valuable.
The console shifter looks older also.. I owned a 67 3 speed 6 blue with a white stripe across the nose, it was completely stock. Paid $1495 in 1980.
I’m wondering just now after all these years if a lot of salesmen told customers they could not get an RS with a 6 – to jack up the car’s price. Or either were simply unaware you could.
“The Camaro looks tough with its rear spoiler and patina’d paint“. Perhaps the spoiler gives the car a tough looking stance but the rust and faded paint, not so much. Strip it an paint it. Thank you Gas Monkey for making this fad so popular in an effort to save some money on a paint job.
Actually it’s “burnt orange”. Just more burnt on the trunk.
I bought one of these 6 cyl Camaros in the early 80s. Didn’t take long to add a built 283, 4 spd, dual exhaust, (Too loud I was told by PD). Toned it down and added a metallic Cadillac Cinnamon color. Very fun car. I was an auto tech teacher and sold it to a student.
Today with the screaming import motorcycles & backfiring(latest thing) import exhausts, the PD here(at least) would not bother you or your Camaro even if your car had holes in the exhaust. lol
I have YET to hear ANY mainstream v6 or 4 cyl that sounds 1/10 decent – they all sound TERRIBLE(especially those Subies) & should be completely muffled IMO! Midasize it!! lol
Worst of all is when any 4 cyl or v6 has an exhaust leak at the front of the motor.
I was told by MY local PD that these days they have to use special equip to determine if exh is too loud!!(wth), while back in “Dirty Mary Crazy Larry days”, a cop’s hearing was good enough. I remember an officer in the movie asking for info about the girl in the Charger-in exchange he said he might not hear those exhaust pipes on a 1st gen camaro that were not even loud at all! & sounded good!
Seller states this car should be less, but you know Barrett Jackson, so there. No low ballers, and learn how to use a phone!
chev did some weird things with their cars, for instance there is a 69 chevelle SS running around here 307 v8 automatic on the tree , bucket seats, no console years ago a gm dealer in ontario had a 63 chev impala SS convert, red with red interior full load on it , with a 6 cylinder automatic! this thing sat there for the whole year with no buyers!
I never cared for straight 6 cylinders motors but no way would I change this to a v8, keep the 6 in it. I have an old car mag from the early 70s and in it is an article about a 67 or 68 Camaro drag car with a 6 punched out to 300 cid I think, with the name “6 Shooter” painted on the side. The car rand 10s in the 1/4 mile now that’s cool, 10s with a 6.
If I remember right it had 327 cid. It was blue
Nope, it was a 6. I found the old mag, the 6 was a 292 cid truck motor bored out 310. I got the name wrong it was called the “Storming Six” type in Storming Six and there are pic of the car for sale on eBay pulse other sights that tell all about this little race car it’s pretty cool.
Used to be a 64 Nova that ran local tracks that had a built 6 banger in it Sod Buster on the doors,great little drag car
is this one of 10 because this car is nowhere close to being worth 19.5k
Oh, I see what you did there. LOL
The ’68 Rally Sport Coupe I own was owned by the same family for 39 years. It left the factory with the BASE 230 CID engine and 29 options – including factory A/C, power windows, speed warning, head rest seats, rear window defogger and fold down rear seatback. Grotto Blue with Blue Custom Interior.
That front “Bumble Bee” stripe looks a little thin to me but I suppose when the car was repainted the correct stripe wasn’t important. Price seems a bit too high for a car that needs as much as this one does but the available market gets smaller every year. The only thing I can say about the ’69 that he has for sale too is,,,,,,,,,,AYFKM ?
I dont believe HEI Distributor came out back then !
You know it is repainted,…wrong measured stripe on front, “s” is missing from “rs”,.. added rear spoiler from a 68. We ALL know SS big blocks were painted black around the tail lights. Dumb newer steering wheel. Lotsa rust. 5 grand car max. true rs is nice to find