Chevrolet may have been caught off guard by Ford's all-new Mustang in 1964, but by 1967 it had its own highly successful pony car in the Camaro.

Inspired by the Super Nova show car displayed at the 1964 New York Auto Show, the Camaro featured the clean flowing lines and rounded contours that characterised Chevrolet designs of the mid-60s.

The Camaro was in fact one of the purest designs ever issued by Chevrolet, embodying everything designer Bill Mitchell believed should constitute a proper sporting automobile; a clean attractive shape uncluttered by details, a high-performance drivetrain, bucket seats with a floor-mounted shifter and seating for four.That Chevrolet would offer a Super Sport package for the Camaro was a foregone conclusion, as was the availability of big-block power.

When the SS396 debuted in late 1966, its performance was hampered by the mono-leaf rear springs carried over from the Chevrolet Nova, but that was solved in 1968 with the introduction of multi-leaf rear...