Power to the People

The Camaro’s long schnoz wasn’t strictly a styling statement — it provided ample space for a variety of powerplants ranging from economical inline-sixes, to overachieving small-blocks and thundering big-blocks. The beauty of the F-car was that its front frame stub and inner fenders could accommodate any of these engines without modification, so swapping a 230 six for a 427 V-8 was literally a bolt-in affair. That made these cars efficient to produce and also made them darlings among street machiners and racers of every stripe for decades. The first-generation Camaro’s popularity continues today among restorers and collectors, as well as 21st-century enthusiasts bolting-in modern LS-series V-8s.

Here are some of the factory-installed powerplants that made the first-generation Camaro practical as well as predatory.

230 six

The thrifty 140-horsepower, 230-cu.in. inline-six