By the stance, there is no question that this Camaro is all business.
And, while a lot of people wondered if they were legal, NHRA didn’t – 427 COPO Camaros were running in Super Stock by the middle of the year. After an unplanned change in accounting, buying the steel L72 (list was around $4,400 for a stripped-down example) seemed quite economical compared to the $7,300 tag on the ZL1. Vinnie Tarantola of Brooklyn, NY, found out about the COPOs and had his local dealership, H.M. Williams & Co., special order one for him. It would not be spending its evenings up on the infamous Connecting Highway, either. The Hugger Orange F-body would be sponsored by his company, Vitar, a well-respected high-performance automatic transmission rebuilder. The new car would replace Tarantola’s record-setting Willys gasser that had held the C/GS NHRA record.
Under the hood is a period-correct L72 block with vintage speed parts. Like most race cars, the original factory version is unfortunately gone, but the 1100cfm Demon is an adequate replacement for the original L72 Holley.
 The car retains its original interior plus period-correct gauges to monitor vital signs. |
Thanks to a small article from the February, 1970 issue of Super Street Cars, we have some background on Vinnie’s avatar. He and a partner named Kaufman had paid $3,200 for the car, and immediately invested a couple of grand more into getting it ready to race. Jack Merkel, a friend from the gasser wars, balanced the internals, including special L88 race pistons. The engine received other legal upgrades to the exhaust, ignition, and valvetrain, and 4.88:1 gears went into the 12-bolt housing. The trick thing was Tarantola’s transmission, a worked Turbo 400 with a small-diameter converter. Chassis work was limited to Lakewood traction bars and Cragar rims.