The Camaro Club (UK)

Hi everyone,
Well, here I am after more years of American car ownership than I care to remember, spanning 4 decades, there have been 2 Ranchero's, a Camino, an Olds Cutlass, a Fox Body Mustang and a Charger, oh and a 2nd Gen Camaro back in the late 80's that was mostly made of washing machine panels, newspaper and bodge (god I loved that car, lol). Anyway, I still have my Charger but wanted something else to use while I finish some work on the Charger. Spent some time drooling over 68 Mustangs (would be rude not to, what with owning the Charger), but they were all over my budget, as were 1st gen Camaro's, Trans ams seem to have rocketed to sky high levels.
So after spending a couple of weeks looking for something, an 86 Camaro appeared on Ebay last night and only an hour away!
went to see it today and struck a deal with the owner, subject to it passing an MOT this week. It's a 305 TPI Z28 Iroc with T-Tops, few bits and pieces to sort out (purely cosmetic) in its original Blue (I know, not black, red or white), comes with a whole bunch of spares but is completely and totally unmolested.
I'm guessing that I'm going to be asking a lot of questions, especially about the TPI engine, is it true that they cannot be modified at all?
I'll start a proper thread with pics when I collect it and get it home

Hi and welcome to the club! Sounds like a fun car history! Which year Charger do you have? Always been fond of the 67 and 68 fastbacks, such a beautiful roof to rear quarter shape.

Let us know how it gets on with MOT, unmolested is always a good find! I have an 87 Trans Am, T Tops etc so i beleive they are practically the same. It's a 305 TPI too so i believe that would be the exact same setup. I'm not an expert on TPI's, from what i've read you can change the fuel regulator for an adjustable one to crank up the PSI a bit for the injectors as that should help. Headers will help it breathe more easily and again, from what i've read, the most gains come from mods to the air intake part. You can also get it chipped, aka PROM which basically involves burning new data to the chip. The TBI's are less tunable from myunderstanding as they are throttle body injection (not far off putting an injector on a carb) whereas the TPI's are tuned port injection so give you more control as you have mulitport injection.

I've actually been pretty happy with mine as it is. It's got an aftermarket stainless exhaust from the log manifolds back (no cat) and it does go. I have read on a lot of forums that people say "trash the weak 305 and put a 350 in". They must have only experienced clapped out 305's as mine shifts out of trouble very happily and it's all stock. Haven't done the fuel reg, headers, chip or anything. I guess it depends on what you use it for... what are the plans? I use mine daily so getting 25-30 mpg's is nice plus it can shift when you need it to.

Hope that helps,

Cheers,

Ray

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Thanks Ray,

It's a 68 Charger with a 383 and 727.
Have no experience of TPI's, looking forward to getting it though, it sounds wonderful, deeper tone from the exhaust than the charger has.
As for the plans for it, it's going to be a daily driver as well, so nothing too radical just yet, lol. Not really a fan of seriously modifying them when they are original, the Charger is numbers matching and by pure coincidence, sounds like the Camaro could be as well, so just general tidying, make it look presentable and drive it. Might do some light modifications but only general upgrades as things break or when they wear out.

Hello and welcome. ... hope the car passes the mot and it all works out for you.

Tpi is tuneable as said already, mostly inlet mods, air filters, inlet adds on etc.. headers and free flowing exhaust will help.. but it's not a slow car so depends on what you expect.
I loved my 86 IROC and was my daily for 7 years...
(Charger sounds nice too )

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“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”

Thanks, just waiting to hear from the current owner regarding the MOT, not going to do anything radical with it. As said its probably going to be my daily for a while, just want to tidy it up, make it breath easier and put my mark on it.
As already said, probably just filters and exhaust and freshen up the paintwork

Ok then, I’ll just start again I think.
So, with regards to my previous post ( above ) where I was waiting for the guy to get back to me about the MOT, he did, about a week later. Informed me it had failed on emissions and front brake pads were needed.
He said he’d ordered the parts required and would let me know when it was done. A few days later, I get a text to say it’s all done and MOTd, ready to go.
So, a mate gave me a lift to pay for it and collect it. I had previously agreed a price with the owner subject to it passing an MOT and we shook hands on the deal. Apart from the formality of handing over the cash and signing the V5, its mine, I’m the new owner, right?
When we get there, the guy hands me the keys and says take it for a drive to make sure you’re happy with it before paying for it! This seemed a bit strange, but to humour him, I agreed.
It felt sluggish, there was a grinding sound coming from the rear and it stunk of diff oil inside the car, as well as black smoke from the tail pipes. I drove it back and said I wasn’t happy with it, after telling the guy why I wasn’t happy and adding that I didn’t want it like that, he just said ok and that was it.

So, I bought a foxbody Mustang and sold it a year later, then bought an El Camino which We still have ( as well as the Charger ). Anywho, I’m updating my original post because we now also own a 3rd gen Camaro. It’s a 1985, B reg, Z28-E 5.0 auto.
Which ( after reading through some previous posts on this forum ) I’ve discovered, used to belong to a member by the name of “ old_git “.
Oh, incidentally, the blue one that I nearly bought, turned up on eBay about a year later, a lot cheaper as an MOT failure.