This was originally posted on the supercars.net website.
Found this little tidbit from one of my books on the Camaro, regarding the H.O. 305 V-8 for the '83 model year:
"When we went to what would ultimately be the Camaro high-performance engine," says engineer Denny Davis, who worked on this engine, "I was told to go back and get one of the old high-performance RPO numbers that were no longer used and put it on the 305 four-barrel package. Well, GM in it's infinite wisdom, reused those old RPO numbers for something else after they went out of production. So all the old high-performance numbers that we had back in the 1960s had been a Camaro, regarding the H.O. 305 V-8 for the '83 model year:
"When we went to what would ultimately be the Camaro high-performance engine," says engineer Denny Davis, who worked on this engine, "I was told to go back and get one of the old high-performance RPO numbers that were no longer used and put it on the 305 four-barrel package. Well, GM in it's infinite wisdom, reused those old RPO numbers for something else after they went out of production. So all the old high-performance numbers that we had back in the 1960s had been assigned to other packages. So I said, 'OK guys, if you can't give me any of those, give me a new RPO to go with this engine.' So they came up with some lousy number, and I called them up and said, 'Guys, this stinks. This has got no pizzazz at all. After all the other Z packages and everything we've had, I want somwhing with sex appeal. Get me something other than this thing.' We had L engine designations whether we wanted them or not. So they called me back and said it would be L69. They thought I would holler. I just laughed andssigned to other packages. So I said, 'OK guys, if you can't give me any of those, give me a new RPO to go with this engine.' So they came up with some lousy number, and I called them up and said, 'Guys, this stinks. This has got no pizzazz at all. After all the other Z packages and everything we've had, I want somwhing with sex appeal. Get me something other than this thing.' We had L engine designations whether we wanted them or not. So they called me back and said it would be L69. They thought I would holler. I just laughed and said, 'I love it guys, I'm going to leave it.'"*
* Young, Anthony. Camaro. Wisconsin: MBI, 2000.
Found this little tidbit from one of my books on the Camaro, regarding the H.O. 305 V-8 for the '83 model year:
"When we went to what would ultimately be the Camaro high-performance engine," says engineer Denny Davis, who worked on this engine, "I was told to go back and get one of the old high-performance RPO numbers that were no longer used and put it on the 305 four-barrel package. Well, GM in it's infinite wisdom, reused those old RPO numbers for something else after they went out of production. So all the old high-performance numbers that we had back in the 1960s had been a Camaro, regarding the H.O. 305 V-8 for the '83 model year:
"When we went to what would ultimately be the Camaro high-performance engine," says engineer Denny Davis, who worked on this engine, "I was told to go back and get one of the old high-performance RPO numbers that were no longer used and put it on the 305 four-barrel package. Well, GM in it's infinite wisdom, reused those old RPO numbers for something else after they went out of production. So all the old high-performance numbers that we had back in the 1960s had been assigned to other packages. So I said, 'OK guys, if you can't give me any of those, give me a new RPO to go with this engine.' So they came up with some lousy number, and I called them up and said, 'Guys, this stinks. This has got no pizzazz at all. After all the other Z packages and everything we've had, I want somwhing with sex appeal. Get me something other than this thing.' We had L engine designations whether we wanted them or not. So they called me back and said it would be L69. They thought I would holler. I just laughed andssigned to other packages. So I said, 'OK guys, if you can't give me any of those, give me a new RPO to go with this engine.' So they came up with some lousy number, and I called them up and said, 'Guys, this stinks. This has got no pizzazz at all. After all the other Z packages and everything we've had, I want somwhing with sex appeal. Get me something other than this thing.' We had L engine designations whether we wanted them or not. So they called me back and said it would be L69. They thought I would holler. I just laughed and said, 'I love it guys, I'm going to leave it.'"*
* Young, Anthony. Camaro. Wisconsin: MBI, 2000.
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