It’s the darkest of colors, a lumen-soaking sponge, absorbing all light directed upon it. History tells us it’s the color of mourning and since the beginning of time has been associated with all things malicious and evil. Darth Vader wore black for that reason, as do all the bad guys in every Western ever made. It signifies the end, death, and represents the great unknown that lies ahead.
It also was one of the first colors used in artistic expression. Royalty wore black in many civilizations. Dignitaries, businessmen, and statesmen adopted the color for their outerwear. No one can deny the impact that the hue has on one’s senses. Black can leave you amazed in both its pure serenity or conversely in its power to radiate an aggressive attitude and a malevolent nature.
When done right, it can be one the most striking shades you can skin a car in. Any ride can go from polite grocery getter to high-powered troublemaker with just a color shift to the dark side.
This threesome of ebony 1969 Chevrolet Camaros is the cream of the crop, rare performance models blessed with the best option codes the Bow Tie has to offer.
Z/28 RS
Steve Shauger purchased his first black Camaro in 1999. He was searching for his original Hugger Orange Camaro Z/28 RS—a search that was going on its 13th year—when he came across this stunning ride. He finally did locate his original car, but the owner did not want to sell it. So he bought this car as a project. It needed a paint job and a reworking of several key ingredients that were not done to concours standards. He decided that a frame-off restoration was in order.
Steve stripped the car down to the sheetmetal and disassembled all the components. He then built another subframe to put under the body, and shipped the carcass to Jim Kosel in Churchville, New York, a body guy who had a great reputation, and who had done several paint jobs previously on award-winning Camaros. There he knew the car was in good hands.
Back home, Steve got started on the drivetrain, suspension, and other pertinent parts. He acquired N.O.S. and OE pieces where needed, and restored the assemblies back to concours-level originality. This included the rearend, wiring, interior pieces, transmission, subframe, and the all-important powerplant as well. The project was supposed to take only six months but actually spanned 2 1/2 years. That gave Steve more time to search out N.O.S. parts, while Jim worked on getting the body into its original Tuxedo Black.
When Steve and his son went to pick up the Camaro, they were blown away with the quality of work that Jim had performed on the car. Once back in Long Island, he reconstructed the car with the newly refurbished parts. What really makes this car kick is the contrast between the black body and the original white houndstooth interior. Since the seats had been covered in clear protective plastic since new, they were in amazing shape. Just the carpet had to be replaced, and the door panels dyed back to color.
Its first outing was at the GM Nationals in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. There it achieved Gold Status, exactly five years to the day after Steve purchased the car.
