Sunday, May 05, 2024

very surprising... they made a Canadian spec '81 Z 28 Camaro - that got a stick shift. They did not make a Stick Shift 1981 Camaro Z28 to sell in the USA that year. Lucky darn Canadian young men got the better car that year!




This is a Canadian-spec version of the 1981 Chevrolet Camaro Z28, and as such, it could be ordered with the 4-speed manual transmission which wasn’t available to American-delivered cars – they all got the automatic.

As a result of this one-year-only, cross border rule, original Canadian-ordered Chevrolet Camaro Z28s from 1981 are among the most collectible from the era. 

For 1981 the Z28 and its 350 cubic inch (5.7 liter) V8 could only be ordered with the automatic transmission with a lock-up torque converter, which was linked to the CCC unit.

This limitation didn’t apply for non-US orders however, and as a result there was a special Canadian version of the Z28 Camaro that wasn’t fitted with the power-sapping CCC unit, and could still be ordered with the Borg Warner 4-speed manual transmission.

Canadian Camaro buyers made good use of the loophole, over 3,000 4-speed manual examples of the 1981 Z28 were sold, all of which were faster than any new Camaro sold in America that year.

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