Historians record every bolt, curve on classic cars
The first Camaro Chevrolet ever built sits on a turntable in a photographically perfect white room devoid of right angles and shadows.
After a long, strange trip that began in a secret corner of General Motors’ Norwood, Ohio, assembly plant and included years as a heavily modified drag racer, Camaro No. 001 is back in the original gold paint GM used to launch vehicles in the 1960s and ready for its close-up.
The car is in the cyclorama room at the Historic Vehicle Association’s national laboratory in Allentown, Pa. Painstakingly lit and photographed from every possible angle, the photos will become the Library of Congress’s official record of the 1967 Camaro. The car is the latest addition to the National Register of Historic Vehicles.
“Our goal is to take one picture that documents the shape and what the car was,” HVA president Mark Gessler says. “So 100 years from now, a person can look at it and know what a Camaro is.”
