A million years ago, I moved to Europe while my wife stayed on in the States to close up things. “Hey,” I told her, “there are no old cars over here. Buy something and bring it when you come over.”
She didn’t.
A couple of years later, we’re back in the States, and I convince her uncle to sell me his ‘69 Camaro RS, as stock as the day it was born, with a 327 ci / 5.3L small block and a three speed automatic TH350 transmission.
Boxed it, took it to Europe, where I drove it damn near every day for over six years. Rain, snow—every day. It was bliss.
Busted up my knuckles something good on that car - you either need to be rich and able to pay someone to maintain it for you, or you need to be willing to get in there and do it yourself. I had a great shop manual for it, which gave the basics of just about anything needed for that model - it was a godsend.
Parts were a problem, being in Europe. I had to have a lot of things shipped over from the States - which was fine. The internet and places like Rick’s First Generation made parts only a time and $ problem - if I paid and waited, I could get anything that I could not find locally.
Oh, and the last thing I did to it, before it sold, was to pull the stock exhaust and slap on 3” pipes and Hooker headers. Just monsters. Finally, it sounded right! I should have done that as soon as I have purchased it.
Sold it this summer, to a guy from Oslo. So, if you see a silver ‘69 RS with a black vinyl top cruising through your Norwegian town, well, it’s probably mine.
