Meet all the freshly restyled 1978 Camaros—Sport Coupe, Rally Sport, Type LT, and Z28—in this original Chevrolet dealer film.
Somewhere along the line, enthusiasts tagged the Camaros of the mid-late ’70s the “Disco Camaros.” Like leisure suits and four-on-the-floor disco dance beats, these pony cars are products of their time. Stricter emissions standards had (temporarily) put an end to serious performance, and the automakers compensated with multi-tone paint schemes, elaborate graphics, and extra luxury and convenience options. The Disco-era cars might not be as true to the original Camaro vision, arguably. but they have their loyal fans all the same.
The Camaro was sporting a fresh look for ’78, with front and rear fascias in flexible urethane replacing the big, clunky square bumpers of the ’74-’77 models. Four distinct trim levels were offered: Sport Coupe, Rally Sport, Type LT, and Z28, with the Type LT leaning toward a luxury theme and the Z28 representing for the performance crowd. But alas, the engine choices were limited to a 250 CID straight six with 110 hp, a 305 CID V8 with 145 hp, and a 350 CID V8 (standard in Z/28) with 170 hp. (California ratings were even lower.) But on the bright side, factory glass T-tops were now available, priced at $625. Check out all the features and flavors in the original dealer video below.
No, it wasn’t really that fast but I loved my 1978 Z28. It was bright yellow just like the video and my first real new car I bought with my own money. I drove the wheels off of it.
The RS in the top pic, lean the color a little more toward orange, or copper, no spoiler (from ’70 on it killed the finely sculpted meeting of the quarter panel, deck lid, and tail panel), tan interior (trust me). Drop the front 1″, rear ½”, get rid of the door rattle which invariably showed up in about a year, and I may bought one.
But they were like opinions, everyone had one.