DISCOVERY - THE SLEEPING BEAST

There are many Camaros but each of them has a specific story. Here is the story of mine. In 1992 a friend of mine since childhood told me – for he knew I was so fond of cars - that there was a race Camaro rusting on a ground in Grasse 20 kilometers from home. I told him: “very nice to you to tell me about it … but I have other projects”. As I had no opportunity to deal directly with the problem… I talked about it around me… A few weeks later as I was discussing with some friends I happened to know that the car’s owner refused several offers.
About five years later, talking with my pal Eric I asked him if the car was still at the same place… and he answered that he didn’t know. As I missed to realize five years before that it was a unique deal I decided to make some investigations just to be sure… It took around a week before I located it. I knew approximately where my friend saw it a few years before and so we went looking for it until we noticed the corner of its bumper far back of the ground, in a curve of the “Route Napoléon”. We stopped in order to have a look at it over the outside wall of a garage which seemed abandoned.
There it was!!! Just in the middle of a yard overlooked by a 10 meter cliff. I decided to ring at the neighbour’s gate. The man welcomed us and let us in to have a look at the car. It has been abandoned for four years in a state next to decrepitude but without any bump; it was like a miracle because above the cliff overlooking it there was a car park along the route where anybody could have cast a stone without being seen. It was night blue with its orange strip and it’s TB5. I had already seen before some “Camaro 1969” and at the time, these models didn’t appeal to me… But this one, even in its poor state, breathed “violence”… I felt it was like an asleep “beast” which was expecting to get up. My feeling was reinforced by the fact that nobody ever tried to destroy it.

I asked the welcomer whom it belonged to and why it was there. He answered that the owner was keen on cars and that he bought it to run races; he added that unfortunately he died around 10 years before; consequently our friendly welcomer was just able to give me his name. It didn’t take long before I found the owner’s daughter and husband who had parked the car where I discovered it.
Right at this moment… I thought that: if my friend talked to me about it without my being interested in it, and then that it spent five years outside without anybody noticing it or ruining it, and that it came back in my mind just when it became urgent to take care of it before it turned useless to rescue it These were the signs of destiny…
As I imagined its past of glorious wartime and that it was still there standing proudly in front of us… At this moment I told myself that it deserved my paying attention to it. Moreover it seemed familiar to me, much like a “friend”. After some investigations in my files I found an old documentary on the American cars racing in France in the seventies; and there was a picture of this Camaro crossing the arrival line on three wheels!!!
I contacted the owner’s son-in-law to discuss about it… It was on an October Saturday.
After a friendly talk I asked him how much he wanted for it… He answered that it was a race car which marked history and he asked for such an amount I couldn’t afford and beyond reason, taking the state of the car into account.
I told him that according the huge amounts necessary to restore it I couldn’t offer him more than.....!!! (You would like to know how much, wouldn’t you? You won’t, no way!!!).Of course he wasn’t ready to recognize the real price it was estimated in regard to the poor state it was.

As I acknowledge the fact that I couldn’t negociate with him I gave him this piece of advice: he should absolutely remove it because it might deteriorate further on; I added that if he wished I would give him addresses and advices to restore it, because it was really worth restoring. Then he proposed me to restore it but I told him that I didn’t have time to do it.
We agreed for an appointment the day after so we could bring it to a shed. On Sunday, after having pumped the TB5 up and unsticked the brake pads I headed for Grasse towards its new home.
Then I never heard of it for a while until the following New Year morning when the telephone rang. You can easily imagine how I was this First January…messed up. But I answered the phone anyway:
“Good morning…”
“Good morning and happy New Year… Do you still want the car?”
“Happy New Year… what…what did you say?”
“Do you really still want the car?”
“Er… yes, but how much do you offer for it?”
“The price you first proposed me”
“Really ?”
“Yes, your price”
“Are you sure? Don’t you want to restore it?”
“No, I don’t”
“It’s ok then”
It was just the beginning of it!!!.........................
For to start with, its registration document was lost. So I told him I would wait until he got it back. After a phone call every week during a year I came to understand that this Camaro was a matter of discord within this family.

A year and a half later… On a Monday when strong rains had fallen the entire week end long and there even had been floods all over the region.
It was a time when I worked with “Ducati”. During lunch break, I decided to drive up 916 to check whether anything severe happened to the Camaro, though I had been informed on the weather situation over there.
According to the delay it was quickly done on the road as well as on spot. Bad luck… the engine which had been removed in 1975 to be controlled, was in a corner of the shed half dismantled.
Infiltrated water from the ceiling had dropped on the cylinder heads and inside the block. I noticed it was not the owner’s first worries. So I told him that it was better for me to take all mechanic pieces with me to put them in a dry place, against half the amount agreed for.
So I did it a few days later.
The star is in agreement one more time to permit the following, 2 day after I have the opportunity to get back a van for 2 hours. Just the time for me to do something… this challenge electrified me "the rods gone be red hot" after 18 month of endless waiting, the action fall right. This can by do otherwise! It’s necessary some time to follow the forces that surround us. After done the first initial van job like spider pig…
I put the distributor point in fire in a 20km run to the Grasse rendezvous. At 4pm just in time ….load parts engine, gearbox set of wheels and many other parts that full of the rear of the van.
Hello, the cash! That good ? Ok, see you soon! Go back to home like a jet van and throw away the entire sheet in my garage alone.
At this time I can said you that a 396 weight a like a bear full of giant burger but, with a good constitution and lot of nerves that help! And finally just with 1 minute latless …van restitution.
I love when a mission this unrolls without tears!
A year later… After all sorts of incidents the owner’s wife, who I met for the first time gave me the registration document, together with the car against the remittance.
As the Camaro was a reminder of her dead father I promised to come back and see her when the car would be restored.