For fans of performance street cars, the year was remembered as the afterglow. Compression ratios were down, while safety and emissions concerns were up (as were insurance rates for young men). Bernie Watson was a high school senior in Fort Morgan, Colorado, who had his eyes on a new Z28 Camaro. Perhaps defanged a bit from the race-bred 302 and high-compression LT-1 350 offered in earlier Zs, the ’72 Camaro was nonetheless a showcase for Chevrolet. However, 1972 production of both Camaro and Firebird was greatly hindered by labor shortages that started in April at the strike-riddled Norwood plant, the only location for F-Body production.
