1989 Chevy Camaro T Top - Forever IROC-Z
When I was a 16 year old Grade 10 pupil in high school, I always looked forward to spending my school holidays with my mum’s youngest sister, Lienie, who was only ten years older than me. She always had cool vehicles like beach buggies, superbikes (Suzuki 1100 Slingshot), a Mercedes 300 AMG upgraded to a Stage 4 and an E28 5 Series M5. I arrived during one of these holidays and waited for her to get home. When she came up the driveway, I heard a loud V8 which immediately sent goose bumps running up my spine. I ran outside and there was a maroon Camaro Iroc-Z.
Article by Steven Foster
Owner Steven Foster
Photos by Jan van Der Walt
Back then and due to being just a teenager, I did not know much about muscle cars. Porsche, Ferrari, Corvette, Mustang etc were all a young man’s dream cars. Anyone who has watched Knight Rider knows that Kitt has evoked a love of muscle cars in many people. One day when Lienie came to visit me at school and I was not there, I remember my friends telling me “jou tannie was hier met haar Hotrod” – that was when I decided that one day that would be the car that I would love to own.
During 1992 Lienie decided that she finally wanted to buy her dream car, a new Mercedes 500SL. I was very worried that she would sell the Camaro but also very excited for her. Luckily she agreed to sell the Camaro to me. The Camaro was parked in a shed while we all went on holiday together and when we came back the Camaro was gone.
It was missing and nobody could account for its absence. After 3 years of court cases Lienie won and got a court order to get the car back. But with no luck. After many years of searching all of the magazines that offered cars for sale, I saw a Sierra XR8. A few lines after this particular advert I noted that the same seller had an Iroc for sale. It took me about 3 years to build up the courage to give the seller a call about the Camaro. The car has already been sold but he had the number of the guy who had purchased it.
I gave the guy a call and to my amazement he is a huge Camaro Z28 fan and when he was a young man had wrecked his. He had searched for another one for many years. The person who had purchased his wreck had restored it and was never going to part with it.
After speaking to him, I knew that the chance that he would sell the Iroc to me was very slim. Late last year I realised that the car was not far from Gouritzmond where we usually spend our December holidays. I asked him if I could come and have a look. Our friendship was formed over the love for this car. Needless to say I drove my wife, mum and daughters insane and dragged them along when I went to see it. My mum got tears in her eyes when she saw the car as it brought back many memories for her.
After a few days I gave the owner a call and asked him if he would consider selling the car to me. He agreed upon the basis that he knew how much it meant to me and my family. I had to make the choice between a holiday promised to my youngest daughter and the Camaro. She was sad but agreed to a postponement of the holiday and I will honestly never forget the sacrifice that she made.
The challenge was getting the car back to Joburg. I wanted to use transport but after the seller told me he had so much faith in the car he would have driven her to Cairo, I drove her home. What I will say to anyone who is reading this article, if you have ever loved a car and you can fulfil your dream by owning it…….do it!!
