In my '69 assembly manual, it shows a "Sport Shift" option that, from the drawings, looks like it might be a bump-shift style shifter. It has a different console plate and a special in-dash gear indicator.

Is this an option that didn't make it to production, or is it just rare that I haven't heard of it? In any event, what is it?

Thanks,
Dave

I dont know for positive...but I'm guessing It was an optional appearance package for the shifter....(not the shifter itself) special knob and so on...

Someone will chime in who knows for sure!....am I close?


Dan

What page is it on or what rpo code is it listed under?

It's RPO M08 on page 384 of my book. It might be a powerglide, because the lends say RPNDL. Looks like it has some kind of bumpstick shifter with a special gear indicator that goes up in the clock location. The option was cancelled in May of 1969.

Sport Shift is described in the November 1968 Communications Newsletter.

It was a ratchet shifter to be released as an RPO December 1968 for Chevelle, Camaro & Nova equipped with SHP engine, TH400, bucket seats & console. I do not believe it made it to production.

I could send a scan to someone for posting if interested.

In the AIM it says "Canceled" on the 1st of 3 pages. Shows a horseshoe type shifter and on the 3rd page of the rpo sheets it shows some kind of dash display for the PRNDL display to go along with the indicator in the console.

William e-mail me with the scan and I'll post it.

my first name at camaros dot net

Thanks Bill... too bad it was canceled, it would have been a very desired option these days.

http://www.camaros.net/pnwcc/DjD/sportshift.JPG

I remember that controversy - DeLorean cancelled it shortly after he became Chevrolet's General Manager. He was absolutely stunned at the level of parts and option complexity on the Camaro, and made it clear that the Camaro didn't need any more options. I recall him saying in a review at the plant that "When even the dealers don't understand how to order them and you could build 500,000 of them and never build the same car twice, the system is completely out of control". The plant had prepared big charts that showed all the plant end-item part numbers for instrument clusters and wire harnesses, and he went bananas. :rolleyes:

Huh. I believe that this actually made it into second gens...

Huh. I believe that this actually made it into second gens...

They did have a horseshoe shifter in the 2nd gen but I couldn't find any reference to M08 or Sport Shifter in the white book for a 2nd gen...

That plant visit must have been an epiphany of sorts for DeLorean as he was still stewing about Camaro options in his book, written in 1973. He stated "...there were an unbelievable 2,720 possible alternatives for Camaro dashboards."

I was able to reproduce the number but believe it to be incorrect; it is really 2,360.

Considering all of the trim/option/color/drivetrains that were available it is suprising any 1969 Camaro was correctly built. He did have a point.

They did have a horseshoe shifter in the 2nd gen but I couldn't find any reference to M08 or Sport Shifter in the white book for a 2nd gen...

Sorry, my memory is fuzzy on it... It's regarding the 73-81 shifter, where you push it over to the right when in low gear and it clicks into a ratchet mode or something...:clonk:

I had a '75 Monte with a normal post shifter that, if you pushed it up and to the right, would run in ratchet mode (single gear guaranteed). I'd had the car for a few years when I discovered it by accident, and I was giddy like a schoolgirl when I found it.

Was actually a pretty neat design. With 180hp or whatever it had, not that useful in that particular car, but a neat idea...

and he went bananas.

Maybe thats what drove him to his little drug habit.

I love to have one of those today. That would make it fun on any kind of track and keep the stock look.

Maybe thats what drove him to his little drug habit.

Huh? AFAIK, he was duped into a FBI sting 'cause he needed the money. Shoot, I have great sympathy for him. Who said he was a addict?

Agree with Matt, DeLorean was not a drug user, just a marketeer. He needed the money to make the DeLorean.

My hat's off to the man for taking on such a task of trying to build a car company from scratch.

Sport Shift is described in the November 1968 Communications Newsletter.

It was a ratchet shifter to be released as an RPO December 1968 for Chevelle, Camaro & Nova equipped with SHP engine, TH400, bucket seats & console. I do not believe it made it to production.

I could send a scan to someone for posting if interested.

Is there a link to these Communications Newsletters?

None that I know of. The newsletter was included with the Communications Kit, which was in a carton with filmstrips, training manuals, etc. Hard to believe but we had a complete set of them from the mid-60s to the early '70s when we had the Camaro business.

Not to mention DeLorean was acquitted of all charges, if I remember correctly. So not only wasn't he a drug user, he wasn't guilty of anything!

Not saying the man was a saint, but he was a giant in the car industry and truly got a bum rap and bad reputation at the end of his life quite unfairly.

I still don't forgive him for cancelling Sport Shift though :-)