#(congratulations on fatherhood mark! good luck)

[stageplayhero]

There’s a box on Mark’s desk. A box with clear walls and a lid dotted with holes. A very unassuming box to anyone else, but what could very well be a menacing box to Mark.

A note sits next to it.

You’re on babysitting duty today. You don’t have to do anything other than make sure the box isn’t jostled around or tipped over, and make sure he doesn’t run out of leaves. You can handle this. Hopefully. I’ll be back by morning.

A doodled heart is in the corner of the message, along with Harper’s signature.

… Looks like Mark will be babysitting the kid today ! // @rabbitholewritten ( sorry mark you have parent responsibilities today 🤷 )

Can anyone else hear the ominous strings playing? The accelerated, low tapping of a drum? Mark takes slow steps towards the box, and reads the note even slower, as if that might change its message.

Babysitting duty. Wait, babysitting duty? It’s a caterpillar! Shit, it’s a caterpillar.

He bends down to squint through the glass. There, sure enough, is a critter on the other side, disturbingly turned to face him. Little legs pressed against the side, little legs carrying him to greater heights.

Not anywhere close to escaping, thanks to the lid. He gingerly picks up the box to raise it to his eye level. “You are not a child. You are a bug.”

Caterpillars can’t look sad. They can’t! He’s imagining things. With a sigh, Mark takes the box with him to his study, and later to the dining room. His “charge” is never left out of his sight. (He even slips a few leaves into the box. He wouldn’t want to see Harper’s crestfallen face if they were to return to find their dear little companion hadn’t been taken care of.)

[itsworn]

After More Than Two Decades, He’s Reunited With Same 1969 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 He Owned in 1970s

Calling Steve Shauger just a car guy would be like calling George Patton just a general. In a nutshell, Steve’s a card-carrying, multiply certified, full-blown car nut to the nth degree. If there was an accreditation test to receive a degree in autophilia, Steve would ace it and score an advanced doctorate in muscle car virtuosity while he was at it. Yeah, he’s definitely into the hobby big time.

While Steve can say he feels an “umbrella of love” for the entire universe of the muscle car genre, there is one model that really hits home with this guy: GM’s original ponycar, the Chevy Camaro. (You may recall three of Steve’s Camaros appearing on the cover of our Jan. 2016 issue and in the accompanying story.)

Steve’s Camaro attraction began in 1967, while he was on his way to elementary school. He could hear “it” rumbling through the backroads of suburban Philadelphia. That sound—the tone of the exhaust, the lope and rhythm of the solid-lifter camshaft, the revelry of the Chevy small-block—was a hypnotic siren’s call. What he was hearing that day was his friend’s older brother thrashing his new Z-28 Camaro. That was all it took; Steve was hooked.

Two years later he would have a similar run-in with a similar car. This time he saw a Hugger Orange 1969 Z/28 power sliding into the Sun Oil research facility in his hometown of Newtown Square, Pennsylvania. Years later he would come to find out that the driver that day was none other than Mark Donohue in his own Z/28, stopping by the Sun Oil R&D department to pick up parts that Penske race crew teammate Bill Scott had fabricated. Talk about a life-altering experience!

Donohue would die in 1975 preparing for the Austrian Grand Prix. “The loss of Mark had an effect on me, and from then on my goal was to find a car identical to the one Mark drove into the Sun Oil facility,” says Steve.

Seek and You Shall Find

It would take three years, but Steve did find the car he knew he needed. In the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin was a listing for a Camaro that hit almost every mark, and was just a stone’s throw away in Franklinville, New Jersey. When he first saw the Z/28 RS, he could tell it pretty much had everything he had hoped for, plus a few things he hadn’t planned on.

“I wondered to myself, what were those hideous turn indicators doing on the fenders? Next I looked inside and really liked the houndstooth interior, but not the eight-track box mounted on the console lid.”

Today, Steve recognizes that those two options, the code U46 “Vigilite” Light Monitoring System and code U57 Stereo Tape System, are “rare and collectible and quite fashionable,” he says. But back then they meant nothing to him.

He drove the car home that day, back over the Commodore Barry Bridge and into Pennsylvania. He was approaching his hometown when he got a little overzealous. “On Route 252, my excitement got the best of me and I ran through the gears. Just at that moment my luck ran out, because I was immediately pulled over and ticketed for several violations: no inspection, registration and excessive noise.”

Steve found out years later that the police officer “was a Camaro lover who owned a Fathom Green 1969 Z/28, but that didn’t prevent him from giving me the tickets.”

Cleanup

Steve worked on the car for the next two years. He removed the front clip and drivetrain, sent the 302 to K&G Speed for machine work, and then handled the engine rebuild. After removing the bolt-on modifications made by the previous owner, Steve had the Camaro sprayed with a fresh coat of Hugger Orange.

Things slowed down when Steve got a job transfer out to Long Island, as he could only work on the car on weekends, but the Camaro went back together without incident. That is, until it was finished. On its first day out of the garage, his mom accidently plowed into the driver-side fender with her Chevy Monza. Steve bit his tongue, told his mom it was OK, and saw to it the damage was repaired.

Steve met Diane, his future wife, in 1982, and they were married in the summer of 1983. Needing cash to start their life together, Steve put the Camaro up for sale, posting an ad in Super Chevy magazine. He had several calls, but a deal was struck with a Larry Beard out of Crockett, Texas.

Steve was very fond of his Z/28, and he never could stop thinking about it. In 1986, he called Larry to check on the status of the car, only to find out that it had been sold. Larry only remembered that the new owner was in Tyler, Texas. Luckily, Steve kept his old Pennsylvania registrations in his wallet. Going through the Texas DMV he located the car, which was owned by a man named Mark Stuteville. For the next 24 years he would call Mark two to three times a year hoping he would part with the car. “Basically the conversations were always the same,” Steve says. “He would ask ‘How much is that old car worth now?’ and nothing more.”

Reunited

Finally, in 2009, Mark called with the news that he was ready to sell. Unfortunately, Steve’s mom passed away the day after, which made this all so bittersweet. “I suspect she had a hand in making this happen,” says Steve.

Three weeks later he was on a plane headed to Texas to check out his beloved Camaro. It hadn’t run since 1994, but still possessed its original drivetrain and some of the mods done in the 1970s.

After a month of negotiations, a deal was struck and the Great Pumpkin (Steve’s wife’s nickname for the Z) was on its way home. “Since taking possession, I replaced worn carpet and other interior materials. Next I pulled the drivetrain for a rebuild and detailed the engine compartment. The car is back together and still retains many of its day-two components,” Steve says.

Now home in Steve’s garage, the Z/28 is not going anywhere. He’s enjoying the heck out of it. “Needless to say, I am reliving my youth, and I have had a blast doing so. Yes, like taking my wife of 34 years out on dates.”

Congratulations, Steve, on your unwavering love of your favorite ride.

At a Glance

1969 Camaro Z/28 RS Owned by: Steve Shauger Restored by: Owner Engine: 1969 302ci/290hp DZ302 V-8 Transmission: Muncie M21 4-speed manual Rearend: 12-bolt with 3.73 gears Interior: Black vinyl and gray houndstooth bucket seat Wheels: 15×7 Torq-Thrust Tires: P225/70R15 BFGoodrich Radial T/A Special parts: Light Monitoring System, Stereo Tape System, traction bars

Steve Shauger owned this Camaro for three years in the early 1980s, and suffered decades’ worth of buyer’s remorse after selling it. Persistence finally paid off when he was able to buy the Z/28 back again.

This is the Z/28’s original DZ302 V-8. Steve has rebuilt it twice, and it’s a strong runner to this day.

The original houndstooth seats are still in excellent shape. Steve liked them from the start, though when he was younger he wasn’t too excited about the eight-track player on the console or the fiber-optic lighting option.

An avid collector today, Steve now appreciates the rare options that came with his Camaro. The U46 fiber-optic Light Monitoring System was installed on just 1,463 1969 Camaros.

Steve added some day-two modifications to the Camaro, including Torq-Thrust wheels. The BFGoodrich T/As are a safe and good-looking choice for rubber, as Steve loves to flog the Z at will.

The Rest of the Story

Once the Z/28 was back in Steve Shauger’s hands in 2010, he made a determined effort to trace its complete history. He scoured the DMV records in several states, obtained the Camaro’s assembly and shipping records from the NCRS, and traced the history of the original selling dealership. He poured over online newspaper listings to find the original ad he responded to in 1980, and even cold-called the phone number from the ad, despite the long odds that the original seller would still be at that number 40 years later.

But he was. Except the area code had changed. Once that was figured out, Steve contacted the man he bought the Camaro from, Paul Micarelli. To say Paul was excited to hear from Steve would be an understatement. All the pieces fell into place.

Jay Chevrolet in Haddonfield, New Jersey, originally sold the car to a good friend of Paul’s, Bill Miller. Bill and Paul, in fact, went to the dealership together to order the optioned-up Camaro, and Paul drove Bill to the lot when the car arrived.

Impending fatherhood pushed Bill into selling the Camaro—to Paul—in 1971, for $2,100. Paul used it as daily transportation, modifying it along the way with a new cam, traction bars, and a gear swap from the stock 3.73s to 4.88s. When that proved too steep for the street car, they were changed out to 4.10s.

In 1980 Paul put the Camaro up for sale, and that’s when Steve entered the picture. Since reconnecting, Steve and Paul have become close friends. Paul provided Steve some photos of the car during its first years, as well as the Camaro’s original Protect-O-Plate. —Drew Hardin

The Camaro and its second owner, Paul Micarelli, circa 1972.

In another photo from 1972, on the left is Bill Miller, who in 1969 originally ordered the car with his buddy, Paul Micarelli (right).

Steve’s wife-to-be, Diane, poses with the Camaro in 1982.

Here’s how the Camaro looked after Steve Shauger’s restoration in 1983. Note the traction bars were still on.

The Camaro returned to Steve’s garage in 2010. It hadn’t run since 1994.

Steve and his daughter, Alyssa, installed the rebuilt 302 in 2013.

Paul (standing between Diane and Steve) was reunited with the Camaro in 2017. With a little coaxing on Steve’s part, Paul took it for a drive. “It’s amazing nothing has changed,” he told Steve. “It feels exactly the same. What a thrill.”

The post After More Than Two Decades, He’s Reunited With Same 1969 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 He Owned in 1970s appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

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