That’s a question we have to confront you with in light of being tipped off to this Craigslist ad by BangShifter Scott Brown. The car you see in the lead photo and in the photos below is a 1983 Camaro. The seller claims that it was the last “Grumpy’s Toy” Pro Stocker that Bill Jenkins owned. The good news for the seller is that the information in the ad is correct and if this car was built by Joe and Marty Signorelli of Diamond Race Cars in Long Island, New York it could very well be the car that was driven by Joe Lepone Jr and tuned by the Grump himself. We’re just not sure why the guy thinks that it is worth $2.5 million dollars. Hell, a pair of hauler trucks and running vintage funny cars failed to make a million at Barrett Jackson recently, if that lends any perspective here.

Assuming this is the car, it certainly wasn’t the most notable of Jenkins’ efforts. The car was really only campaigned for a season and the best finish was a runner up at the NHRA Southern Nationals during the 1983 season with Lepone falling just shy of the winner’s circle due to being outrun by Lee Shepherd in the Rehr and Morrison Camaro. The pair did have a solid season, even without any NHRA event wins, finishing fifth in the points that year (the same as Jenkins did in 1982).

Like many pro stock doorslammers of this era, the car was setup to swallow the 500ci engine mandated by NHRA as well as a larger “mountain motor” for use in IHRA competition where the sky was the limit on pro stock cubic inches. That engine was a 634ci monster that Jenkins built off of a tall deck Rodeck block, which he craftily filled with sleeves intended to be used in a large John Deere diesel farm tractor engine. Hey, according to guys at the time those parts were cheap and easy to get. The rear suspension of the car was a three link configuration, it ran a Lenco transmission, and a highly modified Ford 9″ rear end handled the abuse of the clutch dumps and violent Lenco shifts. In NHRA trim, the car was good for laps in the 7.60s at over 180mph, with the mountain motor, drop a tenth or two and add some mph.

Lepone had informed Grumpy that he was going out on his own after 1983 and Jenkins had apparently grown tired of hustling sponsors and living in the back of a truck on the road. He put the car up for sale before the NHRA World Finals in 1983 and it was purchased by Bob Panella out there in California who then tapped Ken Dondero (who has just recently passed) to prepare and drive the car. Apparently Jenkins turned the screws on it for a short time the following year, but his engine business was exploding and the work he was doing with NASCAR was consuming much of his time. According to history we have dug up, Panella ditched this car at the end of the 1983 campaign or somewhere around that time.

So….the question of the day. Would you (or anyone?) pay the asking price of $2.5-million for this 1983 Camaro that appears to be the last Grumpy’s Toy ever? Surely stuff has been whittled on, changed, blown up, ripped out, and generally altered since the 1983 season. Is the Jenkins paint under the white that adorns the car now? The car looks to be in fine shape and could certainly be “put back” into Jenkins mode if the new owner wanted to.

Scroll down to see photos and the link to the craigslist ad! Would you pay $2.5-million for this car?

CL Ad Link: Is This The Last Grumpy’s Toy? Would You Pay 2.5-million for it?