Vince Piggins was a force to be reckoned with at GM. He was pals with Smokey Yunick, understood what the role of performance cars could be to the company, and was a genuine car guy in every since of the word. Oh yeah, he’s also the guy that gets credited for creating the Z/28 Camaro.

Known through the halls of GM as a guy who flat got stuff done, he was both feared and respected by the people that worked for him. The argument can be made that it was Piggins who was able to find ways to keep Chevrolet active in racing after the company decided to remove themselves from official competition in 1963.

A guy who had spent part of his career as an engineer with Duesenberg and the Whizzer motorcycle company, his experience was as varied was anyone’s in the corporation, but his desire to see Chevrolets perform on the race tracks of the world was unmatched.

Piggins’s trick during GM’s “racing ban” days was to avoid using words like “high performance” when compiling performance packages and parts for production cars. Instead he was using words like “off highway” or “heavy-duty” to avoid drawing the ire of company executives. Everyone was blissfully unaware that Piggins was turning Chevrolet’s image among the youth of the ‘60s from staid to exciting and vibrant.

It’s kind of amazing the stuff he was able to get away with. In 1963 he championed the Z-16, 396ci big block powered 1964 Chevelles. Only 100 of those were produced. He convinced Bruce McLaren to run all-aluminum Chevy big-blocks in his CanAm cars, which were thoroughly dominating.

Probably his biggest achievement was the fostering and guidance of the process that led to the legendary and long lasting Camaro Z/28. Piggins realized that in order for the Camaro to be successful and fight the all conquering Mustang, it must find a strong, superior, performance reputation amongst young drivers and competition drivers. Failure to do that, Piggins believed, would result in the car being completely overshadowed by the Ford.

He found the perfect sales tool in the freshly announced Trans-Am series that would kick off during the 1967 SCCA racing season. He reviewed the rules and set to work with his team of engineers to come up with an engine that would fit the ci limit of 305 inches and exist from off the shelf parts. The biggest fight came from coming up with the proper engine. The engineers wanted a small bore, long stroke motor, making maximum low end torque while Piggins championed the large bore, short stroke, high rpm screamer. If you know anything about a 302, you know who won. I’ll give you a hint, it wasn’t the engineers.

To complete the package Piggins saw to it that the car was equipped with front disc brakes, heavy service front and rear suspension, 11-inch clutch from the big-block cars, quicker steering ratio, big-block spec four-speed, and a functional cowl hood

In short, this was Piggins masterwork and it succeeded in convincing the public that the Camaro was as serious (and maybe even more so) a contender than the Mustang. The results of this strategy were as close to immediate was they can be in the car business. The Z/28 package went from selling about 4,000 units a year in 1967 and 1968 to nearly 20,000 in 1969. Original, intact cars with this package are amongst the most desirable to collectors today.

Piggins greatly valued the relationships he had with racers outside of the company, guys like Grumpy Jenkins and Smokey Yunick, as mentioned before, were trusted advisors and never wanted to special parts or help when the need arose.

With Camaros rolling off assembly lines daily up in Canada, Vince Piggins should be recognized as the guy who really created the package that sent the cars from capable to legend. It’s fairly easy to argue that without Piggins the Camaro would have never gone onto the level of success it has achieved in all manner of racing events.

Next time you see that Z/28 badge, think of the big guy from GM who ram-rodded special programs like that one through the GM red tape and into the hands of racers and enthusiasts for wide open competition.