Race Car Of The Day: March 30, 2011

Today's car of the day is Zylmex's 1979 Chevrolet Camaro IROC racer.

The second generation Chevrolet Camaro is a pony car by the Chevrolet division of General Motors produced for the 1970 through 1981 model years. It was introduced February 26, 1970 It was longer, lower, and wider than the first generation Camaro, and is "widely considered the best all-around domestic musclecar ever produced." A convertible body-type was no longer available. GM engineers have said the second generation is much more of "A Driver's Car" than its predecessor.

For more information and pictures of the real car please visit: Chevrolet Camaro & International Race of Champions

Matchbox did the third generation IROC Camaro (by repainting their existing Camaro casting as an IROC racer) and this Zylmex is the only example of the second generation IROC racer.  This was a recent purchase from Pegers.  Thanks Dan!

International Race of Champions, better known as IROC, was an auto racing competition, promoted as an equivalent of an All-Star Game or The Masters. Drivers raced identically-prepared stock cars set up by a single team of mechanics in an effort to make the race purely a test of driver ability. It was run with a small field of invited drivers (6-12). It was created and developed in 1972 by David Lockton, the developer of the Ontario Motor Speedway, and launched in 1973 with Mark Donohue being the first driver to win the championship, in 1974. The cars used that year were Porsche Carrera RSRs. Donohue's win in the fourth and last race of that season was his last win as he died in a Formula One practice the next season. The series was not run in 1981, 1982, or 1983.

In 2007, IROC could not find a sponsor and postponed the first two races at Daytona and Texas. IROC went on hiatus for 2007 hoping to return with sponsor in 2008. In March 2008, IROC auctioned off its tools, equipment, cars, and memorabilia, and went out of business.