Surf’s Up! The 1967 Camaro Waikiki Show Car

Behold the 1967 Camaro Waikiki, a convertible SS350 specially customized by Chevrolet and the GM styling studios to complement the glamorous surfer lifestyle. Except the scene is not the island of Oahu, and those are not the blue skies of Honolulu. As far as we know, Chevrolet’s 1967 Waikiki show car never actually made it to Hawaii.

No, this car shoot clearly took place on Belle Isle in the middle of the Detroit River, and those are the gray, greasy skies of the Motor City circa 1967 we see here. You can almost smell the old U.S. Rubber plant on Jefferson Avenue smoking away in the background. For us, these photos of the Camaro show car, so tragically out of its element, always bring to mind the old 1965 surf-pop tune by The Tradewinds, “New York’s a Lonely Town When You’re the Only Surfer Boy Around.” (The group was from Rhode Island.) Read more >