Dr. Gerald Bucholtz has a pretty simple explanation for why he’s hung onto his 1969 Z/28 Camaro since he bought it new as a college kid.
“I guess I could never see not having it,” opines the resident of rural Mosinee, Wis. “When I bought it, I wouldn’t have thought about having it for 50 years, but I never wanted to get rid of it. I guess I always just wanted to keep it.
So has he ever considered selling it?
“Never,” he answers flatly.
Of course, his choice to keep the hot Camaro is vindicated every time he turns the key and the dual exhausts rattle the windows of his garage. The Lemans Blue Z still looks great, is loads of fun to drive, and still packs all the appeal it had when Bucholtz scraped up all his nickels and bought it new — with a little help from his dad.
“I was going to college, and I had worked a few summers at Allen-Bradley in Milwaukee, trying to save a little money,” recounted Bucholtz, 68, an allergy and asthma doctor at the Marshfield Clinic in Marshfield, Wis. “I always liked the looks of the Z/28 Camaros. When they first came out … they didn’t make very many of them, and I liked the looks of them, and their performance. Well, when I finally got a little money, my dad agreed to pay the remainder of it — actually it was most of it [laughs] — and we went down to Braeger Chevrolet in Milwaukee. The salesman was our namesake – I think his name was Ron Bucholtz — and he gave us a deal on it. We got a big discount of $307, but at that time, anything counted. The car wasn’t on the lot yet. At the time, it was en route. We didn’t order it, but we selected the one we liked, and that was the blue with white.
“I remember the first time I drove it off the lot. I couldn’t believe how close the gear ratio was. It seems like shift, shift, shift. And that was just on the ramp to get out!”
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