11. Fred Gibb Chevrolet
They opened the Fred Gibb Chevrolet dealership in 1948 in the rural Illinois town of La Harpe. For years, they sold regular cars and trucks to this small community 250 miles from Chicago. Fred Gibb didn’t intend to race or modify muscle cars. But when his employee bought a new Camaro Z28 and started racing successfully, Gibb realized there was potential in the performance market.
Gibb met Dick Harrell by chance. So, he started preparing race cars with the help of fellow Chevrolet performance dealers, as well as the factory itself. Gibb invested heavily in race cars and even bought 50 Chevy IIs from GM. He transformed them into racing cars, selling them to enthusiasts.
Apart from the numerous successful race cars he built, Gibb’s biggest achievement was when he persuaded Chevrolet to build 69 legendary COPO Camaros ZL1. He wanted to fit them with the mythical all-aluminum 427 V8. They built the cars as special orders, selling them through special, performance-oriented dealerships. However, Fred Gibb Chevrolet was the main dealership that sold most of the 69 Chevys they made.