Marketing to adults was not the only way Chevrolet promoted their brand-new Camaro in its introductory year. During the Christmas season of 1966 Chevrolet dealers across the country sold an item that was directly targeted at young children. It was called the Chevrolet Road Rally Game and it sold for $5.95. This is equivalent to $55.43 in 2023 dollars. You couldn’t get this game anywhere else. The idea was that kids would want it for Christmas and the parents would have to go to the Chevrolet dealership to acquire it. While they were at the dealership, they would be shown the new Chevrolet models and probably come home with a brochure or two in addition to the game. Some dealers gave it away free with the purchase of a real Chevrolet.
According to an article on page 32 of the February 1983 edition of the magazine entitled Classic Sixties,
“Republic Tool & Manufacturing Corporation made this ‘Road Rally Game’ for Chevrolet in 1966. It was a promotional tool for the new Camaro, introduced that Fall as a 1967 model, and for the 1967 Corvette, the last version of the famed 1963 body design. J. W. McRoskey, a Republic spokesman, told Classic Sixties, ‘we initially contacted Chevrolet and worked with them on a contract basis. We manufactured approximately 300,000 units at a cost of $5.95 each for exclusive distribution through Chevrolet dealers. The Corvette may have been modeled from prototype photographs; however I have no recollection concerning the design of the Camaro. Several years after we produced the Road Rally for Chevrolet, we manufactured similar games for Mercury, Plymouth and AMC.’ The Corvette is a very faithful replica, but has non-production tri-bar spinners on the Rally wheels that were standard on 1967 Corvettes. The Camaro, though, looks as though it was created from very sketchy information.”
I'm not really sure about the last sentence from the article. The Camaro looks pretty spot on to me. It was just a toy, not a scale model.
Does anyone have any memories of receiving and/or playing with this game back when it was new?
