Papa John set out a month ago on a road trip/publicity stunt to find the 1972 Camaro Z28 he sold to start the business back in the 80s.  Originally Papa John offered $25,000 for his long lost Camaro, but apparently the search hasn’t been going as well as he’d hoped (or, if you’re a cynic, the publicity has been good).  So John has upped the reward for his Camaro to $250,000.

Twenty five thousand dollars is a decent price for a good condition second generation Camaro.  If the current owner has done some work to the Camaro, there’s a good chance it’s realistically worth more then $25k.  Upping the bounty to a quarter million means that, no matter the condition, the current owner of Papa’s Camaro will get way more than it’s worth when they sell it.

Papa John has built a replica of the Camaro he sold to start his first pizza restaurant.

Normally I wouldn’t care about some millionaire’s publicity stunt, but this one hits close to home for me.  In addition to living with an irrational love for a machine that clearly hates me, I have a good friend in a similar situation to Papa John’s.

My friend and former employer Mike also sold his prized 1980 Camaro (same body style as Papa’s) to buy a Pizza shop.  Unfortunately Mike’s pizza place didn’t do as well as John’s and he was forced to close, but while things were going well he did buy another 1980 to restore that he’s currently working on.

So here’s hoping that Papa John does find his Camaro and some lucky person gets to collect that king’s ransom for it.  If you need me I’ll be buying up every ’72 with a split front bumper, sunroof and positrac in South Florida.

Image via Papasroadtrip.com.