The Five Greatest Camaros of All Time

It may not be the prettiest or the fastest, but the 79 Camaro is the Camaro sales king.

It may not be the prettiest or the fastest, but the ’79 Camaro is the Camaro sales king. Via Auto Trader

Chevrolet’s Camaro is one of the carmaker’s most iconic and recognizable models, keeping pace with the Corvette. Along with the Corvette, it also has one of the longest, almost unbroken production runs of any muscle car model made in the US. Chevy has made some real winners and losers over the production run of the Camaro. Here’s a piece of trivia for you: Do you know where the name Camaro came from? I’ll give you the answer at the end of the article, but for now, take a walk through time with us, and see what we chose as the five greatest Camaros of all time.

The Original 1967 Camaro-The Beginning of a Legend

Two 1967 Camaros race cars. The beginning of a legend - The 1967 Chevrolet Camaro Images via GM Media Center

Two ’67 Camaro pace cars.
The beginning of a legend – The 1967 Chevrolet Camaro Images via GM Media Center

Like any car, the ’67  Camaro has its pros and cons. Unlike models that were produced later, it was hard to drive, and its weight caused it to lack much in the way of road feel, although there are suspension modifications to rectify this. Still, it tops the list here, because not only was it the first in a long line of awesome cars, it just looks great.

The Camaro was first announced on June 28th, 1966, in a live press conference from the Statler-Hilton Hotel in Detroit.  This press conference had the distinction of being the first one broadcast live and in real-time over phone lines. The press got their first official look at a press preview on September 12th of that year in Detroit.

Front and rear quarter shot of a stock '67 Camaro on display at the Camaro Museum. Image via GM Media Center.

Designer Bill Mitchell took design cues from the Riviera, design cues that are obvious to most gearheads. Its lines were sleek and curvaceous, not blocky. The open front end is reminiscent of mach-speed fighter jets. There were three basic models available: Rally Sport, Super Sport, and, added later in the production run, the Z/28.

Another thing that places the 1967 on this list, is the fact there were 81 different options available from the factory. Topping that off, there were another 41 options that were dealer-installed. This means that there was no one-size-fits-all Camaro.

Customers loved this about the car. There were more than 220,000 ’67 Camaros built at the Norwood, Ohio, plant, beginning with VIN 100001, with the vast majority of those being eight cylinder coupes. The first 49 of these were considered “pilot assemblies” and were hand-built.

Side view, and front and rear quarter shots of the '67 Chevy Camaro. Far right is the 302ci V8 that was found in the 1967 Camaro Z/28. GM Media Center

The Yenko

The Yenko is one of the most distinguishable of all Camaros with its distinctive striping and badging.

The Yenko is one of the most distinguishable of all Camaros with its distinctive striping and badging. These are all members of the largest Yenko collection in the US owned by Cliff Ernst. Images: Legendary Collector Cars.

The Yenko name makes Camaro enthusiasts’ mouths water. The Yenko makes the list for a few reasons. When the Camaro first came out, it wasn’t really meant to be a pure musclecar. It was originally intended as a (gasp!) cute compact. Thankfully, Don Yenko saw potential, and kept going against GM’s stated policy of keeping the engine displacement below 400 cubes. Don started dropping 427-inch mills into some of the cars he bought. By 1969, GM started to see the light due to his sales numbers, and the policy was loosened enough that Don was able to use the Central Office Production Order (COPO) to order them with the 427ci engine installed from the factory. The rest, as they say is history. Thank you Mr. Yenko.

The Cliff Ernst Collection in Tennessee, is the most impressive collection of Yenko Camaros around. Cliff’s stated goal when he started his collection was to have original examples of each driveline and color option that were available that year.

The 1968 Camaro Z/28 Hits the List for More Reasons than One

One reason the 1968 Z/28 makes the list, is because it’s the first “factory-sponsored” (by the backdoor) Camaro that appeared on the SCCA circuit. Members of the Camaro production and design team outsourced this undertaking to the legendary roger Penske, who then ran with it and made it a Mustang-killer.

1968 Chevy Camaro Z/28 Image via Wikimedia Commons

Penske’s Camaros dominated the SCCA Trans-Am series in 1968 and 1969, firmly cementing this model’s place in history, and its place on this list. Some of the developments that came out of this association include the heavy duty suspensions and brake systems found on later models.

The 1969 Camaro ZL-1

The 1969 Camaro ZL-1 is seen by many as the most exotic of all Camaros.

The 1969 Camaro ZL-1 is seen by many as the most exotic of all Camaros.

The ZL-1 was a monster engine package for the ’69 Camaro. Although the ’69 ZL-1 didn’t break any sales records-only 69 were sold- it did break records nonetheless. The ZL-1 was, for a very long time, the most powerful Camaro ever built. The aluminum 427-inch engine that was (barely) stuffed under the hood, was derived through Chevrolet’s involvement with the Chaparral Can-Am racing team. It developed a brutish 430 horses, while tipping the scales at 167 pounds lighter than the standard iron-block 427 of the time. This combination makes the ZL-1 one of the fastest Camaros ever made, with a 0-60 time of 5.3 seconds. Many Camaro enthusiasts consider the ZL-1 the most exotic Camaro ever produced.

1969-camaro-zl-1

Chevy’s engineers had learned a few things by this time, and lightened the basic Camaro significantly. Couple the lighter Camaro with the reduced weight of the ZL-1’s aluminum block, and you had a car that had a crazy horsepower-to-weight ratio. This is proven by the fact that the ZL-1 took the 1971 American Hot Rod Association Pro Stock championship. The ZL-1 also holds the distinction of being one of the few option packages that nearly doubled the car’s base price to almost $4,000. The car’s base price was only $2,727. To put that in perspective, one of these recently sold at auction for a cool million bucks.

1969 Camaro Z/28 (Two-door Coupe)

Ask 100 random people what their favorite Camaro is, and the majority will say the 1969. True aficionados will narrow that down and tell you either the ZL-1 listed above, or the 1969 Camaro Z/28 two-door coupe. A 1969 Z/28 recently sold for almost $100,000 at the 2014 BJ auction in Vegas. This baby came with the Muncie M20 four-speed mated up to a 302ci V8.

Most Popular Camaro by Sales Volume

The 1979 Camaro was the Camaro sales volume king with almost 300,000 units sold. Image via GM Media Center

This is going to be a huge surprise for all but the most diehard Camaro fans. One would think that one of the more well-known years would be the sales volume champ, but one would be wrong. Not many consider examples from the late 1970s as belonging on a list of greatest Camaros of all time, but there were 282, 571 Camaros sold in model year 1979.

Special Honorable Mention-2014 Chevy Camaro COPO

The 2014 COPO Camaro receives honorable mention.

The 2014 COPO Camaro receives honorable mention.

This was a special-production anniversary run of 69 units in honor of the original COPO Camaros of the 1960s. One recently sold at the BJ Auction in Phoenix for a cool $800,000. There were only two other lots in that auction that sold for more. One of those was TWO Corvettes, and the other included an old military vehicle and an airplane.

The 2014 COPO Camaro is a throwback to the days when Chevy dealers like Don Yenko would “massage the system” to get cubic inch and horsepower monsters factory made. The engines that were available for the 2014 COPO production run were developed so they’d line up with the top classes in the various NHRA Stock Eliminator and Super Stock ranks. These include the naturally-aspirated LSX-based 396, the supercharged LSX-based 350, an LSX-based supercharged 327, and finally, a naturally-aspirated LS7-based 427 monster.

The Quickest/Fastest Production Camaro of All Time

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The 2014 ZL1 Camaro is the fastest and quickest Camaro yet. Image via GM Media Center.

One would think this title would go to the Yenko or COPO Camaro, and one would be half right. With a 0-60 speed of a blazing 3.9 seconds and a top speed of 184 mph, the title of quickest and fastest Camaro goes to the new Camaro ZL-1. It can reach these speeds thanks to the 580hp/556 lb/ft. of torque coming from the supercharged 6.2-liter under the hood. Imagine heading from the dealership to the local track and smoking cars whose owners have stuck tens of thousands of dollars into them. The 2014 Camaro ZL-1 can do just that.

Top: Interior shots of the 2014 Camaro ZL-1. Bottom: Exterior shots of the 2014 Camaro ZL-1

OK everyone, what are your favorites? We want to hear from you. What would you add or remove from this list?

The answer to the trivia question I posed is this: Camaro means friend. Chevy PR people used that name to indicate that the Camaro would be your friend or comrade.

About the author

Mike Aguilar

Mike has been wrenching on cars since the early 1970s when he worked at his dad's auto repair shop. By the age of 14 Mike had built his first performance suspension, and by 16 he had built, and was racing cars in several sanctioned events in the San Francisco bay area.
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