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The 1969 Camaro SS’s official order sheet topped out at a 375-horsepower 396, but a separate, little-known path let buyers get a factory 427 anyway — through Chevrolet’s COPO ordering system or through tuner dealers like Yenko and Baldwin-Motion. The rarest of those, the aluminum-block COPO ZL1, was built in tiny numbers and now ranks among the most valuable Camaros in existence. It’s proof the fastest ’69 SS wasn’t always the one on the brochure.
Studebaker’s story starts in 1852 as a South Bend, Indiana blacksmith shop that grew into the world’s largest builder of horse-drawn wagons, decades before it ever touched a car. When it finally entered the automobile business in 1902, its first vehicle ran on electricity, not gasoline. By 1966 the automaker was gone, folded a year later into an industrial conglomerate with no connection to cars at all.
Chevrolet’s Camaro, initially code-named Panther, roared onto the scene in 1966, aiming to devour Mustangs like a “small vicious animal.” From the first-gen ’67-’69 classic to the sleek fourth-gen ’93-’02 models, the Camaro evolved with a flair for style and speed. Notably, the ’70 SS 350 was hailed as a top ten car globally. By the ’80s, fuel injection modernized the beast, while the ’90s saw anti-lock brakes as standard. As Camaro celebrated 35 years, its legacy remained a thrilling ride through automotive history.
This 1940 Chevrolet wears its original pre-war sheet metal but hides a thoroughly modern 355-cubic-inch small-block V8 under the hood, paired with a 4-speed automatic transmission Chevrolet never offered on the real 1940 model. It’s a textbook street rod build: a decades-old body around drivetrain technology that didn’t exist yet when the car was new. The small-block’s legendary tunability is exactly why builders keep reaching for it.
The 1963 Chevy II Nova SS convertible carried Chevrolet’s sportiest badge and bucket seats, floor shifter, and unique trim — but not a single extra horsepower, since the only engine offered that year was a 120-hp inline six. Chevrolet dropped the convertible body from the Nova SS lineup the very next year, making 1963 the only season you could get one with the top down. It’s a rare, six-cylinder oddity hiding behind a performance badge.
The Triumph TR6’s sharp, squared-off styling looks like an all-new design, but German coachbuilder Karmann only reskinned the outgoing TR5 — the chassis, engine, and doors underneath stayed the same. Of the nearly 92,000 TR6s built through 1976, over 83,000 were exported to the US, where detuned carbureted engines made noticeably less power than the fuel-injected versions British buyers got at home. It’s a roadster built on borrowed bones that still became Triumph’s best seller.
Ford’s 221-cubic-inch flathead V8 earned a nickname simply from its horsepower rating: enthusiasts still call it “the 85 horse” engine decades later, even though output actually varied across its production run. This restored 1938 Deluxe, shown here courtesy of Gateway Classic Cars, represents a quiet but important midpoint in that engine’s development, right before a bigger redesign arrived later that year.
Chrysler’s “Elephant” Hemi made a heavy comeback in 1964, boasting a whopping 426 cubic inches and enough size to need its own zip code. Known for its robust power, this engine was a hit in NASCAR until it got benched in 1965 for being too exclusive. Revamped for the streets in 1966, the Hemi roared into drag racing fame, proving itself the heavyweight champ. Despite its hefty price tag and appetite for parts, the 426 Hemi remains a legend that left competitors in the dust, or at least eating plenty of it!
The AC Cobra Mark III is the car that put the ‘zoom’ in ‘vroom’ and made Corvettes cry. Born from a British roadster, it was beefed up in Los Angeles with a Ford engine, transforming into a racing beast. Detroit Ford worked with Shelby to craft the Mark III, boasting a 427 engine that could hit 185 mph on race tracks and leave a trail of awestruck spectators. The British government even imposed speed limits after one Cobra hit 186 mph on the M1! Talk about leaving a mark—or a skid mark, in this case.
1974 marked the final year Plymouth built the Road Runner on its original mid-size platform, with engine options still ranging from a mild 318 up to a 440 big block wearing GTX badges. Production had fallen to 11,555 cars, down from 19,056 the year before, as the muscle car era wound down. A year later, the Road Runner name would move to a much smaller car.
The 1972 Alfa Romeo Montreal is a luxury sports car that, despite its Canadian moniker, never hit the North American market due to pesky emission and safety regulations. Only 3,917 were made, with just a handful in the Americas. Appearing first at Montreal’s 1967 world’s fair, it delighted crowds with its futuristic design by Lamborghini Miura’s creator. Its aluminum V8 engine, unique design quirks, and airplane-like cockpit make it a joy for speed enthusiasts, even if getting one is like finding a unicorn.
Every 1969 Shelby GT500 came standard with a 428 Cobra Jet V8 rated at 335 horsepower and 440 lb-ft of torque, wearing police-interceptor rods and 427 low-riser heads under an unassuming hood scoop. Only 1,402 were built that year, and a rare 166 of them hid an even tougher Super Cobra Jet package meant for the drag strip. Here’s what made the ’69 GT500 the muscle Mustang collectors still chase hardest today.
This 1969 Dodge Coronet Super Bee carries the rare A12 package, a 463-dollar option that swapped in a 440-cubic-inch V8 wearing three two-barrel carburetors for one strange mid-year run. Only 1,907 were built before Dodge moved on. Stock, these cars ran mid-13-second quarter miles, embarrassing plenty of pricier machinery on the strip.
This 1965 Corvette Sting Ray carries the standard 327 V8 and 4-speed manual, not the ultra-rare fuel-injected version Chevrolet also offered that year for $538. With only 771 fuelie cars built before the option quietly disappeared, most 1965 buyers picked exactly the setup shown here. It turned out to be the smarter choice for reasons Chevrolet is own big-block engine would soon prove.
By 1979, ‘Cutlass’ could mean two very different cars wearing the same nameplate. This Brougham-trim example runs a modest 4.3-liter V8 and 3-speed automatic built for comfortable cruising, a world away from the same year’s Hurst/Olds package with its 350 Rocket V8 and Hurst Dual-Gate shifter. Together, they show how far Oldsmobile stretched one platform to reach opposite ends of the market.