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The 2016 SEMA Show settled an old argument when the Ford Mustang was voted Hottest Coupe over Chevrolet’s Camaro, even though Chevy brought the bigger display. But the car that actually stole attention that year wasn’t from either factory — it was a privateer rally driver’s twin-turbo 1965 Mustang making more than 1,400 horsepower. Here’s what happened at the show that’s still a reference point for builders a decade later.
That ‘396’ badge on this 1972 Camaro SS is telling a small lie – Chevrolet quietly bored the engine out to 402 cubic inches back in 1970 and just never bothered updating the fender emblem. Add in a 174-day UAW strike that crushed Camaro production that same year, and this clean Graphite Gray Pro Touring build is sitting on a genuinely rare factory foundation. Only 970 Camaros left the line wearing this exact big-block SS package. Read on to find out why 1972 was the end of the road for the big-block Camaro.
This 1970 Camaro looks like a factory small-block cruiser until you notice what’s actually under the hood. A modern Ram Jet 350 crate engine and a Tremec five-speed have replaced whatever left the assembly line, turning a classic second-gen body into a genuine driver. Gateway Classic Cars built it to be enjoyed, not just admired. Is that a compromise, or the smarter way to own a muscle car icon?
This ’67 Camaro is running a 454 big block Chevy never actually put in a first-gen car from the factory – the real number was a 396, and the 454 didn’t arrive until 1970, reserved for Chevelles and Corvettes. So how’d it end up here, supercharged and ready to embarrass cars three decades newer? Turns out builders have been chasing this exact combination for decades, and the reason why says everything about what muscle car fans really want.
General Motors capped the Camaro’s engine displacement in a way that put it at a disadvantage against rivals — until one Pennsylvania dealer decided the rulebook didn’t apply to him. Don Yenko’s dealer-built engine swaps eventually became a factory-documented option, and decades later the same name resurfaced on a supercharged Camaro built specifically to answer the Dodge Demon. Here’s how a workaround became one of Chevrolet’s most enduring performance names.
In June 2017 the Dodge Challenger did something it had not managed in at least seven years: it outsold both the Ford Mustang and the Chevrolet Camaro in a single month, 6,605 units to 6,186 and 4,691. The platform underneath it dated to 2008, and both rivals were far newer. Here is how the segment’s supposed underdog pulled off the upset, and why the year-to-date numbers tell a more complicated story.
A single SCCA rule change in 1970 forced Chevrolet to swap the Z/28’s small homologation-special engine for the Corvette’s LT1 350, reshaping one of the most respected nameplates in muscle car history. A delayed February launch compressed the entire selling season and left Chevrolet with just 8,733 units built that year. Read on to find out why this specific model year still matters to collectors.
This 1969 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 spent forty years sitting untouched, accumulating dust while the collector market around it exploded. Built from a Trans-Am homologation special that Chevrolet only ever intended for racing, it represents the peak production year of one of the most celebrated small-block muscle cars ever built. Read on to find out what forty years of storage actually does to a car like this.
This 1967 Chevrolet Camaro RS convertible wears factory Ermine White over Bright Blue, and the Rally Sport package on the nose says nothing at all about what is under the hood. RS was a roughly $105 appearance option with hidden headlights and revised taillights, nothing more. This one carries a 327 V8, a floor-shifted Powerglide, a power top and a console. Read on to find out why cars ordered this way often survive better than the four-speeds.
This 1969 Camaro looks like an ordinary used-lot survivor, but it’s actually a genuine ‘Double COPO’ — one of roughly 40 built with both the 427 L72 big-block and the Sports Car Conversion Package, sold through Berger Chevrolet in Grand Rapids. Read on to find out how a fleet-vehicle paperwork loophole created some of the most valuable Camaros on the planet.
The Chevrolet Camaro was born out of a joke-filled 1966 press conference and an urgent need to answer Ford’s two-year head start with the Mustang. Six generations, one long production gap, and a homologation-special Trans-Am engine later, the rivalry it started still hasn’t cooled off fifty years on. Read on for the full story behind the badge.
Coyote Classics in Greene, Iowa has built a genuinely engaged following around its rotating inventory of Chevelles, Camaros, Mustangs, and GTOs — including a blue Dodge Super Bee that commenters are practically begging the shop not to modify. See what’s currently on the lot, and why regulars keep coming back to argue about it in the comments.
Chevy didn’t build the 2014 Camaro Z/28 to win drag races — it built it to be the fastest Camaro around a road course, even if that meant giving up horsepower to its own ZL1 sibling. Strip away the back seat and most of the sound deadening, and what’s left is a 505-horsepower track weapon. Read on to find out how a car built to be slower in a straight line ended up faster where it actually counted.
A first-gen Camaro convertible rolls up with a push-button ignition and an exhaust note that has nothing to do with 1969 — and everything to do with a build philosophy that swaps factory nostalgia for modern grip and driveability. This pro-touring ’69 keeps the silhouette everyone loves while quietly replacing everything underneath it. Read on to find out what it actually takes to make a 55-year-old convertible drive like new money.
