Win a 2017 Lingenfelter Camaro ZL1 and a Custom 1967 Camaro for $3

A 2017 Dream Giveaway sweepstakes paired a numbers-matching 1967 Camaro RS with a Lingenfelter-built 2017 ZL1 pushing well past factory horsepower — plus $35,000 cash, all for a $3 ticket. The real story isn’t the prize total, it’s what Lingenfelter actually built before handing over the keys. Read on to find out.

Some sweepstakes offer a car. This one offered an argument — fifty years of Camaro history compressed into a single driveway, with the winner forced to pick a side even after they’d already won. On one end sat a numbers-matching 1967 Camaro RS, fully restored to the styling that started it all. On the other sat a 2017 Camaro ZL1 that Lingenfelter had quietly pulled apart and rebuilt into something the factory never intended. A $3 ticket bought a shot at both, plus $35,000 in cash on top. But the real story wasn’t the giveaway itself — it was what one shop had actually done to that ZL1 before handing over the keys.

What Lingenfelter Actually Did to This ZL1

A stock sixth-generation Camaro ZL1 already leaves the factory with a supercharged 6.2-liter V8 rated at 650 horsepower and 650 lb-ft of torque, numbers that put it ahead of plenty of European sports cars costing twice as much. Lingenfelter’s shop-level supercharger upgrades push that further still, with packages ranging from roughly 630 to 700 horsepower depending on how far a buyer is willing to go, and the company has built ZL1s all the way past 1,000 horsepower using its Eliminator Series components. The giveaway car wasn’t a bolt-on special; it represented the kind of build Lingenfelter has spent decades refining on this exact platform.

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The 200-MPH Pedigree Behind the Name

Lingenfelter’s bragging rights with the ZL1 nameplate actually trace back a generation earlier, to a first-gen 2012-model ZL1 the shop took to 202 mph at the Uvalde Proving Grounds after just a two-week thrash — the first ZL1 of that platform ever confirmed to crack the double-century mark. That history matters here, because it means the shop handing over the 2017 giveaway car wasn’t experimenting on a customer’s dime. It had already proven what a heavily massaged ZL1 could do on a runway, years before this particular car was built.

Two Camaros, Fifty Years Apart

What makes the pairing genuinely interesting isn’t the horsepower gap between the two cars — it’s the contrast in what each one represents. The 1967 Camaro RS is prized for its original styling and the nostalgia of the nameplate’s very first model year, back when 300-plus horsepower from a big-block was considered serious business. The modified 2017 ZL1 shows how far factory performance has traveled since then, to the point where a supercharged production car can flirt with supercar numbers straight from a dealership. Pairing them in one sweepstakes handed the eventual winner two completely different eras of Camaro dominance in a single driveway.

How Dream Giveaway Sweepstakes Actually Work

Contests like this one operate on volume rather than long odds skewed against the buyer in the way a lottery is. A $3 ticket price is deliberately low to draw a large pool of entrants, with proceeds typically split between prize funding and a charitable partner, a structure that lets organizers offer genuinely expensive prize packages — two cars and $35,000 cash in this case — while still turning a sustainable business model. It’s a very different economics problem than a traditional raffle, and it’s part of why automotive giveaways like this one have become a recurring fixture rather than a one-off stunt.

The Value Question Nobody Asks Out Loud

A restored, numbers-matching 1967 Camaro RS in good condition routinely trades in the $40,000 to $70,000-plus range depending on options and originality, while a Lingenfelter-built ZL1 with a serious power package can carry a build cost well into six figures once the donor car and labor are factored in. Win both, and the total prize value can meaningfully exceed the advertised cash figure — which is exactly the kind of math that makes these giveaways attractive to entrants who’ll never spend that much on a car outright.

Keep It or Cash It Out?

Sweepstakes winners face a decision that never comes up when you buy a car the normal way: keep a pair of vehicles that don’t necessarily fit the same garage or lifestyle, or sell one to fund insurance, storage, and the tax bill that typically comes with winning a prize this large. Plenty of past giveaway winners have sold the classic half of a pairing like this almost immediately, simply because a numbers-matching original is worth real money to a specific kind of buyer even when the winner has no interest in owning it long-term.

Why the 1967 Model Year Still Commands a Premium

The first-year 1967 Camaro carries a collector premium that later first-generation model years don’t fully share, largely because it represents Chevrolet’s opening answer to the Ford Mustang and the true starting point of the nameplate’s now six-decade run. An RS-optioned car adds hidden headlights and unique trim on top of that first-year significance, which is exactly the kind of combination that makes a giveaway prize car desirable well beyond whoever happens to win the ticket.

The ZL1 Nameplate’s Own Short, Loaded History

Unlike the Camaro nameplate itself, ZL1 has only appeared on a handful of production years since its 1969 COPO origins, making every generation that wears the badge a comparatively rare, purpose-built halo car rather than a routine trim level. A shop-modified example, built by a tuner with the pedigree Lingenfelter has in this specific platform, effectively becomes rarer still — there’s only one of this particular build, with this particular history, anywhere in the world.

What a Giveaway Like This Says About the Hobby

Pairing a restored classic with a heavily built modern car isn’t just a marketing gimmick — it reflects where the muscle car hobby actually sits today, split between owners chasing period-correct originality and owners chasing the biggest number a modern platform can produce. A giveaway that hands a winner both, in the same box, is betting that most enthusiasts don’t actually have to choose a side, and that a $3 ticket is a small price to avoid choosing at all.

What Happens to Unsold Tickets and Unclaimed History

Automotive sweepstakes of this scale typically run for months, giving organizers time to build a large enough entrant pool to justify a prize package this expensive, and unsold ticket allotments are usually absorbed into the charitable proceeds rather than voided outright. That structure is part of why giveaways built around a genuinely desirable classic-and-modern pairing tend to sell out their ticket allocation well ahead of the drawing date, something a purely modern prize car rarely manages on its own.

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