The Seven Best Chevy Camaros Of All Time And The Three Worst
I’ve had the Chevy Camaro on my mind a lot lately, and that’s never a bad thing. The Camaro is one of the greatest lines of muscle cars ever made. Ask someone who knows nothing about cars to think of the archetypal “muscle car,” and nine times out of ten, they’ll call a Camaro to mind. From its first announcement back in 1966 (the first time 14 cities were connected up to a conference call), it’s had a lot of success stories. When asked what the Camaro name meant, GM told the press it was a small animal which “eats Mustangs.” You can see what they were aiming for really, can’t you?
Of course, with a production run as long as this, not every model is going to be as incredible as the last. There are going to be some disappointments. The decades of production also means that some of them are going to be standouts, not just for the Camaro, but for motoring as a whole. In this article, I’m going to take a look at the seven greatest Camaro models to ever grace the world’s highways and byways, and three which missed the mark.
1969 Camaro ZL1
If you want to talk about the “quickest” Camaros, it’s pretty inevitable that you’re going to end up talking about the latest models. Now, I don’t have a problem with the new models, but they don’t qutie get me the same way. That’s why I wanted to talk about this incredible car from the late 60s. The car whipped its way from 0-60 in 5.3 seconds, and could hit a quarter-mile in 13 seconds. This was thanks to a 427 ci all-aluminum engine, which, while it may have been rated at 435 horsepower, could actually produce over 500. This was a recipe for some magic.
This car was so great it had to be produced by some backdoor secrecy on the parts of the designers. It utilized the Central Office Production Order (COPO) program, meant to be used for building taxis and other specialty vehicles, but that was also used to build exceptional muscle cars. They brought in drag racer Dick Harrell to help design it, and well, the speeds speak for themselves. Only 69 were built, but if you have several hundred thousand dollars to spend, and want one of the best Chevys ever made, the ZL1 is what you need.
The Yenko Camaro
Another COPO success story, the Yenko Camaro is the result of one man’s quest for raw power. Built, at first, by Don Yenko, a race driver and Chevrolet dealer in Pittsburgh, the Yenko Camaro ripped out the 400 ci V8 which was installed at the factory and replaced it with a 427. He started doing this in 1967, and it took him two years for the car’s reputation to spread far enough for some of Chevrolet’s corporate team to approve a COPO for a factory-produced Yenko Camaro.
These had L-72 engines, disc brakes, sway bars, and a new radiator. Of the 201 Yenko Camaros sold that year, the overwhelming majority were also shipped with four-speed manual transmissions. They came with custom exteriors too, including new spoilers, induction hood, and a set of stripes. I love this car for more than its insane performance. It’s also a testament to the effect that one man can have on the industry. Thanks to Yenko’s quest for a faster, bigger, better Camaro, this beautiful car came into being.
1985 Camaro IROC-Z
The 80s was a curious time for muscle cars. You have the Foxbody Mustang, which for all its performance, looked pretty shoddy. Then you have the IROC-Z. This is a car that, while it may not look like the archetypal Camaro, was a great car. Starting production in 1985, the IROC-Z packed a 350 engine which produced 225 horsepower, and let it hit 60 in 6.3 seconds. It also came as a convertible, the first Camaro soft-top since 1969.
It’s started being seen as an investment Camaro in recent years, thanks partly to the heavy customisability of its small-block engine. Other factors include the superb aftermarket support, and its racing pedigree. The IROC-Z raced from 1984-1989, and it shows in how well it handles. An underrated Camaro which deserves more attention, the IROC-Z is well worth talking about.
1993 Camaro Z28
It’s another Camaro that breaks harshly from the idea of the “traditional” Camaro look, but I do like the Z28. Its lean, sharply defined body reminds me of an American version of the Jaguar XJ220. The Z28s of the early 1990s packed big LT1 V8 engines, outputting 275 horsepower. While it may not sound like much, you have to remember that this was a time when power outputs were lower, but it still managed to outperform the Mustang GT. Even knowing that the horsepower was lowered, it was still the most powerful Camaro since 1971.
As well as offering comfortable performance, the car also looked great. In addition to the obvious: the shape, the parts look incredible too. The front headlights weren’t flush, but it instead had four rectangular lights and the mirrors were swept back. Sure, it may not have had the best mileage, and its windshield and high pillars made visibility a little lackluster, but it was a bold muscle car. For the first time since the regulations came in, quarter-miles could be handled well, and that’s what matters.
1994 ZL1 Prototype
The 1994 ZL1 prototype Camaro was too insane to ever be considered for mainstream production. It went to places that cars never really did, even in the golden age of muscle cars. Its all-aluminum engine had a displacement of 9.4 liters, and a quarter mile was nailed down like a piece of plywood, eleven seconds straight. This engine was paired to a five-speed manual transmission, and the whole package rode on racing suspension.
This was a Camaro that could do a lot more than go in straight lines. Even if it did have to drink essentially a month’s output of Texas’ oil every couple of miles, it is so insane that I can’t help but fall for it. There’s no rhyme or reason to its existence, but that’s just fine. Not every car needs a high-minded purpose: sometimes you just wanna go fast, and that’s exactly what this prototype was good at.
1971 Camaro SS
The 1970s were a strange time for Camaros. The second generation featured one of the most stunning looking Camaros, and some of the worst. The former, if you’d not guessed already, is the 1971 Camaro SS. I think this is one of the most beautiful Camaros ever made, boasting Italian-inspired design which makes you drool. Skyrocketing insurance prices mean it didn’t sell too well, and this tragedy was compounded by rising oil prices and a 67 day strike by GM staff.
That’s a genuine tragedy, look at this thing. Its power (or lack of it) hampered it somewhat, but that’s not too big of a concern if you’re interested in making a restomod. The power is supposedly rated at 300 horsepower, but when GM switched to net figures it dipped all the way down to 240. A whole Mini Cooper apparently escaped from the engine, thanks to a change in measurement. That being said however, it would accept a good range of modern engines, or even one from the golden era of the 60s, if you so fancied it. Take this beautiful body and make it the powerhouse it always should have been.
1968 Camaro Z/28
The Z/28 of 1968 was a beautiful and outrageously powerful car. The Z/28 had been around since 1967, but originally only as a track car, with no intention to build a road car. However, there was a way that the engineers could get around this. All they needed to do was make Chevy’s GM, Pete Estes, love the concept as much as they did. To do that, they created a one-off convertible variant, knowing Estes’ love of convertibles. He drove this car, the only convertible Z/28 made, and just as they’d hoped, he adored it. The result was a production run of road-legal Z/28s.
Even now, the Z/28 makes jaws drop. Its racing suspension handled superbly thanks to its pairing with power steering. Its 302 engine, rated at 290 horsepower, actually output nearly 400. It had it all. It even had a true racing pedigree, with Trans Am titles from 1968 and 1969. The ’68 Z/28 was gorgeous, powerful, and excellent to drive.
Transformers Edition Camaro
Okay, now we’re on to the bad stuff. The sort of Camaros that just make you wince so hard you feel you may collapse into a singularity. The Transformers Edition Camaro is the first one of the three. Of all the films that you would want to associate your brand with, why Transformers? I know that Bumblebee is a Camaro in those abortive films, but that’s a very recent change from the Beetle he always was before. To put it simply, the Ford Mustang will always be associated with Bullitt. Do Chevrolet really want to always be eternally tied to those movies that are churned out in a fashion more similar to manure being spread than anything involving actual creativity? More importantly, is there any situation in which you would wish to be tied to Michael Bay for all eternity, other than maybe if you were trapped in an abandoned mine shaft and needed to conjure an explosion from nowhere to escape?
The car is functionally fine, like let’s get that out of the way. It’s still a Camaro. It’ll still be fast, it’ll still do what you expect a Camaro to do. That being said, it will also do so while looking very cheap indeed. The rally stripes look appaling, and the whole car really just looks shoddy. I mean, sure, if you have some mad love for the Transformers franchise, it’d fit the bill. Maybe if your son or daughter had some love of Transformers, and you needed some way to reconnect with your family, then, maybe, it would be a good purchase. Otherwise stay away from this cheap, nasty, and apparently unthinking marketing partnership. Once again: Bullitt or Michael Bay’s Transformers?
Camaro Iron Duke
This car is the definition of over-promising and under-delivering. If you’re going to name your engine something as pompous as this, you’d expect a car that will almost rip your face off with raw acceleration. The sort of car that you constantly feel is on the edge of killing you. But no. The Iron Duke is almost comically underpowered. This is a four-cylinder engine, coming in at 2.5 liters, which outputs a whole 90 horsepower. Yeah, that’s right. We’re not even into triple figures when it comes to horsepower.
Gold King Camaro
It may seem unfair to single out a lone modded Camaro for judgement, but hell, I picked a prototype as one of the best, so I’ll pick a mod as one of the worst. Look at this thing. It looks like the sort of apalling car that a mediocre mid-00s rapper would have bought, before his career crashed and burned and he went bankrupt. Look at it. Tell me that’s not the most tasteless thing you’ve ever seen. I’ve seen some things man, I’ve watched Tosh.0, but nothing’s ever given me such a reaction of visceral disgust as this. For a start, the jacked-up Camaro has never been a good look, but to then coat this thing in layer after layer of horrendously tacky paint is just a step too far.
Why, in the name of God, would you take an SS Camaro and then do that to it. The interior is just as tacky. There are three 23-inch monitors in there. I’m sorry, is this a car, or an NSA operations centre? I’m sure 813 Customs, the makers of this, have done some sterling work. This is definitely not an example of it.
