1969 Chevrolet Camaro ZL-1
As you may know, back in the late ’60s, Chevrolet was under the racing ban proposed by General Motors. This meant that no official Chevrolet products could race. Chevrolet, as a manufacturer, couldn’t participate in any racing activities. Of course, nobody stopped Chevrolet from helping racing teams through its backdoor programs in which they developed several special engines and components.
In the late ’60s, Can-Am was a famous racing series, featuring prototype class cars with V8 engines. Chevrolet wanted to purpose-build a power plant for this championship, so they produced an all-aluminum 427 big block they called the ZL-1 in 1969.

It was a high revving, 7.0-liter V8 producing around 550 HP in mild tune. Chevrolet built approximately 200 of those engines. While most of them went to Can-Am racing teams, 69 ZL-1s went to the C.O.P.O Camaros and drag racing teams.

The Camaro ZL-1 was the same as a regular 1969 Camaro on the outside, but it was so fast, it was barely street legal. The 1969 official Chevrolet literature doesn’t mention the ZL-1 option for the Camaro. But, if you were a successful drag racer or dealer, you knew about this expensive option. That is why they only made 69 Camaro ZL-1s.