Chevrolet’s muscle car history includes some of the most powerful engines and models ever built, but these particular cars rise above the rest.
Before Louis Chevrolet lent his name to one of the United States’ most legendary car brands, he was a dominant driver for Buick’s racing team. GM founder William Durant lost control of the company after a failed 1909 attempt to acquire Ford, but he teamed up with Chevrolet to form a new venture. The Chevrolet Motor Company was so successful that Durant was able to retake control of GM in 1916, and Chevy has remained a cornerstone of the U.S. auto industry ever since.
Chevy has produced the Corvette through eight bone-rattling generations since its debut in 1953 and was a force in the muscle car era of the 1960s and early ’70s. Highlights from that time include the Camaro, which first appeared in 1967 and lived through six generations of its own before getting dropped, at least for now, in 2023. The Camaro could be resurrected as a muscle EV à la the Ford Mustang Mach-E or 2024 Dodge Daytona R/T and Scat Pack.
Regardless of what Chevy does with the soon-to-be-shelved Camaro badge, it has a deep catalog of grin-inducing, gas-guzzling beasts that look as good as they perform. Here are five of the most impressive Chevy muscle cars of all time.1969 COPO Camaro ZL1
1969 marked the end of the Camaro’s first generation. At the end of a three-year production run of nearly 700,000 units, Chevy issued a COPO (Central Office Production Order) version Camaro ZL1. Only 69 of the more than 243,000 ’69 Camaros got the COPO 9560 option package. It was the creation of Fred Gibb, an Illinois Chevy dealer who ran drag races on the side. The year before, he had built 50 COPO Novas with 396 cubic-inch engines, and Gibb went even bigger for the ’69 COPO Camaro.
The car got a lightened version of the NASCAR-bred 427 cubic-inch V8, which used an aluminum block, heads, and intake manifold. The only steel used in the ZL1’s engine was for the hardened shafts and rods. Although output was listed at 430 horsepower, race-tuned ZL1 engines could make as much as 550. A less expensive 9561 package was also offered, with an iron L72 427 V8 that weighed 76 pounds more than the ZL1.
The 1969 COPO Camaro Zl1 was incredibly fast, with a blistering 0-60 time of 5.3 seconds. In addition to the 69 COPO 9560 Camaros Gibb ordered, about a thousand 9561 COPO Camaros were also made. If you can find one of the rare surviving examples, expect to pay more than $100,000 to drive it home.
