The golden muscle car era spawned a long list of incredibly fast and powerful performance vehicles. The 1969 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 was one of them. Come 2022 and the ZL1 is still around with a supercharged V8, but it's no longer the most powerful muscle car out there. That title goes to the Dodge Challenger SRT Demon.
Did you ever fantasize about seeing these cars line up for a drag race? If you did, here's a unique chance to see and hear them roar down the quarter-mile. It's a race that showcases almost 50 years of muscle car evolution and a massive gap in engine technology.
Introduced in 1969, the Camaro ZL1 is part of the iconic COPO 427 pair that went against GM's edict that forbade Chevrolet from installing engines larger than 400 cubic inches (6.6 liters) in midsize and smaller models. Conceived by drag racer Dick Harrell and ordered through Fred Gibb Chevrolet, the COPO ZL1 was pretty much a road-legal dragster.
It sounds familiar, right? Well, the ZL1 was the Challenger Demon of its era. It's super-rare too because Chevrolet made only 69 of them.
Fitted with an all-aluminum, 427-cubic-inch (7.0-liter) big-block V8, the Camaro ZL1 hit dealerships with 430 horsepower and 450 pound-feet (610 Nm) of torque on tap. It may not sound like a lot today, but it packed more punch than a supercar back then. For reference, the Lamborghini Miura P400S came with 365 horsepower in 1969.
Moving over to the Challenger Demon, its supercharged, 6.2-liter V8 engine is rated at an astounding 808 horsepower and 717 pound-feet (972 Nm) of torque. When running on 91-octane gasoline, that is! Give that engine 100-octane racing fuel and output increases to 840 horses. Needless to say, the COPO ZL1 is no match for this beefed-up Mopar.
But don't let the massive horsepower gap fool you, this 1969 Camaro ZL1 isn't exactly stock. This Chevy usually competes in the Pure Stock Muscle Car Drag Race series, a competition that allows a long list of upgrades to the drivetrain. I don't have numbers to run by, but I'm pretty sure this ZL1 packs way more than 600 horsepower.
Such a figure would explain the 11.84-second quarter-mile run in the video below, which is about two seconds quicker than the official factory rating from the late 1960s. Yes, it's still notably slower than the Demon, which covers the distance in 10.52 clicks, but the gap is unexpectedly smaller than it would have been with a stock 1969 COPO ZL1 at the Christmas tree. Hit play to check it out.
Ask Ciprian about cars and he'll reveal an obsession with classics and an annoyance with modern design cues. Read his articles and you'll understand why his ideal SUV is the 1969 Chevrolet K5 Blazer. Full profile
Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?
Google News