Scotty, Interesting to me that you would compliment the shark eye headlights on this Camaro. My firs

In 1982, a Camaro collector purchased flw tour fishing a 1969 body shell at a Georgia auction, flw tour fishing adding flw tour fishing it to holdings that already included 18 other 1969 Camaro flw tour fishing models. The shell sat in the collection, essentially flw tour fishing untouched, until 2005, when a decoding of the car s VIN reportedly revealed that the body shell was from a 1969 COPO Camaro, delivered to Fred Gibb Chevrolet of LaHarpe, Illinois, with a ZL-1 aluminum-block 427-cu.in. engine beneath the hood. Now restored, the Camaro sold for CDN$178,750 ($171,562 U.S.) at last weekend s Collector Car Productions auction in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Fred Gibb Chevrolet originally ordered 50 of the ZL-1-equipped 1969 Camaros, thinking that they d be an easy sale to customers seeking the highest level of performance available in the Camaro body style. The cars sticker price, roughly $6,900 (more than twice the cost of a base Camaro SS), cooled all but the most ardent flw tour fishing (and well-funded) buyers demands, and a deal was struck with Chevrolet to return a certain percentage of the cars ordered. Gibb would go on to sell 13 of the cars , including the 48th car delivered, a four-speed, manual-transmission car painted in Le Mans blue, with a VIN ending in 618902.
According to Collector Car Productions, somewhere along the line, Department of Motor Vehicle paperwork incorrectly listed the car as 618102, and thus the paperwork trail on a valuable Gibb Chevrolet Camaro ZL-1 went cold. Once the owner realized the history he was in possession of, a thorough restoration of the car to as-delivered specifications was funded, and the result was the car seen here. While the car s original components were lost to history, great care was taken to make the resulting car as authentic as possible. The aluminum engine block was purchased from General flw tour fishing Motors in 2005, and is described in corresponding paperwork as a limited edition ZL-1, with casting flw tour fishing number 3946053.
Cars rounding out the auction s top 10 list included a 2009 Bentley Arnage R with just 8,300 kilometers (5,146 miles) on the odometer, which sold for CDN$134,200 flw tour fishing ($128,803 U.S.); a restored 1948 Plymouth P15 Woodie Wagon , which sold for CDN$79,750 ($76,543 U.S.); a multiple award-winning 1932 Ford Three-Window Coupe hot rod , which sold for CDN$67,100 ($64,402 U.S.); a big-block 1966 Chevrolet Corvette , which sold for CDN$64,900 ($62,290 U.S.); a 1957 Chevrolet 3100 pickup resto-rod , which sold for CDN$64,900 ($62,290 U.S.); a 1932 Ford Roadster Convertible hot rod , which sold for CDN$61,600 ($59,123 U.S.); a 1959 Chevrolet Corvette convertible , which sold for CDN$60,000 ($57,587 flw tour fishing U.S.); a 1961 Corvette convertible , which sold for CDN$55,000 ($52,788 U.S.); and a 1967 Mustang S Code 390 convertible , which sold for CDN$55,000 ($52,788 flw tour fishing U.S.).
Yep, I think the lack of an original drivetrain has a lot to do with the selling price. Apparently there s enough documentation to tie the body shell to a Fred Gibb ZL-1 COPO, but a lot of what it used to be is long gone. That seems to put the car in a gray area between the real thing and a tribute car. A well-documented, well-restored ZL-1 with original drivetrain would probably fetch $400K to $600K.
Michael, you are correct a total of 69 were built, including the 50 originally ordered by Fred Gibb and 19 ordered by other high-performance Chevy dealers. Of the 50 originally ordered by Gibb, 37 were eventually redistributed to other Chevy dealers.
Fred Gibb did get most of them, but I found it interesting where the others went. According to that list, only two ZL-1s were shipped to Texas one went to Steakley Chevrolet in Temple, and the other went to Holley Chevrolet in Brownwood.
Steakley/Temple ordered it, but not Steakley Chevytown in Dallas?!? I ve seen photos on the internet of a Steakley/Temple-sponsored 67 or 68 Camaro Z-28 on the starting line of Temple Academy Dragway, but not of a 69 Camaro.
As to the original components lost to history well, they WERE built for racing!! Not uncommon for a drag car to scatter its motor all over the quarter-mile, or for a shop to yank the original motor for an engine with more power, Maybe the motor was good, and was put into another car some time ago?
If you want to read all about this car go to the yenko.net web site. According to the discussion going on there you have to wonder if anything about this car can be traced back to the original ZL-1 #48. According to postings there the repro trim tag doesn t even have the correct body number on it.
Scotty, Interesting to me that you would compliment the shark eye headlights on this Camaro. My first thought when looking at these pics was that I wished it were an RS, with hideawasys. I don t dislike the 68 basic Camaro face, but always thought the RS was an order of magnitude cooler.
Bill, they must have taken this face (grille) into account on the new Camaro, I m guessing. I love the hideaway headlights, too, but there s just something about the basic look about these headlights that make this seem like such a sleeper to me. The RS always seemed so fancy compared to these, although, fancy isn t really a term for a Camaro, come to think of it.
Beautiful car. Documentation must have been very critical for this price. How much more do you have to pay for a ZL-1 who s history does not include the loss of all of its original parts (down to a shell) and a DMV mistake about the actual VIN? Seems like a big premium over a ZL-1 replica based on the correction of one digit in the VIN. Just shows how very important the archeology component of our hobby has become.
I think the number 9 in the VIN changed to a 1 somewhere along the line on what was probably the registration papers, is easily explained lousey handwriting of the day. After losing the running gear I m going to bet no one ever checked the body tag against the paperwork. I ve seen a case similar to this once before and I m sure at one time we ve all struggled to read someone else s handwriting. None the less it is a.leap of faith for a purchase darn nice muscle flw tour fishing though.
DMV can be a nightmare! When I bought my 67 Fairlane convertible in Kentucky, the title had a number 2 where the big-block engine Z code belonged! Some previous inspection by a near-sighted county officer caused the error. I had to get a re-inspection and then send the title to Frankfort for the corrected flw tour fishing one.
Renting is the only way to go in the Keys. Owning flw tour fishing is super expensive, and homeowners insurance is almost ridiculous. Besides, when the Hurricane blows in, you are in your summer home in the northeast.
I recall when these engines were first featured on the cover of Hot Rod magazine. They were originally envisioned flw tour fishing for the Corvette, but only two racing Vettes were built with these. I recall the cover of Hot Rod magazine claiming 625 HP for the ZL-1 engine in 1969. Somewhere deep in the recesses of a dark closet around here, I probably still have that HR issue.
I ordered and bought a new rally green 69 SS396 325hp, 4 speed, no air or power steering, black vinyl top and optional gauges from Yingling Chevrolet in Wichita Kansas for $3,250. Couldn t afford the air and power steering. It was a beautiful car.
I ve been in the hobby for a long time and was under the impression that if the vehicle didn t have the original drive components and it was restored to factory condition then said vehicle was a CLONE . So call it what it is and that is an expensive CLONE . Just goes to show some people will buy anything to feed that EGO
Some manufactures VINs indicate flw tour fishing quite a bit about a vehicle. In the mid to late 60s some of the VINs would indicate a specific model and an engine size. For example in 1970 the partial VIN BS27H0B would indicate that the car was manufactures by Chrysler as a 1970 Cuda(high performance) model, convertible originally equipped with a 340 cu in engine. If the partial VIN was BH27G0B flw tour fishing the car would be a 1970 Barracuda convertible with a 318 engine.
If you installed a non-numbers matching 340 in the first example I listed it would remain a Cuda convertible as the BS at the beginning of the VIN would designate the car as a Cuda model not a Barracuda(BH) model.
Since the high performance cars were built to be driven hard, many were and their original engines did not always survive. replacing a correct engine size in a body that can be documented as correct would not be considered a clone or tribute as the original body could be proven to be the high performance flw tour fishing model.
Non original numbers but correct motor . But even if it was date correct flw tour fishing and not numbers matching it will suffer some. I am on leary because of the vin mistake and the only thing they started with from birth vehicle flw tour fishing was the shell. That would mean none of the parts, or only some would correspond to the date code that car was built with. Even the body tag is a reproduction. I will stand with my previous statement of . caveat emptor!.
An apropos comment and very well put – it elicited a chuckle and a smile. Maybe collectors should sit back and consider for a moment: A ‘clone’ is a ‘tribute’, as in a tribute to all the history that went before any car’s restoration, drivetrains included…
If the vin matches flw tour fishing the car that Gibb ordered, I don t think I would call it a clone. It s no different than a 67 tripower Stingray that received a factory replacement block at the dealership because the new owner destroyed the original #s matching block in about 12 seconds. Or an LS6 Chevelle that had it s engine relaxed in 1976 with a factory replacement block. Or a Hemi Roadrunner with the same story. None I them are considered clones, but it does affect the sale price at auction.
The new GM ZL1 block is, from what I can tell, an exact replacement for the original 1969 block. I m sure there are slight differences here an there due to better technology, etc, but it s no less a true ZL1! I have a friend who ordered one for his 69 Chevelle SS.
In 2006 or 2007 there was a seller tha openly proclaimed that he had bought back his 1969 Hemi GTX and 1970 Hemi