Auctions

This Camaro race car is expected to fetch seven digits at Monterey

It's laden with Trans-Am racing provenance

1967 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 Trans-Am Penske Racing 01
1967 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 Trans-Am Penske Racing 01 / Image Credit: Gooding & Company and Josh Hway
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One of the most legendary Camaros of all time is going up for auction at Monterey this August. The blue and yellow 1967 Chevy Camaro Z/28 was the fourteenth Camaro Z/28 ever built, and the first of six to wear the Sunoco Penske colors. It's expected to sell for $1.4 to 2 million when it crosses the block.

When Chevy launched its pony car in 1967, it knew it was entering a contested market that featured some of the most revered muscle cars in U.S. history. At a time when "win on Sunday, sell on Monday" still meant something, Chevy knew it had to make a splash in motorsports. So, it gave the first 25 examples of the Z/28, the Camaro's 302-cubic-inch homologation version, off of the assembly line to race teams.

It was the golden age muscle car road racing, and the Camaro Z/28 went head to head against other iconic specimens of Detroit Iron like the Ford Mustang and Dodge Challenger in the SCCA Trans-Am series.

Team owner Roger Penske developed the race car, with some iterations wearing lightweight steel body panels that looked identical to the factory ones, and star driver Mark Donohue helped cement the Camaro in Trans-Am racing history. Though The Camaro didn't win overall during the 1967 season Donohue, along with Canadian co-driver Craig Fisher, gave the Camaro its first racing win. Penske Camaros return in 1968 and 1969 to twice win the series outright, igniting a life-long rivalry with the Ford Mustang.

The car for sale, chassis 7N163378, is the first of six Penske Camaros built, and as such is the first Camaro to capture a checkered flag. After the 1967 ended, the car was purchased by McNamara Race Team in Germany to dominate their FIA sedan series for the next two years. It spent most of its life in Europe, trading hands among a series of collectors. It finally returned to the U.S. in 2016, where it underwent a $330,000-plus restoration.

The Camaro will be auctioned off at the Gooding & Co. sale in Monterey next month. It's a rare chance to own a historic Camaro dripping with provenance.

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