GM is re-creating ZL-1 Camaro's 'mystery motors' 12:00 AM CST on Sunday, February 10, 2008
Did you miss your chance in the late '60s to buy one of those ZL-1 Camaros with the "mystery-motor" 427 aluminum V-8 in it? I was sacking groceries part-time at a Kroger on Northwest Highway, and the $28 a week that the Man begrudged me limited me to extremely well-used iron. But if we had been able to scrape together $7,000 back then to buy one of the special order 1969 ZL-1 Camaros, we'd have a car today worth way more than $1 million. This summer, General Motors will offer us another ZL-1 opportunity - minus the '69 Camaro. GM Performance Parts will offer 427 reproduction ZL-1 motors for about $21,000 each. GM calls the motors a "modern re-creation" of the ZL-1. The original ZL-1 was an all-aluminum, fire-breathing 427-cubic-inch V-8 conceived in the late '60s as a road-racing engine. The ZL-1 was rated, laughably, at 430 horsepower, and probably cranked out 550 horses or more. Through sly dealer manipulation of order forms back then, 71 of the racing engines ended up in street cars - 69 Camaros and two Corvettes - and the legend was born. The ZL-1 was retired in the early '70s, relegated to automotive history and high-dollar auctions. Then, about 18 months ago, a GM employee found the tooling for the ZL-1 engine in a scrapyard and refurbished it. In the Anniversary ZL-1, the crate motor will have a cast-iron block but will still produce an "underrated" 430 horsepower and 450 pound-feet of torque, GM says. The motor will have 10-to-1 compression so it can operate on pump gas, but it will get aluminum oval-port heads, a forged steel crankshaft and rods and a dual-plane intake manifold. "Simply mentioning the term ZL-1 stirs the emotions of Chevy performance enthusiasts," said Lisa Reffett, marketing manager of GM Performance Parts. As you might guess, demand - even at 21 large per motor - is expected to be a tad bit higher than supply. The first Anniversary ZL-1 crate motor was auctioned at Barrett-Jackson last month for $55,000. "Production will begin in the summer and run through the end of the year," said GM spokesman Tom Henderson. "We're going to look for ways to get it online when it becomes available." Most of the engines will probably end up in vintage '69 Camaros, Mr. Henderson figures, creating quasi-ZL-1s that can actually be street-driven. "I think they will appeal to those of us in the baby boomer realm who dreamed of having one of these cars but didn't have two nickels to rub together in 1969," he said. Visit www.gmperformance parts.com or call 1-800-577-6888.
