The late 1960s was a great era to be alive and into performance cars. Not only Detroit was offering a long list of powerful muscle cars in flashy paint schemes, but they were also affordable. A Yenko Camaro, for instance, which came with the 427-cubic-inch (7.0-liter) V8 that Chevrolet didn’t offer from the factory, came in at around $3,750, or the equivalent of around $32,000 in 2023. What a bargain, right?
Well, come 2023 and some muscle cars are still affordable on the classic car market, but the Yenko Camaros are already fetching modern Ferrari and luxury car money. The Rallye Green 1969 Yenko COPO you’re looking at just changed hands for a whopping $363,000 (including the buyer premium), which makes it more expensive than a brand-new Ferrari 296 GTB and almost as pricey as a Rolls-Royce Cullinan.
It sounds like crazy money for a 1969 Camaro that’s not a ZL-1 or a celebrity car, but make no mistake, Yenko-prepped COPOs are also rare. Yenko Chevrolet is actually the dealership that started the COPO craze by requesting the automaker to drop the Corvette-sourced 427-cubic-inch L72 in the pony car. Don Yenko ordered 201 of them but Chevrolet ended up making about 1,000 cars. Because other dealers jumped on the bandwagon as soon as word got out.
A 201-unit run is enough to make a first-gen Camaro rare and desirable, but this green beauty is actually a bit more special than a COPO 427. That’s because it was also ordered with the Sports Car Conversion Package, known as COPO 9737, which makes it a double COPO car. There are no records as to how many were equipped just like this, but it’s safe to say we’re talking about “a few” examples if not a one-of-one.
If you’re not familiar with the COPO 9561 package that Chevrolet offered alongside the 9560 ZL-1 bundle it included the L72 V8 engine fitted with a solid-lifter camshaft, high-flow cylinder heads, a Holley 800-cfm carburetor, and a high-rise aluminum intake manifold. On top of the 425-horsepower V8, the COPO 427 also came with the ZL2 package, which added a ducted hood, an upgraded radiator, and a performance suspension setup.
What about the second COPO bundle known as the Sports Car Conversion Package? Well, this one features power brakes with front discs, a larger front sway bar, a heavy-duty Positraction differential with 4.10 gears, and a 140-mph (225 kph) speedometer. This specific example was also optioned up with the Muncie M21 close-ratio four-speed manual, which makes it the perfect quarter-mile toy.
So is it surprising that this COPO 427 changed hands for $363,000? Not really, but it fetched a bit more than Mecum’s pricing estimate, which put it in the $300,000 to $350,000 bracket. Is it the most expensive Yenko ever auctioned? That would also be a “no” because an orange version changed hands for $440,000 in January 2023. However, more and more Yenkos are selling for more than $300,000, a sign that COPO-badged first-gen Camaros are becoming increasingly more expensive each year.
All told, if you’re missing a 1969 Yenko Camaro, it’s time you consider getting one because they’re not getting any cheaper. And as things stand, pristine examples will move into half-million-dollar territory in just a couple of years.
Speaking of which, the same auction in Glendale, Arizona, also saw a 1968 Yenko Camaro RS/SS cross the block for $357,500, while a 1963 Corvette Z06 sold for $390,500. But the highlight of the auction was a 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300SL restored by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum that changed hands for a whopping $1.8 million. As for modern cars, a 2018 Porsche 911 GT2 RS with only 978 miles (1,574 km) on the odo was the most expensive of the bunch at $605,000.