7 Camaros to Watch at Mecum’s 2025 Kissimmee Sale
Mecum’s Kissimmee sale is usually the first collector car auction of the year and it’s also the largest, with sales exceeding $200,000,000 for the last three years running. With more than 4,000 cars up for grabs, it’s easy for interesting and rare cars to slip through the cracks, so we sifted through the listings to come up with seven great examples of our favorite recently retired pony car. Here are some great collectibles and some that look ready to head back to the strip and track to show what Camaro performance is all about.
2024 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Garage 56 Edition
Estimate: $110,000 – $135,000
Garage 56 at Le Mans is reserved for a single exhibition race car that doesn’t fit into any of the 24 Hours of Le Mans’ existing classes. In 2023, Chevrolet helped put a bit of American NASCAR energy into the 2023 running with its unique Garage 56 entry. A special Camaro was built starting from a NASCAR Cup car, but modified with functioning lights, a larger fuel tank, and revised aerodynamic bits to help with downforce. The result was a big bruiser of a car powered by a snorting pushrod V-8. It looked out of place on the starting grid but proved its mettle with impressive lap times. Despite some mechanical trouble that put it in the pits for an hour or so, the Garage 56 Camaro finished ahead of a dozen cars in the GT class, and set a faster lap time than all of the GT-class cars save for the class-winning C8.R Corvette.
To celebrate that achievement, Chevrolet built 56 2024 ZL1 Camaros as part of the 6th-gen Camaro’s sendoff, each in Garage 56 livery. This one has just seven miles on the odometer and its low mileage, rarity, and connection to the historic Garage 56 Camaro all combine to make it one of the most desirable sixth-gen Camaros ever built.
1967 Camaro Z/28 Trans Am Race Car
This lightweight race car, with the legendary Mark Donohue behind the wheel, was the car to beat in the 1968 Trans Am season. Few managed to do so, and Chevrolet took the 1968 Trans Am championship. We singled this car out earlier this month because it’s such an important vehicle in both Trans Am and Camaro history. It looks like it’s ready to hit the track with its high-revving, solid-lifter 302 V-8, and we hope that we can see—and hear—it in action in the future.
2018 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE
Estimate: $75,000 – $100,000
The sixth-generation Camaro got off to a great start, launching with the LT1-powered SS 1LE as the top performance model in 2016. The car’s chassis provided a fantastic foundation for a driver’s car with incredible handling and precise steering but it didn’t take much imagination to know that Chevrolet would offer more. Sure enough, Camaro added the ZL1 to the lineup in 2017 powered by the supercharged LT4 engine. The 1LE package added downforce, improved cooling, and further sharpened the handling by swapping in Multimatic spool-valve dampers, creating the most track-focused sixth-gen Camaro yet.
This no-nonsense road racer is equipped with a six-speed manual transmission and finished in Summit White, making a nice contrast with the 1LE’s flat black hood and the exposed carbon fiber in the hood insert and rear wing. With just 395 miles on the odometer, this pristine ZL1 1LE is ready for its place in a new collection, or perhaps getting broken in for some 650hp lap sessions.
1990 Chevrolet Camaro IROC-Z 1LE Coupe
Chevrolet gave SCCA Showroom Stock racers a leg up on the competition when it created the 1LE package in 1988. The upgrades included Corvette front brake calipers, Caprice front brake rotors, a new proportioning valve, and a fuel tank that kept the pickup submerged under hard acceleration and braking loads. The package gained a bit of notoriety during the final years of thirrd-gen Camaro and Firebird production, but less than 200 1LE Camaros were built in the first three years of its availability. The 1LE package alone makes this 1990 model a rare car—one of about 60 produced that year—but its 350-cubic-inch L98 engine makes it one of about 30. The TPI 350 was a torquey beast of a street engine, so much so that Chevrolet didn’t offer it with the T-5 manual transmission. This example, painted in Bright Blue Metallic, is a virtual time capsule, with just seven miles on the odometer. It’s perhaps the best-preserved third-gen Camaro in existence and it also happens to be one of the rarest and most desirable. This would make a prized collectible for a former SCCA or Canadian Players Challenge racer, or any third-gen F-body fanatic.
1969 Yenko Camaro
Estimate: $375,000 – $450,000
In 1967 and 1968 there were a few dealerships across the country that would replace the 396 big-block in your new Camaro with a 427 for an added boost of torque and horsepower. By 1969, however, Chevrolet would allow for 425hp 427s to be installed at the factory through a little-known back channel called a Central Office Production Order. Thus, the COPO Camaro was born. Plenty of original L72 427s were sacrificed on the altar of speed, owing their demise to running on the ragged edge while battling on dragstrips against 426 Hemis and Buick 455s. This restored Yenko Camaro, however, has survived with its original engine intact, making it one of only a handful to do so. Equipped with a 4:10 Positraction rear differential and a Turbo 400 automatic transmission, it would have been a formidable machine with a competent drag racer behind the wheel. Painted Hugger Orange with white Yenko stripes on the flanks and down the center of the hood, it’s the epitome of a big-block 1969 Camaro.
1997 Chevrolet Camaro SS 30th Anniversary
Estimate: $60,000 – $80,000
Chevrolet was ready to give the Camaro a refresh in 1998 with LS1 power and a new front-end treatment, but it still had one more Gen II small-block up its sleeve before those Gen-III small-blocks would show up. To mark the Camaro’s 30th anniversary, 106 examples were built using the limited-production LT4 that had also been used to give the C4 Corvette a sendoff. Besides these 106 anniversary Camaros, only manual-equipped 1996 Corvettes (including the Grand Sports) and a few 1997 Pontic Firehawks used the 330hp LT4. That makes this Arctic White coupe one of the most rare fourth-gen Camaros ever built. Equipped with a composite hood with functional scoop and unique five-spoke wheels, these rare Camaros are easy to spot, and with a T-56 transmission with Hurst shifter, they’re surely a blast to drive as well. This one has just 2,360 miles on the odometer and seems incredibly well-preserved.
1982 Chevrolet Camaro Indy Pace Car Edition
Camaros have paced the Indianapolis 500 nine times. Two first-gens were picked, the second-gen got snubbed entirely, and just one third-gen had the honor: The 1982 model year, which was also the first year for the new body F-body. There were 6,360 pace car editions built, all of them silver and blue. It’s a rather understated combo considering some of the pace cars that would follow, particularly the 1990s Corvettes. Inside, the blue and silver theme continues with the upholstery on the bucket seats. We’ve gotta admit, it’s not a bad look. While most of the 1982 pace cars were T-tops, this coupe is a rare example without them. It also has just 528 miles on the odometer, making it one of the most original examples of the breed.
6 miles on that pretty blue 1990 Chevrolet Camaro IROC-Z 1LE! What a waste it was not driven.
Agree, not what they were intended for. I still have my 1995 Camaro 1LE, ordered new at Jack Whorl Chevrolet in September 1994, and raced by me, as they were meant. An incredible car for the money.
Seriously? No mention of a 1969 Camaro Indy Pace Car?
Of all the Camaros listed here and no ‘69 Pace Car? It’s one of the most celebrated Camaros of all time and they put that ugly horribly built 1982 “pace car” on this list? Blasphemy I tell you!
this is about the Camaros offered for sale at Kissimmee!
’69 Pace Cars. These cars came without the decals, as I understand it. The decals were applied at the dealership
1969 Canadian Grand Prix at Mosport this was the official car, pace or otherwise. Somehow Carter Chev. Olds. ended up with about a dozen of these. Convertible option code 711, stick or automatic, 350 or 396. Race took place in September and we were lucky GM went on strike and 70 production was halted long enough that the last one finally went in March. They were Fuggin’ Ugly, orange and black houndstooth interior as well as that orange stripe.
That ’82 version was like adding lipstick to a pig. A slow pig at that.
It’s not a list. It’s what is be offered at the auction
Not to ‘dis’ Camaro fans but kinda, sort of, almost, maybe, between the Penske Trans Am and the Yenko Camaro there are those Yenko Stinger Corvairs. Interesting cars as well as is the switch to going with big block power.
People… you might want to read the title of the article before complaining about the content and then providing a list of personal favorites.
Now you know it’s more important to some folks to get their irrelevant 2 cents worth in than to read what the actual topic of the article is.
I had a US 2 cent piece some years ago . Interesting but not worth a whole lot although people are trying to hock them for 10x their value. They also briefly minted a 3 cent piece. Being snowed in and curious I checked out why Yenko never produced a Trans Am Z-28 version of the Camaro after the SCCA racing versions of the Corvair. Turns out he did. They were called ‘Stormers’ and apparently only 2 or 3 were produced. There is a picture of one next to the Penske ‘lightweight’ shown here apparently ready to take the green flag .Simply couldn’t sell the race versions and the project was cancelled. How many still survive who knows. One might have been totaled while being raced. How much a survivor might fetch if it came to auction at Kissimee pure speculation.