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" One of the tough things about getting into muscle cars, just like getting into heavy metal or show chickens, is understanding the little details that make the difference between a King Diamond concept album and Metallica&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;St. Anger.&amp;quot; All these specialist hobbies use what we call the &amp;quot;language of social exclusion,&amp;quot; where not knowing the jargon means you can&amp;#039;t participate. I think that stinks, so I&amp;#039;d like to take this opportunity to present in plain English why Gooding&amp;#039;s 1969 Camaro has a $160,000\u2013$180,000 estimate, and not $20,000\u2013$30,000. More than anything, you have to understand the hierarchy of available engines. In 1969, Camaro engines started with a 155 hp, 230-cubic-inch six and peaked with a 425-hp 427. Each is known by the code used on the order form, like the three variants of the 396-cubic-inch big block (the 325-hp L35, 350-hp L34, and 375-hp L78). As the 427 was special-order-only through the Central Office Production Order (COPO), the L78 was the top regular production engine. Making 375 hp from 396 cubic inches (6.49 liters) is nothing special today\u2014in fact, I&amp;#039;d be surprised if there was a production gasoline engine that size making less\u2014but in 1969, it required extremes of engineering. Compression was 11.0:1 (requiring high-octane fuel to avoid pinging), and it fed down through a Holley four-barrel carburetor into a high-rise aluminum intake. It was a solid valve lifter engine, too, with unique aluminum heads, and you paid an extra $711 for it. That&amp;#039;s about 25% over base price for the whole car. In addition to the L78 motor, this Camaro has the Rally Sport (RS) and Super Sport (SS) packages. SS models were packed with visual cues\u2014the big badge, hood louvers, &amp;quot;hockey stick&amp;quot; stripes, and more. More important, you got a floor shifter, power front discs, and you could only order the big engines with an SS package. The RS package was strictly about appearance\u2014the blacked-out sills and grille with concealed headlamps, wheel moldings, and many accents and badges. Plus, it&amp;#039;s a &amp;#039;69. The new body style that year is now the classic Camaro shape, and General Motors delivered approximately 230,799 of them that year. Only 311 of them went out of showrooms with the L89, though (about one-tenth of one percent). Add all that up, and the difference between a $25,000 1969 Camaro and a $160,000 example makes a little more sense. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/news/a5179/go-news-auctions-pebble-beach-1969-camaro-l89/>