(Photos: Chevrolet) If you needed any proof that Camaro Vs. Mustang was still a genuine battle between Ford and Chevrolet, all you need to do is look at classes like NMCA’s Factory Super Car and several sections in NHRA, where Cobra Jets and Drag Pak Challengers go head-to-head with Chevrolet’s factory screamer, the COPO Camaro. Referencing the Central Office Production Order Camaros of the late 1960s, the internal ordering program that dealerships manipulated to create fire-breathing monsters cloaked in the bodies of your basic dog-dished edition Camaro, the COPO Camaro program as it is now has become the code for the factory-issue, limited production, balls-out race car. Now in it’s fifth year, the COPO is again limited to 69 units, and #001 will be auctioned off at Barrett-Jackson’s Scottsdale Auction in January 2017, with the proceeds going to benefit the United Way.

You don’t sell a race car without giving it the all of what your engine program can deliver, and GM hasn’t skimped on the engines: three choices are available…a supercharged 350ci LS, a naturally-aspirated 427ci LS, and a direct-injected, 376ci LT-based mill. The engines are backed with an SFI-approved, ATI TH400 automatic, and the independent rear suspension has been replaced with a four-link rear solid axle with double-adjustable coil-over shocks, a Panhard bar, and stabilizer bar. Adjustable coil-over struts are used up-front, the steering rack and four-wheel disc brakes are fully manual, and the fuel cell comes equipped with a built-in high-pressure fuel pump.

Sound tempting? Want one of your own to race? Better move your hide…register at chevrolet.com/COPO by December 15th, 2016 to be entered into the buyer’s pool. An independent third party will select buyers from the pool during the first quarter of 2017.