Paul Walker's 1969 Chevrolet Camaro RS Z28 Is Up for Grabs

6 months, 2 weeks ago - 4 June 2024, autoevolution
Paul Walker's 1969 Chevrolet Camaro RS Z28
Paul Walker's 1969 Chevrolet Camaro RS Z28
It's been more than a decade since Paul Walker passed away in a tragic car crash, but his legacy lives on. Paul was featured posthumously in two installments of the Fast & Furious franchise (most recently in 2023's Fast X), and cars connected to him keep popping up for sale. This 1969 Chevrolet Camaro, for instance, is believed to be one of his last projects.

Scheduled to go under the hammer at Mecum's Monterey 2024 auction on August 15-17, this Camaro is not your average Chevy-badged pony car. This thing is a fully-fledged Z28. It also has the RS package with concealed headlamps. It's not the rarest Camaro out there at 20,302 units built in 1969, but it has quite a few things to brag about. In addition to being a part of Paul Walker and Roger Rodas, of course.

Although it looks a bit rough on the outside, this Camaro is as complete as it gets and still wears traces of the original LeMans Blue paint. It's also an early production model with a non-cowl hood and lacking the familiar rear spoiler. The weathered Rally wheels are the ones fitted by the factory back in 1969.

The black interior looks surprisingly good compared to the body, so perhaps this Z28 got a refresh inside the cabin. If it hasn't, then it looks mighty impressive for a survivor. The good news continues under the hood in the form of a numbers-matching powerplant and M21 four-speed manual transmission.

If you're unfamiliar with the first-gen Z28, the badge came with a unique 302-cubic-inch (4.9-liter) V8 engine. Created to help the Camaro meet SCCA Trans-Am homologation requirements, the mill had 290 horsepower and 290 pound-feet (393 Nm) of twist in the road-going model. This setup and displacement were unique to the Z28.

Sold new by Martens Chevrolet of Reedley, California, this Camaro has a known history. It was purchased by noted Chevrolet collector Merle Duprey in 1982 before it ended up in the Walker/Rodas collection. The muscle car was sold back to Duprey after Walker and Rodas passed away in 2013. Mecum is selling it on behalf of Solo Speed Shop.

The Z28 is believed to have been one of Paul Walker's last projects, but there's no information on what kind of work he performed on the car. The Camaro comes with a Hi-Performance Report ordered by Walker and Rodas and an inventory report proving it was part of their collection.

The seller doesn't provide an estimate for the auction, but its numbers-matching status and association with Paul Walker will probably push it beyond the $100,000 mark. For reference, restored and high-original 1969 Z28s can fetch more than $150,000. The current record is held by a Z28 RS model that changed hands for $297,000 in January 2023.

Several Paul Walker-related cars have hit the auction block in recent years. In 2022, a Nissan Skyline R34 GT-R V-Spec II fetched $577,000. His 1980 BMW M1 sold for $648,500 the same year, while his 1965 Shelby Cobra 427 went under the hammer for $320,000 in 2021. 

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