Super Cheap Camaro SS Auction Buy Ends Up a Massive Win

By Brett Foote - February 28, 2025

Upon first glance, this cheap Camaro SS looked likely to be packing an LS9 – which it isn’t – but it’s still a big win financially speaking.

Now that the Chevy Camaro has been discontinued yet again – possibly set to return at some point, in some form in the future – those that want one are forced to turn to the used market. Luckily, it’s pretty easy to find good deals on newer Camaros these days, and that’s especially true for those willing to roll the dice and check out salvage auctions. While risky, finding a gem in the rough via this type of route can also pay off in a big way, and that’s precisely what happened with this Camaro SS scooped up by the folks at the YouTube channel ScrapLifeLee recently.

This Camaro SS looks a lot like most other ones that were up for sale, save for one unique feature – a window cut into the hood, a feature that is famous for being used in the production version of the C6 Corvette ZR1 – otherwise known as the “Blue Devil.” That was enough to entice our host to roll the dice and plunk down a mere $6,600 for this Camaro SS, which is pennies for such a machine, especially when they discovered what was present underneath that little hood window.

While the car has suffered a decent amount of damage in the rear – it’s pretty mangled up back there, not to mention there’s plastic covering the area where the rear glass used to be – the work that has been done to the Camaro SS might just make it worth that low cost of admission, regardless. At first, it was unclear if this is a true, full-blown LS9 swap or if someone just went to the trouble of fitting its supercharger on the stock motor, but it does wind up putting down 452 horsepower on the dyno – seemingly a bit shy of the C6 ZR1’s flywheel ratings of 638 from the factory.

Ultimately, the team discovers that this isn’t actually an LS9, but rather, someone went to the trouble of swapping over a ton of parts to make that blower work with the stock engine. Regardless, after parting it out and doing some math, they determine that they also basically got this engine for free, once they sell everything else. As such, while the engine may or may not wind up being used in another project, this particular junkyard find turned out to be quite the gold mine, regardless.