Up for a sale at a cool hundred grand, a pristine 1985 Chevy Camaro IROC-Z with only 11 miles on its odometer has come up for sale after spending almost two and a half decades safely tucked away inside an abandoned truck trailer, wedged safely in place with boards under and around its wheels.
This legendary 1985 Chevy Camaro IROC-Z muscle car made Internet history with a viral video about its recovery 15 years ago, and initially sold for $27,000 – before appearing on the market again now at MS Classic Cars, LLC with a $100,000 price tag.
For those who don’t know, this crown jewel of barn finds is a street-legal commemorative version of the hard-charging Chevy Camaro variant adopted in 1975 as the official car of the International Race of Champions or IROC. Engineered for high performance and excellent handling, the Camaro IROC-Z got 16-inch wheels, a lowered body, and a Tuned Port Injection 5.0L four-barrel V8 gasoline engine developing 215 horsepower and 275 pound-feet of torque.
This 1985 IROC-Z is one of just 2,497 units Chevrolet built for the introductory 1985 model year. The 1985 Camaro IROC-Z received numerous awards from automotive publications, including a spot on Car and Driver‘s 1986 “10 Best” list. The IROC-Z was discontinued after the 1990 model year, making this rare factory-mint car even rarer.
The seats, steering wheel, and some other interior parts are still wrapped in the factory shipping plastic on this jaw-dropping “time capsule” Camaro, and the rear window still has factory chalk markings scrawled on it, carefully preserved through the detailing for their historic value. The build sheet and window sticker are still in place, and the immaculate black exterior paint has been polished to a gleaming sheen by MS Classic Cars.
The interior sports the original Gray Custom cloth upholstery and colorway, which, when combined with Black exterior paint, is considered the model’s most desirable color combo. Factory stickers and paint marks are found throughout the interior, undercarriage, and engine compartment. Though this is practically a museum piece, the engine, paired with a 5-speed manual transmission, still runs strongly and smoothly.
You can feast your eyes on a complete exterior and interior tour of this unique 1985 Chevy Camaro IROC-Z in the following video:
The vehicle was originally sold by the Albrizio Chevrolet dealership in Palisades Park, New Jersey to Steve Liesch, who asked for factory wrapping and chalk to remain in place, creating a unique collectible. Marc Schiliro of MS Classic Cars says that the $100,000 price is firm, remarking, “I’m comfortable using it as a display piece for the world to see until it’s sold however long that might be.”
He also described the immaculate “Holy Grail” IROC-Z as “a blue chip investment” and pointed out “finding another example like this one will more than likely never happen again!”
Please let us know your thoughts, and if you’d like to have this beautifully preserved piece of exclusive automotive history in your own collection, in the comments below.
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Comments
Hats off to Jerry Palmer and his team at the Design Staff.
I grew up in walking distance of Albrizio (originally known as Brahms). No longer a car dealership. Used to go there for parts for my ’55 Bel Air. The parts guys were great. Oh the memories. Whole different world……unfortunately.
A “holy grail” would be optioned with the TPI engine, or at least the L69 H.O. 305 – not the base 155(?) hp LG4. Otherwise, wow, what a beautiful car that takes me back to the fall of 1984…
My 85 purchased in 87 was a red on gray TPI with leaking T-tops. I really loved that car.
I had a new 86, Grey/grey, t-tops leaked if it got cloudy outside. Only kept it one year.
I owned one of these with T-Tops and they are a lot of FUN! $100k is fine but several parts were changed (and saved) and the AC compressor is froze. I would expect it to at least be in working order. Timeless piece though.
“and a Tuned Port Injection 5.0L four-barrel V8 gasoline engine”
TPI is fuel injected (and was not available with the manual in ’85 or ’86), the LG4 and L69 were carbureted.
This is sooo YUMMY! When cars had style and distinction. Can’t say that today with all the ugly SUV trucks everybody is buying.
Beautiful car, if it were mine, I would be driving it every day. Couldn’t let it sit around and just look at it. Especially with that standard transmission
“and a Tuned Port Injection 5.0L four-barrel V8 gasoline engine”
Well for starters there is no such thing as an engine with both a 4 BBL carburetor and Tuned Port injection at the same time. Second the TPI (LB9) engine in these years was paired with automatic meaning if this is a stick car it must be a carbureted 305. Looking at the pictures confirms this is a base LG4 305 4BBL car which was sadly only rated for 155 HP and 245 torque instead of 165 horses as it was in the larger Caprice or 190 for the L69 HO 305 which was an option.
Well this is a beautiful car, I don’t agree that it is the “Holy Grail”. There is another example with less miles and has the L98 motor that was found in Chicago recently. Same condition with the same interior wrapping.
This is a very nice car. But 100 grand nice? No way. The only way they will get that is if someone (Youtuber???) with too much money and not enough brains will pay it.
But why would anyone pay 100 grand for this when you can get a Buick Regal GN or even a GNX for the same or less? They may not have 14 miles on them, but who cares? It seems like such a waste for such a nice car to just sit with no enjoyment by it’s owner. I’m just not a trailer queen car kind of guy. I want to drive mine and share with others at shows.
Did you notice the factory original ripples in the back seat seam fabric? Quality control at it’s finest………..
Also what’s with stack of washers on the passenger side door striker??
That looks normal to me, seen that many times and on many cars in that era of GM vehicles.
its very nice but doesnt compare to a 69 z/28.
Beautiful, yet just a 5.0 unfortunately
Apart from being a clean example, it’s just another unremarkable carbureted 305 ci car, not a TPI model.
It has the usual ready to leak tops, iffy handling (heavy rear hatch glass creaking) and is run of the mill.
Go, handling and stopping was nothing to write home about. A ’69 or ’71 body style is far more desirable than one of these.
The IROC racing series for the model made them more famous than the actual capabilities of the base model.
They could at least have re-wrapped the steering wheel properly. It has to be carefully removed at time of delivery. The wrap is super tightly wrapped and never had blue or green painters masking tape holding it in place. The yellow wrap removal warning decal to be at the bottom. It should be in sight as a precaution not to use sharp tool to remove.
The headliner around the passenger side of the T top is bubbly/saggy, as is the passenger visor.
It’s no “Holy Grail” model even by any stretch of the classic car salesman’s inflated $$$$$$ imagination.
It’s nice to see a clean tidy survivor, but some fool with too much disposable income will be willingly parted from their money for what is really a $20K value car.
At least if the fuel pump fails it is a mechanical on the SBC engine block, unlike the TPI models with in tank pumps that required dropping the exhaust and suspension to remove the fuel tank.
A fixed roof car, a high horse TPI car would be a holy grail car imo.