![]() So now, 50 years after those first COPOs, that endeavor is being honored with an entirely new COPO Camaro. “It’s one of the most enduring legacies in drag racing, with a powerful past and a fast future.” vice president of Performance Vehicles and Motorsports. “Chevrolet is proud to celebrate 50 years of the COPO Camaro legacy,” says Jim Campbell, GM U.S. It’s a throwback to the vintage performance engines that powered the original COPO cars. In addition, the car sports a 50th anniversary engine appearance package with an orange engine block, chrome valve covers, and a black high-rise manifold intake. ![]() The vehicle features Anniversary Blue Metallic paint-a nod to the original Laguna Blue offered in 1969-plus graphics honoring the occasion. This COPO #9561 package cost far less than the ZL1, making it a relative performance bargain, even though it weighed about 75 pounds more due to the iron block and heads.Ĭhevrolet recently celebrated the 50th anniversary of the COPO Camaro at the annual Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) Show in Las Vegas, with a special 2019 version of the car. In addition to the ZL1-powered COPO Camaro, some dealers ordered vehicles that were nearly identical except for the front springs, ignition system, and, critically, the substitution of an iron-block L72 engine, rated at 425 horsepower. In all, a total of 69 COPO Camaro models with the ZL1 engine were produced. ![]() Very soon, though, the word got out, and other dealers ordered their own. But Stock Eliminator rules stipulated that at least 50 examples of an eligible car must be produced by the manufacturer, so Gibb ordered 13 cars for his own customers, and another 37 that he traded or resold to other dealerships. This lightweight, very powerful and tunable production engine made a tantalizing package for Stock Eliminator drag racing, where allowable modifications to production engines were limited. It was speculated that output was closer to 550 horsepower at 6500 rpm, at least when fitted with track-tuned headers. It also produced way more power, officially making 430 horsepower at 5200 rpm. The ZL1 427-cubic-inch big-block (a NASCAR engine) weighed roughly 100 pounds less than the top 396-cubic-inch big-block engine offered in the Camaro, thanks to its aluminum block and heads. Next, Gibb came up with the 1969 COPO Camaro (COPO #9560 option package, to be accurate), which was the utmost in rarity among the various flavors of Camaro that year-just 69 were built. In 1968, he conceived the notion of using the COPO system to order performance cars, and had 50 COPO Novas built with L78 396-cubic-inch big-block engines that could typically be found only in full-size sedans like the Impala. Then Fred Gibb, a drag racing Chevy dealer in Illinois, took it a step further. This enabled those parts to find their way into the hands of dealers and customers who were in the know. Piggins found a way to develop high-performance parts and systems, but avoid labeling them as such. He is generally credited with creating the Camaro Z/28 and initially supplying racing engines to Bruce McLaren for his efforts in the nearly unlimited Can-Am racing series. ![]() Vince Piggins was a legend in performance circles and championed dozens of high-performance programs at Chevrolet. Until a few drag racing enthusiasts got involved. Typically, trucks and police cars were the system’s bread and butter. Their tool was the Central Office Production Order (COPO) system, put in place by Chevrolet so dealers with fleet customers like municipalities and service operations could order batches of cars or trucks with unique equipment or colors to meet their needs. Specifically, a Camaro with a combination of performance equipment that resulted in an NHRA Stock Eliminator class special and a 50-year legacy of greatness. In the late 1960s, several well-informed Chevrolet dealers were able to use the company’s vehicle ordering system to create cars that otherwise would never have existed.
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