The Supercar Registry Bulletin Board: March '05 Feature Car

March 2005 Feature Car:

Frank & Barb Payne's 1969 COPO Camaro

Specs:

Engine (factory):	L-72 427ci/425hp
Transmission (factory):	THM400 automatic
Rear (factory):	4.10 posi
Selling Dealer:	Mac's Chev-Olds, Crete, NE
Options:	COPO 9561, RPOs: U69, U57, N34, Z23
Exterior color:	Tuxedo Black
Interior color:	Standard Black

Frank and Barb Payne's Mac's Chev-Olds COPO Camaro:

"Our Camaro was ordered from Mac's Chev-Olds in Crete, NE by a gentleman named Phil Durst of nearby Lincoln, NE. Phil ordered the Camaro with performance in mind, checking the L72 427 engine and M40 Turbo 400. He also ordered the U69 AM radio, U57 under dash 8 track, N34 rosewood wheel and Z23 special interior group as well as specifying the Tuxedo Black exterior and standard black interior. Mac's was well know in the Eastern Nebraska area as one of the premier performance dealers. The owner, Al MacNamara, was heavily into drag racing and sponsored several cars including racing a '70 W30 442 himself. The dealership was rumored to have ordered 8 COPO's including the #22 ZL1. Not bad for a burg of 3,000 souls. When the car came in Phil was unable to take delivery because Uncle Sam had other plans for him. A friend of Phil's, Vic Keller, a parts man at another dealer, DuTeau Chevrolet, learned of the COPOs availability and stepped up to buy it. Vic had big plans for the car. Pulling the original engine he installed a NHRA legal Super Stock engine and went racing. The car held the SS/DA mph record for part of 1970. Thankfully the car was not cut up and when Vic sold the car it was returned to stock by reinstalling the original engine. After a succession of owners we were lucky enough to purchase the car in 1991 from Dave Milota who had been collecting NOS parts for the car since he bought it in 1981. Dave also had some luck when his nephew literally stumbled across the original engine which had long been separated from the car in a local machine shop waiting to be freshened to go back in a stock car. Dave at the time had the black COPO, a '71 Phase III Baldwin Motion Camaro now owned by Kevin Suydam and the #22 ZL1 from Mac's which he still owns. The restoration began in 1992 and Barb and I took the car to SCR 3 for it's debut. We made some great friends like Don and Paulette Clark and Andrew Hinckley at SCR 3 who we continue to talk to frequently. We love owning our COPO as nothing gets respect at a show like a Chevy Supercar!"