Man that is some extra-extra wild stuff .
Tombstone is well done and over-the-top awesome.

These COPO's must have some kind of gypsy magic in them.

When i was doing a lot of previous reading in the archives of this COPO section , there was another "lucky unknown find" story where a woman had previously owned it for a couple of decades.

She died gradually with cancer, and having her 69 Camaro on her tombstone was one of her requests. And it was done.

Car was originally 4spd Orange/Orange Dogbite.
Had been painted Black with some mild custom accents in mid 70's.

Hi R68GTO,

Kinda freaky how many similarities our cars and stories have in common. Glad to hear you're you having lucky tracking down it's history and meeting previous owners, that's always my favorite part of having a old car. Congratulations, Chad

In the late 1960's, the 2nd owner campaigned an L79 Nova post car. Here's a scan of one of the scrapbook pages with some photos. The top photo shows him in the far lane at the US Nationals going up against Grumpy's Toy. According to his racing partner, his buddy had the jump on Jenkins but broke a valve spring during the run and ultimately got beat as this photo shows.
The smaller photo in the upper left shows my car's 2nd owner checking out his new race car....if you look closely you can see the signature chrome dual opposed snorkel L79 air cleaner.

Chad, your post prompted me to re-read your car's story.....wow, there are quite a few similarities. Maybe someday I'll find out who my car's OO was, although it doesn't sound like he had it very long.
Jim

I sure hope you do Jim, I love hearing about and reading stories like this. Best of luck, Chad

Great story and research on owner history ! I have a question, and I am in no way attempting to dampen the spirit or be critical in any way. The difference between the price you paid and the actual value of the car on the day you took delivery, I assume is not a small amount ? There was a landmark court case here in Canada where a sale was reversed because the purchaser was slightly more knowledgable than the seller . The amount was less than $5000 . Seeing as we all have had our "great score" stories, but few have been as fortunate to have one as spectacular as yours, I just wondered if you were at all concerned that the seller might have remorse and want it back ? Or ask you for more money ? With our litigation prone society and the internet I just wondered if it was a concern?

I noticed that you got a curved neck radiator for it.

It's not a concern of mine for a couple of reasons....1) I myself was not sure what the car was when I bought it. 2) the owner openly discussed with me the possibility of it being a COPO car several times over the years including the day I bought it. Several years prior, he had a "local expert" check it out for that very reason and was told it was not. He had ample opportunity to get on the internet and do some homework.
I know the guy and like him very much, and will likely pay him a visit if/when I sell the car - if my investment total is significantly lower than the selling price. Tough to do these days.....as the saying goes "ya know how to make a small fortune selling collector cars? Start with a large fortune!"

Are you serious..??.. That is one of the dumbest court cases I have heard of in a while.. Shame on the seller for not doing their homework.. He agreed to the selling price originally. Suck it up buttercup and learn from your life lesson. What is this world coming to..


Now in the case of this car like I have seen with others in the past local to me if a car was purchased cheap and then flipped for considerably more money MOST people with a conscious will go back to the previous seller and give a little "kickback".

Agreed.