Original 1969 COPO paperwork

[bigsixman]

I have to assume that Chevrolet had some paper work at the introduction of the 69 Camaros ordered with the 9561 package to show dealers what was included in the package. Does anyone have a copy of the GM paper work that you could post here as it would be appreciated.

It just seems to me that there should be paper work that the zone people used to inform the Chevrolet dealers that the option was available and what was included along with the prices and the introduction dates.

[William]

COPOs consisted of non-RPO combinations of equipment for a specific customer. Over 50 years later, there is no evidence of an overall marketing effort by Chevrolet for COPOs 9560, 9561, 9737. Most Zones had a performance dealership or two and there is reason to believe Chevrolet made those dealers aware of them. They did provide information to dealers that contained service part numbers not found in the P & A manuals.

http://www.camaros.org/copo.shtml

[Kurt S]

They were not publicized; they were not an RPO and were designed to be a backdoor item.

[JoeC]

not a lot of info came out on the COPO 9561 and other HP COPOs but there was some covered in 1969 magazine articles

the Ed Cunneen COPO Connection book came out late 1980s and was/is a good source

Ed was able to find paperwork from Chevy Employees like Vince Piggins and Fran Preve and from some Chevy dealers like Fred Gibb who had bought HP COPO cars

There are service letters and parts lists and letters to the dealers who ordered HP COPOs

In the 1980s, I was reseaching COPO 427 Chevelles at a time when many Chevelle guys were saying the 427 factory Chevelle did not exist. I had found 1969 magazine articles showing factory built 427 Camaros and Chevelles and had some Chevy dealer ads so I knew they did exist but was still hard to convince people back then.

[Mr70]

Never forget the first time I saw a '69 COPO Chevelle cruising up & down on the Blvd here,and the owner said he was told someone installed a Corvette engine in it.
Ironically,this was in 1980,and Ed Cuneen lived a few blocks away.

[JoeC]

Chevy had a problem hiding the 427 COPO Camaros and Chevelles because they had to prove to the NHRA that they made at least 50 so they were legal to race in Super Stock.

The Ford and Chrysler drag racers called out Chevy on the ZL1s saying "there was no way they made 50 aluminum engine Camaros "

The Chevelle guys said "They never made any non SS big block Chevelles in 1969"

[William]

That's how the ZL1 VINs became known-the sanctioning bodies required proof. When Bill Porterfield bought what was supposed to be a 'factory ZL1 Camaro' around 1980 there was no proof. He worked for Oldsmobile at the time and was connected enough to get in touch with Vince Piggins at Chevrolet. At first, all he could find were the VINs of the Gibb cars. Bill had #3, not a Gibb car and asked Piggins to check again. Fortunately, he did find the other 19 VINs and the rest is history. Super Chevy printed the ZL1 Camaro VINs, saving many of them from further abuse. The famous COPO letter references a VIN listing of all COPO cars available on request. Probably tossed when Piggins retired.

Huebner Chev had the last ZL1 Camaro built. They ran a newspaper ad for it stating "1 of 69 in the United States equipped with the ZL1 all aluminum 427 engine." Wonder where they got that info.

[JoeC]

here is one of the 1969 ads that I had found when doing research in the 1980s from Byrne Brothers Chevrolet to help prove the 427 cars did exist

They were not called COPO cars back then

They called them 427 Factory Camaros and Chevelles

I had talked with the parts manager from Byrne Brothers and other Chevy Dealership employees and they confirmed the the 427 cars and remembered them well

Some had great stories where they would take them out for "test rides" and race each other

[RayC]

Joe, Love the post. Nice to know our car's came from there.

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

If they only spell checked their ad's back then!!