Difference between Yenko and Copo?

[Sikoriko]

So what did Yenko do with those extra engines?

[Cheveey57]

About $100,000

[LOWDOWN]

Originally Posted by Sikoriko

So what did Yenko do with those extra engines?

The "inexpensive" way to convert a pre-COPO to 427 cubes was to order the Base car as an L78 396-375 hp SS, then use an L72-427 shortblock... Heads/intake/carb/flywheel-flexplate/starter/rad etc. were the same for both engines. Being a Big Block meant suspension/driveline etc. was already "optimized". L72 shortblocks were less than $300 at the time.

If you started with a 325 or 350 hp 396, then a "crate" engine was a better way to go.

If you started with a 327 or 350 Small Block, a lot more parts were required to do it "properly"...and, frankly, was NOT a smart way to go.

Here's an anomoly: An SS 396-375 hp '69 Camaro, equipped with the mandatory features that the COPOs required/included (4-speed or Turbo 400/Posi, 4.10s, ZL2 Cowl Induction Hood etc.) was MORE $$$ than a Base COPO 9561...strange-but-true!

[95birdible]

There were a few 68 COPO 427's put in by Chevrolet as a test for 69. Kevin Suydam has one in his collection.

[Sikoriko]

No ECU back then

[Sikoriko]

And the EPA and CARB has to get there fingers in things

[jlrtexas]

Yenko used two copo # which are famous to gear heads like myself.......9561 which is the solid lifter L-72 big block making 425hp. 201 were produced. The more famous one 9560 which was used by Gibb chevy dealer for drag racing conceived by race legend Dick Harell for super stock NHRA. The engine was an all aluminum 427 called the ZL-1 which cost an extra $4,00 dollars and was rated at a modest 430hp but really made almost 500 hp. Only 69 were ever produced. That's what I recall. COPO was a fleet use ordering procedure for taxi's rental fleets and cop cars. These two popular dealers (Yenko and Gibbs) new people on the inside to add these twoo COPO #'s to the ordering form to get what they wanted. This trend started in '69. Yenko was putting big blocks in the camaro before '69 as dealer installed options. I praise these two noble gear heads as genuises for their devotion to tire shredding camaros.

[MLL67RSSS]

JFTR there were 9561 iron block COPOs sold directly to "customers" without further modifications from the dealer that ordered them, just like the ZL-1s. Drag racers had no interest in stripes, stickers, logos and the like.

There are a few of them listed/pictured in link below:

http://www.supercars.net/cars/2198.html

But to answer the OP's question, in '69 virtually every Yenko Camaro was a tarted up (striped and stickered) 9561 COPO Camaro.

[jlrtexas]

They are entirely different and shouldn't be compared at all.

COPO has nothing in common with Yenko.

The COPO was created for fleet vehicles but Yenko and Gibbs used them for their own gains so they should be compared due to the fact that they used them to get the engines they wanted in the cars they loved to race.

[95birdible]

http://www.holisticpage.com/camaro/camaros/copo.htm

[skibik]

When I bought my 2012 I did research so I could compare it to when they came out. From my research you could not order a 427 from the factory in at least '67 and '68, but you could order a Camaro and have it as a dealer installed option. I know I am probably wrong or am wrong period which means some of the Camaro sites for the Gen 1 are wrong also. Someone will set me straight.

Dean.

[LOWDOWN]

Originally Posted by jlrtexas

Yenko used two copo # which are famous to gear heads like myself.......9561 which is the solid lifter L-72 big block making 425hp. 201 were produced. The more famous one 9560 which was used by Gibb chevy dealer for drag racing conceived by race legend Dick Harell for super stock NHRA. The engine was an all aluminum 427 called the ZL-1 which cost an extra $4,00 dollars and was rated at a modest 430hp but really made almost 500 hp. Only 69 were ever produced. That's what I recall. COPO was a fleet use ordering procedure for taxi's rental fleets and cop cars. These two popular dealers (Yenko and Gibbs) new people on the inside to add these twoo COPO #'s to the ordering form to get what they wanted. This trend started in '69. Yenko was putting big blocks in the camaro before '69 as dealer installed options. I praise these two noble gear heads as genuises for their devotion to tire shredding camaros.

Yenko directly ordered ZERO COPO 9560 ZL1-engined '69 Camaros from GM.

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

http://www.camaros.org/9560list.shtml

COPO-configured vehicles started well before '69. In fact, the L78-coded 396-375 hp engine was a COPO-necessary option on '68 Nova SSs, and the 9737 Sports Car Conversion package was created for Yenko in '68.

As can be shown, below, NOT all "Yenko Camaros" were 427-equipped...

[Lynn Yenko]

Hi Everyone,
This is Lynn Yenko, Don Yenko's daughter!!!! COPO, Central Office Production Order, was reinvented through GM by my dad Don Yenko. He had been racing at Marlboro raceway, against the Cobras and Corvettes in A Production & B Production and he was tired of 'looking at the ass end of the Cobras & Vets' he was racing against. He wanted to do something about this in the SCCA. He asked the SCCA, how this could be done. They said he had to make 100 sports cars of the same design. So, Don found the COPO program through his friend in GM, Vince Piggins. The program was available for companies to order their trucks as fleet vehicles in a large order. All the units had to be ordered with the same specs. He ordered, much to the distress of his father, Frank Yenko, my grandfather, who was his business partner, 100 Corvairs all in Cobalt white with a twin blue stripe down the center with a larger engine of 355 HP & addition upgrades to the sway bar, shifter, headers & other visual and high performance options. He called his new creation a Yenko Stinger, which was suggested by several of his collaboratives in GM. This forever changed the COPO program to now concentrate on bulk orders of high performance muscle cars. This was a great personal risk to the Yenko family, given that the Yenko dealership usually sold only 250 units per year up to that point, thus my grandfather's anst when heard what my father had done. My father went on to use the COPO program to modify Camaros from 1967 to 1970, Novas-Yenko Deuces from 1969 to 1970, Yenko Chevelles, Yenko Stinger 2 in 1971 to 1972?, and finally the Turbo Yenko Camaro in 1981. By the way, SYC stands for Yenko Sports Cars, because he modified much more than just Camaros!!!
Thank you very much for your support.
Lynn Yenko

[MLL67RSSS]

Lynn everything I've ever read and seen refers to Yenko SUPER Car, not SPORTS car. Even the Yenko site is called the SUPERCAR Registry.

http://www.yenko.net/