[Rocky1974]

Originally Posted by wayne watson

I knew a guy that worked at the plant where copo camaros were built in 69
He said they were all alum blocks and entire car was hand built. I have no reason not to believe it because they were very rare then too

He's pulling your leg. There were thee COPO's available on 69 Camaros.

COPO 9560 had the aluminum block ZL1 427, rated at 430 horsepower(actually around 500, SAE Gross). There were 69 of those built. 50 of them went to Fred Gibb Chevrolet in LaHarpe, Ill. The other 19 went to various dealers around the country. The price of this COPO was $4150, making the engine option more expensive than the base car it was being installed in and making the car with the engine more expensive than a Corvette.

COPO 9561 had the cast-iron block L72 427, rated at 425 Horsepower(actually around 450 SAE Gross). 201 of these went to Don Yenko Chevrolet in Cannonsburg, Pa, for conversion to Yenko Super Cars. An unknown quantity(less than 600) went to various other dealers around the country. The price of this COPO was $489, making a 425/427 Camaro $130 LESS expensive than a 375/396 Camaro.

COPO 9737 was called Sports Car Conversion and consisted of a 1" front sway bar, 15" Rally Wheels w/E70-15 tires, and a 140 mph speedometer(later in the year it also included a tachometer). This was an attempt to take some of the "plain" out of the "Plain Janes" and was only available in conjunction with one of the other COPOs. Any car that has this COPO is a double COPO. Most of the Yenkos had this option, but some of the other cars that were sold around the country also had this option. The price of this COPO was $160($184 w/tachometer)

All of them were built in Norwood(Cincinnati), Ohio, along side all the other Camaros, using no special procedures and standard X11(Style Trim) and X44(non-Style Trim) bodies. They had no external markings, but they had all the heavy-duty Big-Block hardware in their drive lines. They all had ZL2 Cowl Induction hoods, but many of them didn't even have rear spoilers. Most of them had body-colored 14" wheels and small "dog-dish" hubcaps. They looked like a six-cylinder granny car that somebody had put a Cowl Induction hood on. This prompted their first nickname, "Plain Jane". The COPO name didn't come along until much later when collectors started digging into just how they were constructed. They weren't in the brochures, ordering guides, parts catalogs, or any other documentation. As far as GM was concerned, they didn't exist. GM built them strictly for one purpose, to win races, but considered them to be politically incorrect. Their intention was to sneak them out the back door, put them in the hands of racers and then deny publically that they ever built them. I tried to buy a part for one in the mid-seventies and the dealer parts department told me that they never made such a car. And this was the dealer that sold it new, along with six other ones!