Author Topic: COPO Assembly  (Read 11151 times)

william

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Re: COPO Assembly
« Reply #15 on: May 28, 2011, 12:28:22 AM »
On the copy I have the VIN is virtually illegible. It looks to be badly weathered.

The June 1976 Car Craft has an article about a couple of S/S racers out of Arcadia, CA. They had gotten wind of factory 427 Camaros back in '69. So they bought one - in Ohio - and drove it back to CA. These guys lived 30 miles from the Van Nuys Camaro plant.

There may have been a few COPO Camaros built at Van Nuys. Just hasn't been proven.
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CNorton

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Re: COPO Assembly
« Reply #16 on: May 28, 2011, 04:37:50 AM »
I know one of those men.  He told me the story about flying to Ohio and driving the COPO back to California.

c

william

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Re: COPO Assembly
« Reply #17 on: May 28, 2011, 03:39:43 PM »
The COPO they bought was a Le Mans blue automatic. I understand it was destroyed in a garage fire a few years ago.

Can you imagine driving a car 1800 miiles with 4.10 gears? At maybe 6 mpg [a bud had a Yenko in '72] that's about $1400 in gas for the trip.

Do they have any original paperwork from the car?
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68Zproject

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Re: COPO Assembly
« Reply #18 on: May 28, 2011, 03:59:58 PM »
In 76 I paid about .40/gal for premium.  $120?
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william

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Re: COPO Assembly
« Reply #19 on: May 28, 2011, 07:30:15 PM »
I meant 2011...
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CNorton

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Re: COPO Assembly
« Reply #20 on: May 29, 2011, 03:17:43 AM »
"The COPO they bought was a Le Mans blue automatic. I understand it was destroyed in a garage fire a few years ago.

Can you imagine driving a car 1800 miiles with 4.10 gears? At maybe 6 mpg [a bud had a Yenko in '72] that's about $1400 in gas for the trip.

Do they have any original paperwork from the car?"

It's the blue car that I remember.  I raced against it in the first round of Super Stock Eliminator at the 1974 Winternationals.  It was later sold to another Southern California Super Stock racer who campaigned it extensively in Division 7 and, the last I heard, it was somewhere in Division 2 (Southeastern US) and still a race car.  I mentioned it to the OP a few years ago and heard the story about the trip to Ohio.  There was no indication that any paperwork survived.  I have not heard of the destruction of the car but nothing would surprise me.  It's  a tough world out there.

c

68Zproject

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Re: COPO Assembly
« Reply #21 on: May 29, 2011, 06:34:48 PM »
I meant 2011...

I was just dreaming of better days.  Although when regular was over $1/gal in '73, in today's dollars it was probably more or the same as today's prices.
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william

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Re: COPO Assembly
« Reply #22 on: May 29, 2011, 07:50:36 PM »
This will make everyone sigh but my co-worker bought a Le Mans blue/black vinyl Yenko in '72 for $2000. 30,000 miles; still had the AIR system. All that came off immediately; headers, glass packs, T-bars. Still one of the fastest street cars I experienced. It was his daily driver and was eating him alive between the gas and insurance so it was sold [$2200!] and a more tolerable '68 Camaro SS350 replaced it. Took several weeks to sell it. It's still around with OE engine but needs resto. N615046 for you numbers guys.

So you're correct. Gas was much cheaper in '72 but $10,000 was a good annual salary in those days.

 
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