A loophole in the Chevrolet hierarchy in the late ’60s allowed the company to offer a limited number of seriously high-performance cars to customers. Known as COPO (Central Office Production Order) cars, the vehicles were a big hit with racers, and with a wink and a nod, Chevrolet execs who enjoyed reading about the cars success at the tracks. When the ’70s knocked the “muscle” from virtually every muscle car, so went the special production COPOs.
Enter 2012 when Chevy reintroduced the COPO concept with a race-ready drag version of the latest Camaro. From the book Camaro: Fifty Years of Chevy Performance are the details on how and when the rebirth of the COPO Camaro occurred, and what the performance packages consisted of.
COPO Comeback
Apparently some things old truly can be new again. Consider the COPO Camaro. In March 2012, Chevrolet announced it would be offering a fifth-generation variation on this theme after unveiling a prototype at Las Vegas’s annual Specialty Equipment Market Association show the previous November.
“The COPO Camaro is a proof-of-concept for what a Chevrolet Stock Eliminator entry could look like,” explained GM Motorsports chief Jim Campbell in October just prior to the 2011 SEMA event’s opening. “And it is a clear indication that Chevrolet intends to homologate Camaro for sportsman drag racing.”
Powering that COPO concept was another prototype, a supercharged LSX-based V-8 that displaced 327 cubes.
Mentioned as well was an available naturally aspirated 427 derived from Corvette’s LS7 small-block, and announced transmission choices originally included a two-speed Powerglide automatic, a three-speed auto, or five-speed manual. Inside was a full roll cage, and out back was a bulletproof solid rear axle in place of the stock Camaro’s independent rear suspension. Lightweight racing wheels and radial slicks were present, too, making it more than obvious that Campbell wasn’t kidding about this wild horse’s intentions.
After more than two thousand rarin’-to-race SEMA attendees expressed their desires to ride this pony hard, one quarter-mile at a time, Chevrolet officials realized they had a no-brainer on their hands—a 2012 COPO simply had to go into production. “The COPO Camaro is going to shake up drag racing ranks this summer and give Chevy fans a great new reason to cheer on the Bowtie,” added Campbell in March 2012 while spreading the good news to drag kings across America. “COPO builds off the strengths that have made Camaro the best-selling sports car in America. And while it was developed strictly for the strip, COPO is infused with the same performance pedigree that every Camaro shares.”
But there was a catch. Production was limited to only sixty-nine, the same number of ZL1 Camaros built for 1969. To fairly address the more than three thousand potential buyers who signed up online for the chance to take home a 2012 COPO, Chevrolet turned to a neutral third party to randomly select the lucky sixty-nine, who then were directed to fork over at least $89K for the basic package, which changed slightly compared to the concept. Only one transmission, the race-prepped Powerglide, was offered publically along with three engines: two blown 327s and the non-boosted 427. Also available was a “collector’s package” that contained all three engines, each serial-number-match to the car. Five exterior finishes were possible—black, Summit White, Victory Red, Silver Ice Metallic, and Ashen Gray Metallic—plus an optional graphics treatment similar to that seen in Vegas on the concept vehicle.
The first sixty-seven 2012 COPOs were coupes. Number sixty-eight was a convertible not meant for public sale, while the last of the run was an Inferno Orange ragtop sent to auction to benefit the American Heart Association. It sold for $400,000 in January 2013. Number sixty-eight featured a five-speed manual transmission, while number sixty-nine was fitted with a three-speed automatic.
Another sixty-nine COPO Camaros were released in 2013, and again in 2014 and 2015. Changes for 2013 included an available G-Force G101A four-speed manual transmission (along with the rollover Powerglide) and three new naturally aspirated engines, a 350-horsepower 350, 500-horsepower 396 and 435-horsepower 427, all fitted with Holley HP electronic fuel injection. Revised front springs and a radiator-integrated trans cooler also were included this year. The naturally aspirated 396 and 427 V-8s were revised slightly for 2014 and were joined by a supercharged 350, rated at 530 horsepower. Updated graphics appeared in 2015 as the fifth-gen Camaro rolled into the sunset.
Jim Campbell announced Chevy’s next-generation strip-ready pony in November 2015. “With the new Gen Six Camaro as its foundation, the 2016 COPO begins the next chapter of an historic racing legacy.” Indeed, benefitting from the lighter, stronger sixth-gen platform, the latest COP Camaro promised even more success at the drags. A roll cage again was included inside, as was a solid axle out back. Three engines were offered: a supercharged 350, unblown 427, and a new LT-based 376. The only transmission choice this time was a race-prepped three-speed Turbo 400 automatic.
Eager buyers again had to register online for the chance to score one of 2016’s sixty-nine COPOs. How’d that third party selection process work for you?
An example of a late ’60s-era COPO; Beneath the hood of this Hugger Orange COPO 9561 Camaro is a Corvette-sourced L72 427. Save for the standard ZL2 hood, next to nothing gave away the identity of an L72 Camaro in 1969. Optional spoilers front and rear appear here.
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The legendary 1967 Camaro was Chevy’s answer to Ford’s Mustang, and they’ve been duking it out ever since.
The early 1960s saw American auto manufacturers desperately trying to sell cars to the emerging baby-boom market. Chevrolet attained some success with its sporty Corvair Monza. Ford responded first with a sportier Falcon, then with its grand-slam, home-run pony car, the Mustang. At first, Chevrolet hesitated to abandon the technologically advanced Corvair, but when it finally entered the pony car market in 1967, its new Camaro instantly became one of the most iconic cars of the classic muscle-car era, a serious competitor for the Mustang. Since then, some of the most important performance cars in American history have been Camaro models: RS, SS, Z28, and IROC-Z.
When muscle cars went dormant for a generation, it was once again the classic pony cars that jump-started American performance. The battle that raged between Camaro and Mustang in the 1980s rejuvenated the US auto industry’s interest in high-performance muscle cars.
The Camaro lost its way in the 1990s, with Chevrolet pursuing technological advances and Ford pursuing classic American muscle. As was the case in the 1960s, Ford’s muscular pony car trounced Chevrolet’s technologically advanced sporty car in the race that mattered most: showroom sales. The Mustang thrived while the Camaro left the scene. Fortunately, that departure was only temporary. Chevrolet introduced a twenty-first-century Camaro in 2010, and it has become one of Chevrolet’s most popular models.
With stunning photography from author Mike Mueller and never-before-seen archival photography from partner General Motors, Camaro: Fifty Years of Chevy Performance chronicles the Camaro’s rich history, from the early attempts to reach the youth market in the 1960s, through the potent and turbulent years of the classic muscle-car era, the resurgence of muscle in the 1980s, the sad decline of the 1990s, and the triumphant rebirth of the new car in this new millennium.
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