BAD-L88

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eb...220517&r=0&t=0

Was there ever such a beast as a COPO Corvette? I have heard of COPO Camaros but never Corvettes.

SBR

I doubt that it is one of the original 116 L88s built in 69. Maybe Rowdy Rat will shed some light on this.

67HEAVEN

Never heard of a COPO Corvette :confused:

EDIT:
The only thing close to COPO (in Corvettes) that I know of is the FSO 1967 Corvette - http://www.67fso.com/



[Modified by 67HEAVEN, 12:22 PM 5/11/2002]

Mac

Without doing exhaustive research and trusting my fallible memory (and a handy website)

1969 COPO Camaro SS ZL1- number produced- 69
tested: 427/425 13.16@110.2

1969 COPO Camaro SS Yenko- number produced- 201
tested: 427/435 12.80@108.5

1969 COPO Chevelle SS L72- number produced- 323
tested: 427/425 13.31@ 104.04

1969 COPO Chevelle SS Yenko- number produced- 99
tested: 427/450 13.31@104.16

1969 COPO Corvette- no listing

The information provided on e-Bay for the supposed COPO Corvette is interesting but let the buyer beware!! It's possible such a thing was produced but it's funny it wouldn't be documented before the car came up for sale on e-Bay. I can't see 30+ years of car mags missing one!


[Modified by Mac, 9:16 AM 5/11/2002]

PRNDL

I thought COPO stood for "Central (or Corporate?) Office Production Order" and was used to put together nonstandard options. Could be something as trivial as red interior with green exterior. I recall an article in one of the corvette magazines featuring a midyear that was highly optioned, something about it was nonstandard, it was ordered by the wife of a GM executive thru the COPO process. I dont see anything obvious about the ebay COPO L-88 that would be nonstandard (It doesnt have a radio!! :) ) but I am not much of an expert. So, page Rowdy Rat!! :lol: MJ

Mac

You're right about COPO (Central Office Processing Order) being a way of bypassing the RPO but I never heard it being used for altering interiors, just for putting motor and/or tranny combinations which were not offered RPO on specific models.

I did a little more digging and located an interesting website http://www.copo.com/ which give some interesting details of the assorted COPO vehicles and their history.


[Modified by Mac, 9:39 PM 5/11/2002]

Chuck Gongloff

I've seen a number of "non recommended" exterior/interior color combo's on Corvettes, which technically are COPO's. The most common I've seen is 72 Targa Blue with Beige interior. SO...COPO is not only for engine/trans options, although by "usage" that's what it means to most people. I don't see what's odd from a COPO standpoint with the EBAY car.

Side story....about 8 to 10 years ago, there was a hideous shark for sale in the DC area (Washington for you "out of towner's") . It was a COPO car....a 1970 Marlboro Maroon coupe with a Green Interior....with the real trim tag to prove it. Chuck

Mac

That's just..... sick and twisted. Maroon & Green?

In thinking (and reading) about COPO, IMHO the reason COPO became associated with performance was Don Yenko putting high performance engine & tranny packages designed to motor-vate Corvettes into everything from Camaros to Chevelles to Novas. These packages were available RPO for Vettes, so COPO for Vettes would mainly be non-recommended combinations for colour and interior, unless someone chose to 'downgrade' on power and install a six cylinder.

Anyone remember the 'Iraqi Taxi' order? In 1981 or so, GM made a COPO bulk order of Malibu 4 door sedans with A/C, six cylinder and manual three speed on the floor (truck engine & tranny) for a taxi company in Iraq which either went T/U or refused delivery. GM ended up dumping the cars on the domestic market cheap. Funny none of those cars are on e-Bay using COPO as a selling point! :lol:

67HEAVEN

They were all built in Oshawa, Ontario. They dumped a whole lot of them in Southern Ontario. I still see the odd one around. Very easy to spot.

Cheapo 4-doors with air and no rear defrost. Guess there isn't much ice to melt in Baghdad. :lol:

mackeyred96

:yesnod: :yesnod: yes

SWCDuke

I believe Central Office Production Orders were also used by engineering to acquire cars for testing and development, and was also the way executive cars were ordered, so it doesn't necessarily mean anything special regarding option configuration or "special parts". It just means that the car was not ordered through the normal Chevrolet dealer channels. Many hype COPOs into a bigger deal than they really are.

Duke

Mac

So COPO is much ado about nothing.

If it drags a few extra grand on e-Bay, someone's bound to use it.

My illusions are being shattered- first 'numbers matching, then desmo valves, now COPO! :sad:

SWCDuke

Sorry to shatter all your illusions, Mac. ;) All the press hype about the special engined Chevelle, Nova, etc. COPOs from the late sixties/early seventies created the myth that COPOs are "special", but most of them just have normal RPOs, although some apparently have "non-standard" option combinations. Many probably have interesting histories, but I would imagine few have been well documented.

A gentleman who is probably the world's leading expert on Corvette order and delivery documentation thinks my SWC is a COPO because there is a hand written two digit number in the COPO box on the production order. He thinks it's there because it was a plant delivery. I think it's some other piece of data that might have something to do with the plant delivery, but it was just written in the COPO box because it was a convenient and available place to write it, so my car isn't really a COPO because I ordered it through a Chevrolet dealer and just specified plant delivery in St. Louis.

We still have some things to learn about the order and delivery documents. In the meantime it's best to assume that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn't.

Duke

Easy Mike

Yep. One could COPO a Corvette. As other replies have indicated, a COPO gave the "okay" for other-than-ordinary combinations which would not otherwise have cost GM anything. Hence a maroon car with green interior. They had the maroon paint and had the green interior (no additional cost to GM). The COPO allowed St. Louis to put the two together.

On the eBay car, I don't see anything out of the ordinary which would have had to have come from a COPO. I'm sure the seller has the documentation to determine why the COPO was needed.
:)


[Modified by Easy Mike, 2:40 PM 5/13/2002]

SBR

I knew that I saw this car before and now I remember. I saw it at the BG show in 98. It was in the auction and sold for 50K at the time. The COPO was used for the power windows, leather, and tilt wheel. I am not sure if the car has any docs but I find it amusing that he lists it as a #s matching car when he has the wrong suffix code LO which is open chamber head when his car was originally an IT suffix ie. closed chamber heads. I say this because his car is vin# 4000 and the open chamber heads were not released until about vin#22000.

Juliet

Dang. Sounds downright Fugly. You wouldn't happen to remember the VIN would ya? :D

Chuck Gongloff

Don't remember the VIN. Car was owned by the original woman owner, who worked at the Pentagon in Washington. One of our chapter members, who has since retired and left the area worked with her....helped her do brakes, etc. She bought the car new at a "local" DC dealer....it was a "leftover", when the new model year came out. She bought it for a "song". I wonder why? Chuck

396 RAT

"Marlboro Maroon coupe with a Green Interior...."

Thats sounds as F_ _ _ ed up as a Football Bat. :confused:

As far as e-bay goes, I would think for every happy seller,
there is a discruntled buyer.

joe58

The meaning of a COPO car has been hacked up by the car magazines over the years but it really is very significant in that it was used to build factory race cars. The "COPO" was an ordering process used by Chevy's Fleet and Special Order Department. If there was a request for a special vehicle such as a taxi or phone company truck, it would be processed through this Fleet and Special Order Department. A special color paint job or special Hi Performance car could also be purchased using the COPO process. Some racing organizations required factory built cars for certain classes. NHRA required a 50 car minimum for Super Stock. SCCA required 100 factory built cars for some classes. The first use of the COPO process for a racing car that I know of was when Don Yenko ordered specially equipped 1966 Corvairs to compete in SCCA two seater sports car class. Don special ordered the 1966 Corvairs, converted some to a two seat race car, called it the Yenko Stinger and listed the manufacturer as Yenko Sports Cars. He had to prove to the SCCA that a minimum of 100 cars were built and given an ID tag to make it legal to race. Don worked with Chevy to special order the Corvairs for hi performance and light weight using the COPO system. Yenko actually had his own COPO number on Chevy documentation called the 9737 Yenko Sports Car Conversion. He later used it in 1968 to order 396 375 HP Camaros with 140mph speedometers, special suspension, and other parts. In 1969 Chevy needed drag cars to compete with the Super Stock Hemi Dart and 428 Mustang. The RPO only listed 396 cu in so Yenko ordered 427 425hp Camaros and 427 425hp Chevelles using the COPO numbers 9561(Camaro) and 9562 (Chevelle) in addition to his 9737. In 1970 Yenko built the Yenko Deuce COPO 9010 which is a light weight LT1 Nova with other Hi PO parts. Another Chevy dealer/drag racer, Fred Gibb worked with Chevy to order TH400 L78 Novas in 1968 built to qualify for a NHRA auto trans class. (NHRA rules required 50 factory built cars and the TH400 was not RPO available with the L78.) Fred Gibb used it again in 1969 to qualify the ZL1 Camaro for NHRA Super Stock class. NHRA required a minimum of 50 cars to be sold to the public for it to be legal to race. Sixty-nine 1969 ZL1 Camaros were built. Chevy was not supposed to be involved in racing but they used the COPO system, normally used for vehicles like phone co. trucks and taxi cabs, to build class legal race cars capable to win races and promote car sales. Don Yenko also ordered special Corvettes for racing in 66, 67, and 68 but I am not sure if they were done using the COPO system. Yenko even had a deal with Chevy to sell aluminum big blocks with the Yenko crest cast in them. Don Yenko was a major player in Chevy high performance and Corvette racing but much of what he did was not well documented.

JohnZ

When I was working at Willow Run in 1966, we got a COPO/Fleet Order for a utility company in Oklahoma (Southwest Oklahoma Gas & Electric, or something like that) and built a fleet of 25 white Chevy II/Nova station wagons with red interiors, the factory under-the-dash hang-on A/C, with the 327/350 L-79 engines, 4-speeds, and Hurst shifters - the Oklahoma customer rep brought the Hurst shifters and linkage parts into the plant and we installed them just like the production Muncie shifters. The CEO must have been a real gearhead! :D