COPO Camaros are special for two main reasons: rarity and performance. Fred Gibb, the owner of an Illinois Chevy dealer in the late 1960s and tuner extraordinaire, is credited with being the first person to discover the COPO loophole in 1968. He first used it to custom order 50 Chevy Novas with L78 396-cubic-inch V8s under the hood, an engine that was reserved specifically for full-size Chevrolet chassis. With the Nova batch a success, he moved on to the Camaro.
In 1969, the largest engine option available for the Camaro was the formidable L89 396 big-block that produced somewhere in the ballpark of 375 horsepower (although many enthusiasts believe that was a lowball figure). However, using the COPO system, Fred Gibb was able to order 50 1969 Camaros powered by ZL1 427 cubic-inch V8s, a legendary engine that was born out of Chevrolet’s NASCAR program. While the ZL1 was factory-rated at 430 horsepower, later dyno testing proved that they were actually producing closer to 550 horsepower, making the 1969 ZL1 COPO the fastest Camaro up to that point.
Word quickly got out that Frankenstein Camaros were making their way out of Midwest dealers by use of the COPO system, and a number of other dealers wanted a taste. Between Gibb and other dealers that caught wind of the program, including Berger, Nickey, and Yenko, only 69 1969 ZL1 COPO Camaros were ever built. While ZL1 COPO Camaros are unquestionably the crème of the crop, dealers also experimented with other COPO combinations, including cars equipped with the iron-block L72 427 V8 and some equipped with the Sports Car Conversion Package. With all combinations included, only 1,015 1969 COPO Camaros rolled off the assembly line before Chevrolet shut down the program the following year.
