New Unregistered Undocumented Queen City COPO Surfaces
 

Pretty exciting day. My buddy knew of where a COPO was located. It was his childhood friend's dad who owned it. His dad, now deceased. and it was in this buddy's friend's hand for the last several years. This friend's family had owned the car since 85'. It was purported to be a Queen City car.
My buddy started showing me pictures last summer and said if it ever came up for sale, he was buying it. That opportunity came up a month ago and, today, we went and picked it up.
Up to this point, last summer, my buddy and his friend thought the car could be a COPO, but had no proof or ability to confirm the fact. Enter me, and I confirmed it was, indeed, a COPO with just looking at a few pictures. Here is where it gets interesting. Last summer having only being a few weeks since seeing the pictures, I was attending Greater Cincinnati's premier Hot Rodding event, known as the Pumpkin Run. There, 2 of my long time COPO owning buddies are at the show where we always meet up like a family reunion. This year, in addition to those two buddys, Jason Ball was in that group with his newly acquired QC COPO. Jason commented how my other friend's beautiful 10-10 QC COPO's trim tag order number was only 2 digits away from Jason's car's order number. There was one car in between those two orders, a missing link. Jason commented how cool it would be to find that missing car. I pulled out my phone and looked at this car's order number on it's tag. You guessed it? It was the car in between these two known , documented COPOs. I was pretty stoked at this fact, and proud of my own detective work (move over J.M. ha,ha!).
This COPO was campaigned for most of it's life as a Super Stocker. The past owner was good friends with Ron Terrell (Tin Soldier) and both worked at the Norwwod plant. This owner also street raced this car extensively and racked up over 27K miles in it's life. The owner copied every mod done to the Tin Soldier. The mods are serious and extensive. The hood flap and grommet for the hood wiring above the fuse block are still evident, but most other tell tale copo signs are long gone.

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Awesome find and great story. Looking forward to seeing more of it.

Jason's and another buddy's trim tag showing order numbers jason's photo borrowed from his thread: "Queen City COPO"

Very cool. Congrats to everyone involved. Love the connection with body numbers. The car would have fun at SCR 22. I look forward to hearing more.

Doug, I am thinking the plan, right now, is to bring it to SCR22. I will have a significant roll in getting this old gal up and running again. Wish me luck!

I will add, on a side note, in the deal was a complete 94’ LT1 Corvette engine build by John Lingenfelter. It was a national record holder and ran in a Firebird that is all I know and that it looks like a work of art.

How cool...congrats~!!:biggthumpup:

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Super news, big congrats!!!
How many existing Queen City L72 Camaros are known?:hmmm:
:beers:
~ Pete

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Wow Ohio was the Muscle Car hub!!!!

Ryan W31

Wow...yet another awesome find!

Please let the new owner know we would love to have him join us at MCACN. I'm sure a lot of people would love to see it.

Bashton

Really cool Bentley. It would be nice to have all three cars lined up at the Pumpkin Run this year!

Wow!!! Awesome Story and another Cool Queen City Camaro Surfaces!!
Can't wait to see more on this.

Congrats!

Cool! I was able to buy Tin Soldier back this past year. Does Mr. Ron know about his buddies car resurfacing? His son Jason Terrell owns and runs Tin Soldier Racecars a fabrication shop. Mr. Ron assists.

https://www.facebook.com/tinsoldierracecars/

It would be great to get these cars together sometime.

Tin Soldier TTag:

https://i.imgur.com/4WDdkND.jpg

/R

Hey Rich, you have been on my mind lately with your close ties to TS. This car we picked up was 3 miles from where Terrell lives, now. I recorded some of the conversation of owner history, but will listen to it again to get a previous owner’s name. It was a black fella. PO said when the car launched, it stood way up and that guy’s eyes would get big as saucers and he would have to feather it so it did not slam the ground. When he 1st got it, that is what he did, let it hit hard, and damaged the rh fender extension kissing the guard rail coming down hard. PO said it never would launch straight and was a handful to drive.

So are the VIN's consecutive as well?

VERY doubtful but not impossible.
:beers:
~ Pete


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No

Rich, Doubt Ron knows. We kept it pretty hush. You guys are the first unveiling.
And yes, it would be great to get the two cars together...and I am sure it can be arranged in the future.

Love hearing these stories! Nice detective work Bentley

Wow - way to go Bentley! Congrats to those involved. :youguysrock:

Way to go Bentley - great detective work! Looking forward to hearing more about it.

I know of another QC COPO that is still hanging out in the 2nd owner's garage where it's been since '70 or '71.

man, that must have been some parking lot!

/R

It would be great if these 3 consecutive body number cars and Tin Soldier could be together at the Super Car Reunion..there will be magazine coverage there. I know Jason has a family reunion that same weekend.

Queen City story
 

Back in the late 90’s I was at my cousins house in Batavia and his friend stopped by to visit. We started talking about the cars we owned back in the 70’s and this guy told a story about Queen City.
One Saturday morning in 1969 his girlfriend called and asked if he’d go to Queen City and help her pick out a new Camaro. Her dad was buying her a new car for graduation present. As they talked to the salesman he spotted these 8 or 10 stripped down plain Camaros with bubble hoods. He asked the salesman about those cars and he said you don’t need one of those they are factory built race cars with the big motors in them. He said they were different colors and a few had automatic transmissions. All of them had painted wheels and little round hub caps.
His girlfriend bought a 350 car and drove it for many years around Clermont County.
Ohio has always been a hotbed for muscle cars and I’m sure there’s still Copo cars sitting in garages untouched for many years.
Best regards,
Richard

I'm always willing to be a "foster parent" since mine is in a million pcs.:grin:

Seeing that ad from QC Chevrolet and the discovery of 3 with consecutive order/ trim tag no.'s makes me wonder. Is it possible QC ordered a batch of 10 COPO's, and that there are 10 out there that are numbered consecutively, 3 of which have now been discovered?

There are still a couple I'm aware of in the Cinci area, one yellow Yenko too in Brown County. I lived next to Mike from about 1977 to late 90's who owns the 10-10 COPO mentioned here. Rode in the car a few times, and watched it weekly when Mike used to drive it frequently and hang gears up the street. With 5.13's in it, it was a terror. We used to hang at the cruises together as well as the Pumpkin Run. Some very funny stories with that car. Mike even let me borrow the original cowl air cleaner from his car to run on my chevelle for years, he liked the dual snorkel on his better. One of the nicest guys you'd ever want to meet.

Neat stuff Larry! :biggthumpup:

Awesome find! Great story! Neat car for sure.

Great story gents. This is as good as it gets!!

Congrats.

Phil

A small world and a shout out. I know X33RS, (Larry) as well. We had a mutual friend that introduced us to each other back when Larry lived in Ohio. Our friend, George, and his brother Andy, and Larry, himself, are gifted skilled car guys with gobs of talent.

Thanks for the kind words. Boy I sure miss both George and Andy. I hope to be able to see those guys when I make my next trip out.

Is George still trying to buy Mike's car?? :) I think he's been trying for about 20 years now. He's persistent.

mr terrell would have a lot of information of what was left on queen city lot with that late july build tag on the tin soldier. My guess he would have to order that car.

Yesterday, I helped my buddy get his COPO running. It needs a few things repaired, like a leaky fuel line and ignition switch wiring not working correctly. Regardless, I had the car running and it is wicked. A few cool modifications are shaft mounted rockers, crank triggered ignition using MSD 7al-2 & jesel belt drive (not a stupid gear drive), and a Hamburger oil pan.

'

Great update and keep 'em coming also more pics please!
The hood's not the original is it also when was the car last @ the track?
Hard to beat that rear view w/ no D80!:headbang:
So where are we at w/ a total of known existing Queen City 9561 L72 Copos?:hmmm:
:beers:
~ Pete

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