Why so many COPO's from Ohio area?

[69z28302]

Is it just me or are there alot of COPO cars come from the Ohio area. What's evryone's thoughts on this? Is because

1. The Norwood plant was their?
2. Regional Manager at the time spread info about these cars.

Lets here what you think

Thanks

[William]

I think it is an impression gained from what is known. There is a lot we do not know about COPO Camaros. If there were truly 900-1,000 built about half are unknown. MI was a big customer also between Berger, Emmert and Funston.

There were a lot of Chevy dealers in those days.

[69z28302]

Great answer William.

[m22mike]

That very subject has been booted around here before. We may never know who was the top state in COPO sales.
Ohio would be way up there for sure.
12 double COPO Camaros were ordered by Bob Schafer in 69 @ Ewing Chevy in Canton alone. I know most of the other dealers sold a few too. Also there were 3 ZL1's from this general area of NEO.
However Columbus, I think, was way out there in COPO sales. Lots down there.
Maybe someone can find the old threads, I looked with no luck. Will search again later.
Gotta go help Mamma now.....Gobble Gobble.... [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img]

Mike

[69z28302]

Thats what it seems to me also. I think alot were sold in the Columbus, South Central Ohio, Cincinatti,area. I think West Virgina area had a few also.
thanks

Happy Thanksgiving to All.

[olredalert]

-----While in college in 69 I used to pass right by Bob McDormans all the time. His lot (at the then new dealership) was always stuffed full of high-perf Chevys. Does anyone know if any COPOs were delivered there???......Bill S

[Salvatore]

One of the main reasons IMO was that NHRA DIV-3 is part of Ohio and that midwest area. Many stock and superstock drag racers lived out that way, and still do. A haven for fast cars. Most of those guys were buying short blocks over the counter and installing them to run A or B/Stock or even SS. I bet when the COPO came out with the 427's already installed the smart racers just gobbled them up like we do on Thanksgiving! Remember they were for drag racing, not the lawn ornaments they are today!

[Stefano]

There were thousands of Chevrolet Dealerships in 1968-1969. The COPO Camaro program/ 9560 and 9561 was not advertised or well known at many levels.

Those who were directly involved did use the system/spread the word.

Vince Piggens
Don Yenko
The Central Office/ Jim Mattison
Fred Gibb
Other racers and tunners
etc.......

Also, many of the GM employees working at the plants, involved with building these special Camaros learned about the process first hand.

Tonowanda built the engines and Norwood as well as Van Nuys installed the power plants into the vehicles.

The word about these special built cars spreaed about the plants and many of the GM friends and family walked into undiscript dealerships trying to place an order with their GM discount.

[John Brown]

It also helped that Michigan, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio were awash in money from all the manufacturing in the area in the 60's. I know from my travels around the country that farm areas bought mostly trucks, manufacturing areas bought mostly cars..... and fast cars at that. There were lots of drag strips in Michigan Indiana Illinois and Ohio so lots of hot cars were bought here to race, whether on the street or strip.

[69z28302]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: olredalert</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
-----While in college in 69 I used to pass right by Bob McDormans all the time. His lot (at the then new dealership) was always stuffed full of high-perf Chevys. Does anyone know if any COPOs were delivered there???......Bill S </div></div>


Here's a COPO Chevelle Bought New at McDormans

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNJhx...eature=related