1962 COPO Impala 409? First COPO?

[REDZ]

Concerning the '62 Z-11 package, I don't know if it was a COPO program or not, but I think it is fairly well accepted now that Chevy did put aluminum front ends on 10 to 20 Impalas at the end of the '62 model year. I was told that these were all hardtop plain Impalas, no bubbletops, no Biscaynes and no super sports. One of these cars is in the Indianapolis area. It was orginally raced out of that area under the Zintmaster Chevrolet dealership sponsorship. Supposedly, the window sticker is still in the car.

My understanding is that the '62 Z-11 package consisted of only the aluminum front ends, with the trick heads and intake not being installed until the 1963 model year. According to Rusty Symnes, who has written a booklet about these cars and seems to know more about them than anyone else, the Tonowanda engine plant has records of 50 of the Z-11 engines being built for the '63 model year. If this is true, then the accepted number of 57 cars is about 12 to 17 too many....probably about 40-45 built with 5 to 10 spare engines. Normally, they produced about 10% spares which would indicate 45 cars.... but not much was normal when you consider that they were making these wild cars at all.

[Edited by REDZ (07-06-2001 at 07:49 PM).]