1962 COPO Impala 409? First COPO?

[300deluxeL79]

20 aluminum nose '62 impalas were built in july '62, A.R. Smith received 2 of them, one becoming OR III
OR 1 '61 biscayne was a single 4bbl 360 horse 409, later converted to 2-4bbls for O/SS

[Verne_Frantz]

I don't believe any official records have ever surfaced that confirm the 20 Impalas, but that number has floated around the hobby for many years, along with various numbers of loose sets of front end aluminum.
From the history I know of, I'd tend to believe it was less than 20. As far as them being early COPOs, I doubt it. Typically, any cars from that era that went through the F&SO department had the COPO or F&SO number on the trim tags. Those Impalas don't have that.
This is the first time I've seen this old thread so I'll add a few more things. Every one that has been accounted for was a Super Sport. None of them were built with any Z-11 equipment, but with standard 2x4 409s updated to '63 specs. That included cam, valve springs, exhaust push rods, exhaust manifolds and the single point vacuum advance Service Package distributor.

Verne [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/flag.gif[/img]