COPO Identification

[JoeC]

Another interesting topic on the COPO cars is the production numbers. Some people use the number total of 1338 COPO Camaros and COPO Chevelles built (derived from the number of engines produced) to estimate the number of cars built. The engines were built on a forecast of car production and I believe it is too easy to over estimate car production using engine production since it can be up to 100% inaccurate. There were situations where engines were assembled and stamped with a code for a car that was never built. If you use engine production to estimate that particular cars production number you would be 100% off. Another example is the 1969 ZL1 Corvette where over 70 engines were built and 2 cars were sold to the public.
According to Chevy documentation there were 700 COPO cars œin process” on July 7, 1969 including ZL1Ãs, Yenkos, COPO Camaros and COPO Chevelles. It is not clear what Chevy means by œin process”. What would be the trim tag date on a car that was œin process” in July? I guess the trim tag would get an Aug. or later date. If you take the 700 COPOÃs and subtract the 69 ZL1Ãs, 198 Yenko Camaros, and 99 Yenko Chevelles you get 700-69-198-99=334 remaining COPO Camaros and Chevelles built as of July Œ69. If you take the engine numbers estimate and do the same math you get 1338-69-198-99=972. That would be 972 engines left after July Ã69. ThatÃs a big difference.
(I subtracted the ZL1Ãs even though they were not included in the 1338 engines total)
If Chevy said there were 700 COPO cars œin process” on July 7, 1969 then they would have to have built 638 more COPO Camaros and Chevelles between Aug. and Nov. (972“334=638) to match the COPO engine production. I know the 1969 Camaros ran late into Nov.Ã69 but I have not heard of many COPO cars with a trim tag date of Aug. or later so I find it difficult to believe they could have made 638 COPO cars after JulyÃ69. How many 1969 COPO or Yenko cars have been documented with a trim tag date of Aug. or later?