COPO question .

[Stefano]

As far as COPO Corvettes go, there were as Corvette Guys call them "Big Brake" and "Big Tank" or "Tanker" Coupes made. A minimum production quantity of larger gas tanks was produced in order to meet homologation racing requirements.

I do not know off hand if this was listed as a standard RPO.

The Corvette Guys lurking in the shadows can chime in. We know your out there.

[Edited by Stefano (02-20-2002 at 11:38 PM).]

[JoeC]

Here is an old reply I made to a similar question;

The term "COPO Car" or "Coh Poe Car" as some people call it, has developed into a muscle car buzz word. Today it is normally used to describe a specially ordered limited edition high performance Chevrolet product such as the 1968 Nova SS 396/375 TH400, the 1969 ZL1 Camaro, the 1969 427/425 Camaro and Chevelle, or the 1970 LT1 Nova. The history is not exactly all clear but from what I can tell the origin of the COPO term is from the Chevrolet Central Office which was a Division of GM. A department in the Central Office was the Chevrolet Fleet & Special Order Department that processed the paper work for the sales and marketing of Chevy Special Vehicles. These special vehicles were not normally hi performance but may have been telephone trucks, taxi cabs, police cars, etc. Among these normally utilitarian vehicles were some hi po cars built to race. Chevy built special cars for racing as far back as 1957. The Chevy Central Office printed a book called "1957 Chevrolet Stock Car Competition Guide." This book told you how to order a 57 Chevy 150 Sedan with hi po cam, pistons, and even Corvette FI. All parts were RPO so the term COPO was not used but the book was published by Chevrolet Central Office. I have a copy of this book and it actually shows how to prepare a race car. I have read that Smokey Yunick had helped Chevy with this book. The next year I have in my notes was 1962 when Chevy wanted to run a competitive drag car. The hot ticket back then was to use aluminum parts to build light weight cars. Chevy built some aluminum front ends for the Impala/Belair sold as service parts and some people say that a few 1962 Impalas were built at the factory with alu nose and a special 409 with a 1963 Z11 type intake manifold on the 409. This may have been some type of COPO car (not sure). In 1963 the 427 Z11 was built using RPOs and 50 or more were made to qualify it for NHRA competition. The next car I have notes on is the special order Corvairs that Don Yenko bought to build his Yenko Stingers to race in SCCA where a minimum of 100 were required. In 1968 Yenko special ordered some COPO Camaros with 140 speedometers and other options but the facts on this car are not all clear. Then came the fifty 1968 COPO Nova 396/375 TH400 cars ordered by Fred Gibb and Dick Harrell. Then the 1969 427 ZL1 and L72 cars. In 1970 Yenko ordered a COPO LT1 Nova and there was a COPO number for a special big Camaro rear spoiler that became standard in 1971. There is some evidence that Yenko ordered a COPO Vega in 1971 but not many facts on this car. The hi po COPO cars as they are known today were ordered to "beat the system." Using the COPO process you were able to get a non SS big block 427 car or special trans and rear end or an alu motor or other parts not available using the normal order process.

[Mr70]

That 427 Kingswod Estate Wagon is featured in Jan.2000 Muscle Car Review.

[Rat_Pack]

Hugger1, I am right down the road from her about 10 miles away. Check your emails and look at the picture I sent you.............RatPack...........

[jon rand]

That 427 Kingswood Estate Wagon was for sale in car craft for $5,500 and listed as a COPO there was also a 71 BM Vega for $8,000 that ran 10.20s 1/4 mile. to bad this was a 1976 issue. If we only knew then what we know now.

[Tom Hendricks]

I've been around a lot of Corvettes and I can't say that I've ever really seen a COPO Corvette. However I have seen some strange combos of options and paints that may have come through the Central Office. I've learned never say never on Corvettes though. Just when you think you've seen it all.........................

[TimG]

Corvettes ordered with the L88 and ZL1 options were COPO cars. Big tank cars were not COPO cars, this was regualr production option NO3. Some special colors were COPO options, you may have had to push very hard to get this through. One example is a 1967 Corvette, silver exterior with red interior.
This combination was not considered available, a few were built on a COPO basis.