Proudly offered here on BarnFinds Classifieds, this 1969 Chevrolet Camaro comes to market with a mere 828 original miles on the odometer! “Everything works,” according to the listing, and the high-powered pony car starts, runs and drives “beautifully,” in the seller’s words. If you think a “COPO Camaro” might be a Chevy ordered by Barry Manilow, punch yourself in the jaw and take a digital walk to GMPartsCenter to learn more about the Central Office Purchase Order program. COPO spawned some of the hottest classic muscle cars to ever leave black stripes on the street departing a dealer’s lot. This car, for example, left Hayes Chevrolet-Buick in New Milford, Connecticut with an engine never offered through normal sales channels, the fire-breathing 427 cid (7.0L) V8. While the original 427 and some other drivetrain parts are gone, mostly date-correct replacements have been fitted, and the Camaro is priced accordingly at $155,000.
After the demise of the original 427, a wild dual-quad 427, then a 396 powered the Camaro until its COPO history came to light, prompting a full-on refurbishment nearer to original. This date-correct replacement came to rest as you see it here, closely duplicating the fearsome original powerplant. Based on a run-down of various 427 engines here at MuscleCarClub, 1969’s suite of 427s would have made at least 390 HP and a foundation-shifting 460 lb-ft of torque.
Though delivered with no stripes or rear spoiler, a prior owner took the liberty of installing these era-correct accouterments. Despite looking like a high-dollar rebuild, all-original metal from the firewall back (according to the listing) makes this one highly original body.
Delivered with no console, the double-blue Chevy acquired a factory-style console later in life, and it looks great. As you might suspect by the minimal options, most COPO cars went straight to the drag strip, and this one is no exception. Power brakes mark the only upgrade not designed to fling the car forward. New carpeting compliments the original dashboard. You’re looking at the original blue interior and steering wheel too; those parts were stashed away while the more racing-centric seats and steering wheel took over, leaving the factory parts available for re-installation. Wow!
Break out your velvet jack pads, folks; the claimed-original body pan and frame rails glisten, lacking undercoating as in most drag cars. Nobody flying from point A to point B needs 100+ pounds of sound deadening slowing them down. If there’s 100 lb to be gained, let it come the old fashioned way: from beer and bacon cheeseburgers. Speaking of burgers, Chevy fans will drop their sandwich and turn toward this COPO car as soon as they hear that Mark IV big block, leaving a lineup of lesser ’69 Camaros to the tumbleweeds. Are you drooling at the sight of this turn-key COPO Camaro? Life is short; why not make it yours?
Seems strange that this car has gone through at least three engines and two owners but only has 828 original miles. I call BS on that. To many changes and mods to be only a few miles.
It’s suspicious but plausible if it went straight from the dealer to the track, especially if the owner changed classes much. Remember bracket racing didn’t come along until the mid 70s.
More strange to me is the addition of non-original parts like the spoiler and console w/ gauges no less, on something as special as a COPO car.
Well, 3 engines. Maybe they kept blowing it up and never got a chance to put more miles on it. Who knows, but some body will buy it and so the story goes. Might as well let them have their fun.
828 miles, 1/4 mile at a time with foot on the floor. Seems legit to me. That’s 3300 passes on the track though a few of the miles I’m sure were done to paint the neighborhood with black rubber
1/4 mile at a time at wide open throttle in a four speed car will do that. A guy in my town has a dk green ZL-1, i believe it has around the same mileage but it has an all original driveline. Beautiful car as are the 69 RS/Z28’s, the Yenko 427 Nova, the Yenko Chevelle that he owns.
not if it spent its life on a drag strip…a buddy of mine has a 69 trans am that he bought 25 yrs ago with under 500 miles on it….it was tubbed , had a camaro 12 bolt with 5;14 gearset, roll cage, was painted flat black, no rear wing, a flat hood and a very tired 396. absolutely zero rust and a like new interior,,,,when we figured out it was a trans am we sent the numbers into PHS found out it was sold at a pontiac dealer in lynn, Mass. we tracked down the original owner who bought it new an it went basically straight to new england dragway…He blew the ram air lll motor eventually, put the 396 in it, sold off the original ram air hood and rear wing, sold to another drag racer, who the sold it to another drag racer who put it in the back of barn with a few other cars he had acquired…a friend of ours had seen the cars the last owner had acquired and asked if any of them were for sale, which he said possibly. he told me an my buddy about them and we went and checked them out, my buddy ended up buying the trans am for 2500 which at the time we assumed was just a regular 69 firebird as the owner never said anything about it being a real trans am…it looks brand new now as my buddy has a body shop and has put it back to new looking ( removed tubs right paint scheme, aftermarket hood and wing) it does have a 355 chevy in it though, but he keeps telling me he’s gonna find a correct 400 for it, which he’s been saying for years, we’re both in our sixtys so thats never gonna happen. Ironically he was in high school in 1969 in lynn, Mass and the original owner lived within a mile of his house….It sits in his shop here in Maine now and still has less than 5k on it….So you never know the full story until you do alittle research on your own….
A lot of back story here: https://www.yenko.net/forum/showthread.php?t=166372 . Also mentions the original back seat now resides in a different car (a ZL1)
IMO this car should be put back exactly the way it came from the factory (even though it has a replacement drivetrain) — lose the stripes, spoiler, console, rally wheels, etc., and turn it back into a correct factory-appearing COPO presentation.
And please, please put the grill bowtie in the right place! There are only 10 million pictures on the internet of correctly placed emblems to go by, so it is inexplicable for that to happen. And get rid of that FORD “caution fan” sticker!!!!!!
Agree w everything you said Jeff… saw that spoiler and was shocked.
Da vam nesto kazem svidja mi se Chevi Camaro Z28 1969s 350c u originalnom fabrickom stanju volim taj auto nemojte .i govoriti sta cekam sto ne kupim taj auto prvo ne zivim u Americi Chevi Camaro ne moze da se vozi u Srbiji jer neki putevi su zakrpljeni ja se zovem Aleksa moj Brat ja moj otac i moja majka smo voleli Americke filmove da gledamo subotom lako je vama imate ostavstinu zivite u Americi i vozite Americke aute ja Volim moga Brata Majku idrugare i volim Srbiju i vi mi recite kako da vozim Chevi Camaro Z28
Please translate! Looks like it might be an interesting comment!
That’s not a Ford “caution fan” decal, not even close. Lol
Says the coupe fastback expert LOL
The bowtie on the girl is riding too high. Seems odd that a Camaro this special would have so many inconsistent cosmetic issues.
I agree with the position that it should be restored to its original Copo factory instruments and cosmetic wear good bad and different or otherwise… Copo it is and it should remain….
I agree, too many mods. Why would you change a COPO. People knew what they had back then. I also throw the B S card down. No need to do your own research, they hung themselves with their own words. Not worth the price.
click on the barn finds classifieds and read the story……pretty much the same as my buddys trans am history
Most of the people who bought a COPO new bought it to race. Many had zero idea of the future value of the car when they bought it. There were some that knew, but again, many were bought to race.
Hood doesn’t seem to fit proper passenger front.
Certainly a gorgeous vehicle, nice blue color.
Would love to own tbh.
It says right on the write-up that the front clip is not the factory clip
With out original date coded motor and cosmetic changes If i was in it for the collector status. I would not pay that price….
My Yenko Nova did the same thing; it went from the dealership in Cannonsburg PA to Maple Grove Raceway in PA. It won National Dragster in 1979. Through the years it was modded, lightened, and went through a few engines.
Oops, I meant the Dutch Classic in 1979…
1969 models are the best looking Camaros ever built. 1967-68 look like bars of soap, and anything after 1970 is just plain wrong.
I like that car. In fact l have a 65 chevy ll nova ,all steel 29k original miles 12bolt . Little old lady car.
not a bad looker, and as a start to finish racer i’m not a bit surprised by the motor count. what really puzzles me is why the copos seem to be so over valued copo was basically an employee purchase program. yes some peeps made wild use of the option boxes, so some strange combos came out. but they really aren’t “SPECIAL” for being copo cars
Dunno. Limiting it to employees would reduce supply, increasing price in the market.
Seems to be a contradiction in your debate.
I think you expose your ignorance with that statement Eric. “Some peeps” as you put it, were not just checking random boxes on an order form. It was actually a program which wasn’t widely publicized to the general public. There really is nothing to debate in terms of what makes a Chevy COPO special or so valuable. As a matter of fact I’d suspect even with supportive facts you’d still may not get it. 😂
I would suggest that you research what the COPO program was, and where it got its start. Far from an “employee purchase program”…
Maybe the owner just didn’t know how to drive it and that’s why so many Motors
828 original miles ?
Likely only driven 1/4 mile at a time.
Only driven on Saturdays by a “Little old lady from Pasadena” .
Nice car, but not a Holy Grail by any definition.
3312 quarter mile passes…
Incorrect. It’s closer to 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 mile per pass. You forgot to factor in burn out, shuts down area, return road, to and from the pit spot and staging lanes. Then throw in distance to tech and warm up drive prior when the car comes off the trailer.
Steve R
I`m not going to type everything I read about the 69 CoPo Camaro, you can look up the articles and get a better feel for these cars. Reading the coments on here will be shown to have misinformation.
The car in question has alot of misinformation on it.. There’s alot that’s incorrect with the car, in addition to a questionable history… Show me 3312 quarter mile time slips and I’ll start to believe some of the story…
Wow! Seeing this 69 Camero brought back a lot of great memories from the very early 70s. My best friend searched the landscape looking for a 69 Z/28. We finally found one in Palace Verdes area. A very affluent South Bay California beach residential area. It was dark metallic green with a black vinyl top and interior. Under its cowl induction hood was Chevrolet 302 4 barrel attached to a 4 speed manual transmission on the floor. I think it had Muncie linkage. I was exactly what he wanted. Meanwhile, I had already had my dream car for about a year. It two was a 69, but it was a 69 Mustang Mach I. It had a 351 Windsor small block and a Ford modified Holly 4 barrel carburetor. The Mach was Fantastic. It had factory installed duel exhaust with 18 inch glass packs and Ford’s FMX automatic transmission. It had power front disc brakes, drums in back, air conditioning black vinyl interior, and a light metallic blue exterior, you know the on, it had a yellow reflective strip on each side and across the rear trunk. It was a very classy Mach I, and I loved it. As soon as we got the Z/28 home we started tearing it a part to trick it out, we couldn’t stop, it was always down in the garage, not running for one reason or10. That meant it couldn’t be driven, in fact it didn’t even run. So that meant when ever we wanted to go somewhere, and we always wanted to go somewhere it was my Mach I would be the car used. It was always the car that took us, and always took us back home. That’s what Ford’s do. Chevrolets, not so much. This went on for close to two years. After that he bought a73 Porch 914. It was cool car to have, but it was just a 2 seater. So, when we had our girls with us on date nights, you guessed it, we took my Mach I. We drove that Mustang every where. But I didn’t mind, I loved my Mach. It always made me proud, I had a Ford!
No longer a COPO to me. No where near original. Just a sweet cobbed up 69 camaro. It’ll never be original again. But restored to factory specs it might be worth the asking price but as is? About 1/2. And where does all the COPO misinformation come from? As noted it’s all readily available info.
Chuck, I was referring to some of the comments.
Thank you Jeff for posting that link. When you read through all the comments, one can see that the story presented in my write up (told to me by the current owner) is pretty much correct.
I agree that I’d bring her back to original COPO ques (along with moving the bowtie) however, many of the “mods” were done by the current owner before he know this was indeed a COPO car. All the current owner wanted was a big block 69 Camaro. He purchased the car with no engine and had a buddy who had a 396 ready to go. There are quite a few recent sales of non original engine COPOs selling in this price range, with fully authentic, numbers matching COPO’s selling up over $250,000.
I love this car just the way it is. The extra mods don’t make this any less of a COPO than it was new. I am one of those people who like the spoiler on back, the stripes, the wheels and the center console. Stunning car IMHO. Personally wouldn’t change a thing except the bow tie. I know, most would say to just buy a normal Camaro and build it like I want which is probably a good idea considering the price but this one’s already done and man is it nice
UPDATE on her:
Jerry MacNeish came up and did a full inspection and report.
If anyone had any doubts, she is now a Jerry MacNeish certified COPO Camaro.
These cars were built with one major purpose – to go drag racing.
This one did (it was originally driven to and from the track) and like most race cars, the engine was changed to go faster and in 69, these were special but not that special, just another race car. The steel front end was replaced with fiberglass to go faster, the original rear diff was twisted up, the original trans blown up. Sometimes, things just can’t be 100%.
Jerry loved this car and gave it some great comments.