Posts Tagged: COPO
The fifth-generation Camaro returned for 2010 with five trims, a 426-horsepower SS, and a 550-horsepower LS7 concept car that eventually became a 69-unit COPO production run. It paced the Indy 500 three years running and became the dominant Chevrolet on NASCAR grids by 2013. Read on for the full breakdown of engines, trims, and racing pedigree behind the Camaro’s comeback.
Tim Allen’s 1968 Camaro isn’t a movie prop — it’s a 505-horsepower 427 COPO build from Bodie Stroud, constructed to be exactly the car Allen wanted as a teenager and couldn’t afford. Jay Leno gets behind the wheel to see if it lives up to the hype, and Allen’s face during the burnout says everything words couldn’t. This is car-guy comfort food.
Ask ten gearheads to define ‘muscle car’ and you’ll get ten different answers — and at least one argument about whether a Mustang counts. The real definition comes down to a specific formula Detroit stumbled into in the mid-1960s: a mid-size body paired with the biggest engine a manufacturer had to offer. From the Pontiac GTO’s accidental invention of the category to a modern restomod chasing genuine ZL1 power, read on to see what actually separates a muscle car from every other fast classic.
Chevrolet’s internal rules banned any engine over 400 cubic inches in a 1969 Camaro, so dealer Don Yenko found a loophole using fleet paperwork meant for taxi cabs. That workaround produced the COPO 9561 and the ultra-rare 9560 ZL-1, an all-aluminum engine so labor-intensive that only 69 were ever ordered. Read on to find out how a $4,000 engine option ended up quietly outperforming its own factory horsepower rating.
A Mustang, a Camaro, and a Challenger lined up together is not just a photo, it is the same argument muscle car fans have been having since the 1960s. Ford started the pony car category almost by accident in 1964, Chevy and Dodge spent decades answering back, and the rivalry between all three is still what pushes each brand to build better cars. Here is the short history behind a fight that has never actually been settled.