Al Wallace’s fascination with the legendary
1969
Chevrolet COPO 9560 ZL-1 Camaro led to the discovery of something even
rarer than the car itself – one of 17 crated 9560 engines that were jettisoned
after GM scrapped the project.
So, armed with actual GM specs and a head full of knowledge,
the Michigan native used the all-aluminum engine – one of only seven configured
for automatic transmission – to recreate an even-harder-to-find 1969 Chevrolet
COPO 9567 ZL-1
Camaro prototype.
“Most people don’t really know what to make of it,” he said.
“They know it’s a Camaro, but it isn’t like anything they’ve ever seen. Once
they hear the story, they’re even more intrigued.”
Wallace spent years researching COPO ZL-1 Camaros, reading
everything he could get his hands on, writing to anyone who might have
information and interviewing those with personal knowledge of the project. ZL-1
refers to the car’s all-aluminum 427-cubic-inch Big Block engine, and COPO was
an acronym for GM’s seldom-used Central Office Production Order process, which
would ultimately play a critical role in the production of one version of the
COPO Camaro, the 9560.
“Most Camaro fans have heard of the infamous, bare-bones
COPO 9560 ZL-1 Camaro, which was a true factory race car,” Wallace said. “But
few have heard of the 9567, which Chevrolet very nearly produced.”
According to Wallace, who was able to secure GM documents
that he said “never should have seen the light of day,” Chevrolet executives
intended for the 9567 – also known as the ZL-1 Special Camaro – to “completely
dominate the street.”
It all began when racer Fred Gibb, owner of Gibb Chevrolet,
and Vince Piggins, responsible for the
Camaro
Z/28, began to collaborate on the
ZL-1
Camaro “sometime in late
1967 and
early
1968.”
“Fred wanted to race a ZL-1 Camaro in the Super Stock class,
but according to NHRA/AHRA rules, in order to qualify the car the factory had
to produce a minimum of 50 and make them available to the public,” Wallace
said. “So, Fred and Vince came up with an idea to use the Central Office
Production Order process – which was normally used for special runs like fleet
vehicles and taxis – to build factory race cars.”
Wallace said Gibb and Piggins generally agreed upon every
aspect of the ZL-1 Camaro except its appearance. Gibb believed it should be a
bare-bones race car. Piggins thought it should be more appealing to the public,
with special striping and badging. “That’s where the story of the ZL-1 Camaro
became two stories – the bare-bones COPO 9560 ZL-1 Camaro and the COPO 9567
ZL-1 Special Camaro,” Wallace said.
COPO vehicles were built by following an Engineering
Exception Control List, a cookbook of sorts that told assembly workers what
vehicle to start with, and then, with approval from engineering, which
components to delete and add. Wallace said the COPO 9560 and 9567 Camaros
started out as
L78
(396/375 horsepower) SS cars with power front disc brakes and either a
four-speed (M21 or M22) or HD Turbo 400 (M40) three-speed automatic. In
addition to swapping the drivetrain for the all-aluminum Big Block 427 ZL-1
engine (not to be confused with Don Yenko’s 9561 Iron Block 427), some heavy
duty parts were added like a heat-treated 12-bolt rear-end. To allow the cars
to breathe easier, they were fitted with ZL2 Cowl Induction hoods, and to keep
them running cool, they were equipped with HD Harrison four-core radiators.
Gibbs’ 9560s followed those specs, but Piggins’ COPO 9567
ZL-1 Special Camaros were to be painted Tuxedo Black with Special Gold Striping
and given a street detuned version of the ZL-1 engine with an 11:1 compression
ratio, instead of 12:1 like the COPO 9560. Piggins and his design staff
hand-built two prototypes to show executives – one a four-speed, the other an
automatic. Wallace obtained a pricing sheet that suggests “GM was seriously
considering producing 100 of these cars,” but the 9567 would require additional
lead time for art work and badging, plus more engines needed to be built.
Meanwhile, Gibbs’ version moved forward. He ordered 50 cars
with the “factory installed” 9560 ZL-1 engine for his dealership. After the
first two cars were delivered, other dealers caught wind of the high-powered
Camaros and wanted in. So an additional 19 were produced – 69 in all. But they
didn’t sell.
“The problem was, the sticker price was astronomical,”
Wallace said. “Instead of spreading the (research and development) cost across
the entire fleet, GM passed it on to the car itself.”
Wallace said each 1969 COPO 9560 ZL-1 Camaro carried an MSP
of $7,269 – nearly triple the $2,726 base price for a V-8 Camaro. Cost of the
ZL-1 9560 engine alone was nearly $4,200.
“(Gibbs) knew that it would be difficult to sell the cars at
that price, so he had GM re-invoice 37 of his 50 cars to other dealerships and
had his name removed from the paperwork to avoid finance charges,” Wallace
said.
The public’s reaction to the 9560’s price tag likely killed
Piggins’ 9567, since the proposed price tag for the COPO 9567 ZL-1 Special
Camaro was an even-steeper $8,581.60 for the four-speed version and $8,676.60
for the three-speed automatic.
Wallace said he doesn’t know what happened to Piggins’ two
9567 prototypes, but he suspects that GM has them stashed away. Realizing he’d
never own one – maybe never even see one – Wallace began to dream about
building a replica. But he had to find an engine first; without one, nothing
else mattered. Wallace said a total of 90 aluminum ZL-1 engines were built in
1969; 69 were installed in COPO 9560 cars (47 manual, 22 automatic), two in the
COPO 9567 cars and two in 1969 Corvettes. That left 17 crate engines (12
manual, seven automatic).
“Finding an actual ZL-1 engine was tough,” he said. “I’d
been tracking parts for nine years before I came upon this one. I’d call on one
and they’d say, ‘Oh, yeah, we can get you one.’ And I’d say, ‘No, you either
have one or you don’t.’ I finally found one that belonged to a racing-eccentric
guy in Florida. He showed me documentation that looked legit, and I was able to
verify that it was a good engine.”
Wallace already owned a solid
1969
Camaro SS that he had purchased less than two years before he found
the ZL-1 engine, and he had the Engineering Exception Control List and a 1-to-1
document that allowed him to recreate the badging and stripes intended for the
9567. The recreation/restoration took less than two years, and the car made its
debut in 1996.
“I try to be modest about it, but I couldn’t be more proud
of it,” Wallace said. “I’ve taken it to a lot of cruises and shows. I had to make
some hard decisions when I was putting it together. I didn’t want to cut any
corners, but I made three exceptions: the drive shaft is made of aluminum
matrix, which is 10 times stronger than steel and about one-third of the
weight; I love tunes when I drive, so I have an AM-FM cassette radio in it (but
I kept the factory original AM radio); and I switched from B.F. Goodrich tires
to Kumho high-speed tires after I had a blowout.”
The 48-year-old Wallace, an IT project manager who formally
worked on advanced weapons systems for the U.S. Air Force, has owned a number
of classics. Right now he has two – the COPO and a
’69
Pontiac Grand Prix that he’s nearly finished restoring – and he
doesn’t plan to part with either muscle car.
“I’m looking for a 2½-car cemetery plot,” he said. “I’m
going to take them with me when I go.”
source: http://www.hagerty.com/articles-videos/articles/2013/07/10/COPO-Camaro
by Jeff Peek
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