Paul, I understand that Kurt has a lot of knowledge about 1st Gen Camaros, but he apparently didn't read the info that I posted on here and accused me of "hyperbole", which is another way to say "exaggerating", which is another way of saying "lying". To refute Kurt I will post magazine articles on here that are contemporaneous to the time the COPO 9C1 Novas were produced, as well as excerpts from an excellent book, "Chevrolet Police Cars" that was written by Cpl. Ed Sanow of the Missouri Highway Patrol...his main source of information for the Nova, Malibu, and 1977-89 Impala and Caprice police cars was Harry Hammond, who was the chief engineer the 9C1 and B4C police car programs from 1974-2001. I believe Harry probably knows more about the 9C1 Nova than Kurt S.
My main problem with you Kurt is that you refused to acknowledge the GM document that I posted on here from Jan. 1973 that was sent by Harry Hammond to Rick Mahoney at Chevy's LA Zone Office discussing how to get the 1st Nova police car to handle better for the LASD tests that were scheduled for May 1973. In that letter Harry said that Jim Ingle (who started at the GM Tech Center in Warren, MI as an assistant to Vince Piggins, the father of the Z28) recommended that Rick have 14x6 inch wheels from a Chevelle station wagon installed on the car with E70-14 bias-ply tires to help the car handle better. Jim also suggested installing eye bushings on the rear springs from a Z28 to control the cars tendency to axle-hop during hard accelerating and braking. That letter was also sent to 4 other engineers besides Jim Ingle, and one of them was Dave McClellan who went on to run the Corvette program from 1975 until his retirement in 1999. My posting of that letter was in answer to your statement that 14x7 inch wheels on my car were not special, and had been installed "on thousands of GM cars during the '70s". That letter proved that until Jan. 1973, GM had not yet installed 14x7 inch wheels on Nova 4-doors (they were available on Nova SSs as an option), and Harry told me that they were installed on the '74 Nova police car prototype to cure its tendency to tip during hard steering transitions at the GM Proving Ground's Black Lake skid pad in Milford, MI. Harry and Jim had been given a list of the tests which were to be performed by the LASD (tests which were primarily developed with the input of John Christy, a Motor Trend magazine editor and reserve deputy with the LASD). One of those tests was 3 back-to-back high speed lane changes, and the testing criteria involved the use of a Hewlett-Packard accelerometer to measure the G-forces. Harry and Jim had the same test equipment and spent approximately 2 months at Black Lake dialing in the Nova prototype, which Harry said was somewhat "top-heavy" due to its higher center of gravity than the Camaro, thus causing it to be prone to tipping without the 14x7 inch wheels.
If you had simply acknowledged the letter and said, "Hey Alex, I stand corrected", or "Thanks for the information" I wouldn't have gotten angry with you. I am not on here to make enemies, but rather to spread the word on COPO 9C1 Novas and learn as much as I can about the interesting things on my car from guys with far more Chevy expertise than I have.
But I didn't get anything from you like that. One of the greatest personality traits that I think a man can possess is the ability to say "I was wrong" and "thank you". You may have such a big ego that you can't do that.
With your great knowledge of 1st Gen Camaros, I am surprised that you didn't know the the COPO 9C1 Nova was known as "the 4-door Z28". Harry told me that many Z28 parts were used on the '74 prototype and the ensuing '75-78 9C1s because they were the best parts that were available at GM. I don't think GM would have authorized Harry and Jim to design a bunch of custom parts for the prototype because that body style was only 5 or 6 months from termination when GM management gave them the go-ahead to build the prototype. So it only makes sense that the best springs, shocks, steering box, and suspension bushings would come out of the Z28 parts bin. Plus, Harry also told John Christy, Dave Wallace from Hot Rod magazine, Rick Mahoney, his bosses, and the LA Sheriffs Dept. officials the same thing during the 1974-78 time frame. John Christy and Dave Wallace then went on to write magazine articles (a couple are posted on here) to let everyone in the United States know that the COPO 9C1 Nova was "the 4-door Z28". So you telling me that it is nothing more than "a 4-door Nova SS" is not only flat-out wrong, but also denigrates and insults not only my ultra-rare 1974 COPO BRASS HAT Nova police car demonstrator, but also denigrates ALL 1975-78 COPO 9C1 Nova police cars (and their owners).
I believe you owe me an apology, because you could have defused this escalating war-of-words. I am a new guy on here and you appeared to do all you could to frustrate me rather than welcome me. Are you deliberately trying to drive new people away from this excellent website?...because that is how it appears to me. The mission statement of Yenko.net is "Dedicated to the Promotion and Preservation of American Muscle Cars, Dealer built Supercars, and COPO Cars" (my car is a COPO car). I don't believe you actually read and absorbed the information I had posted on here, but rather decided to shoot down the new guy with the ugly Nova. I don't believe you were attempting to gather information because you would have thanked me for posting the GM document (from the Tech Center) due to it providing you with the answer to your 2 statements about my car...1. that its 14x7 inch wheels were nothing special, and 2. that my Nova did not contain Z28 parts (your 3rd statement against the car was that it wasn't a "4-door Z28", but rather a "4-door Nova SS"). I suggest that you stick to commenting on 1st Gen Camaros and never again discuss COPO Nova 9C1 police cars on here.
Now to Paul and all the other members, I would like to officially introduce myself and explain how I came to know so much about 9C1 Novas. I bought a 1977 9C1 Nova in 2015 for $400 after discovering it on Craigslist Phoenix. At that time there was very little information about these cars on the Internet, and no one knew how many were left of the approximately 15,000 that GM built (17 in 1974 and the rest from '75-78). I started a Nova 9C1 Registry that uncovered 22 cars. The only way for a car to get accepted into the Registry was for it to have 9C1-only equipment...a 120 mph speedometer, and the beefy 10-bolt rear with full-size Chevy brakes (no other GM cars had those items). Since most 9C1 Novas led brutally hard lives in law enforcement, very few survived with paperwork verifying their 9C1 identities. My research led me to Harry Hammond, and he politely answered my large number of questions about "his" cars (and also gave me a cache of GM documents and photos from the 9C1 Nova project, as well as 6 books which had been given to him by various authors for his help with their books). I consider myself to be an expert on COPO 9C1 Novas.
Are they actually COPOs? I'm surprised that Kurt hasn't figured that out. To help him out I have already posted the build sheet from my '74 which says "COPO OPTIONS", and shows that it was built with "EM" coded wheels (they were COPO items...not available on the 4-door Nova then, even with the F41 suspension), a "DY" coded dual snorkel air cleaner from a Z28...not available on other '74 Novas...a COPO item (mine was actually built with a "DW" coded air cleaner because the engine has a points distributor instead of an HEI...I do not know of a single other '74 Nova that has a Z28 dual snorkel air cleaner from the factory), and a Z28 steering box. I don't know if it has other Z28 items, because I am unfamiliar with the codes (which is a large reason why I joined here), but I am assuming it does because Harry said so (he used to have lists of all of the running changes that were made for the 3rd and 4th Gen COPO Novas, but he hasn't been able to locate them). I am also posting the build sheet (photo #1) from my '77 Nova which says "9C1 POLICE OPTION" near the lower left...it's obscured by tar, but readable under a high intensity light...the build sheet also lists the 9C1-only 120 mph speedometer and the F70-14 fabric-belted radials. All 9C1s were ordered under the COPO ordering process, but non-police officials could buy them through savvy salesmen. Attached is a photo (#2) of a 1977 Nova subframe that is stenciled "COPO 9C1". Further, Dave Wallace's Hot Rod magazine article, which I have posted, specifically mentions that the COPO ordering process is required in order for civilians to order a 9C1-equipped Nova.
Also attached are photos (3 and 4) of the cover and inner cover of the copy of the book "Chevrolet Police Cars" which Ed Sanow gave to Harry (and then Harry gave to me in June 2018 when he saw my car and autographed the inside of its trunk lid...I am deeply honored). On p.83, Ed writes "The chassis was a mixture of of standard and optional Nova SS and Camaro Z28 parts. The rear brakes were from the full-size Bel Air, and the power steering was from the Z28 which gave it more road feel and response. The COPO 9C1 Nova, jointly developed by Chevrolet, the Los Angeles Sheriffs Department and Motor Trend magazine, is the most important police car Chevrolet ever made". Also posted (5) is a page from the Aug. 1974 issue of Motor Trend that discuss the 1974 LASD police car tests which were held from Apr. 29-May 1 at the LA Co. Fairgrounds in Pomona. The '74 Nova police car prototype went 0-60 in 10.0 seconds, pulled .90 Gs on a 200' skidpad, and generated 1.0 Gs of braking force during repeated panic stops. The LASD immediately ordered 11 of them for further evaluation, and Rick Mahoney ordered a gold car to use as a police car demonstrator (my car). The 1974 AMC Matador equipped with a 401 4-barrel went 0-60 in 8.5 seconds, and the Dodge Coronet with a 400 4-barrel went 0-60 in 9.5 seconds...neither of those cars got better than 13 mpg. John Christy wrote in Motor Trend that the Nova police car prototype "is more like a 4-door Z28 or a Corvette in disguise. Chevrolet's compact version of a police car is a solid rebuttal to the notion that Detroit can't build a small police car. The chassis is a mixture of Nova and Z28 Camaro bits. So impressive is it that 11 have been ordered by the LASD for further evaluation." The Nova achieved an extremely impressive 16.15 mpg in the 72 mile urban test-loop that was developed by John Christy.
Immediately following the successful introduction of the '74 Nova police car, Harry and Jim set to work on developing the 4th Gen Nova into a police car. By May of '74, they had access to a pre-production '75 Nova 4-door sedan and they began to go through a shorter process to prepare the 9C1 package that it would require. The 1975 LASD police car test results for the new Nova were: 0-60 mph in 9.0 seconds, skid pad .82Gs, braking 1.1 Gs, and 15.6 mpg...the 4th Gen was a better police car than the '74 version. The Plymouth Fury (the new name for the Satellite...same car) with a 400 4-barrel had these results: 0-60 in 8.5 seconds, skid pad .71 Gs, braking .92 Gs, and 11.8 mpg. The AMC Matador equipped with a 401 4-barrel had these numbers: 0-60 in 8.5 seconds, skid pad .75 Gs, braking .98 Gs, and 13.4 mpg. Ed Sanow wrote that "The 1975 police Nova was a police car package in the truest sense. The built-up Nova was loaded with fluid coolers, fitted with the heaviest-duty Nova SS and Z28 suspension components, and the brakes from the full-size Bel Air. The LASD recommended that one third of its enormous fleet of police cars be made up of the Nova, which was a stunning victory for Chevrolet." The last photo is the 1975 Nova police car prototype that Harry and Jim built. It is shown at the GM Proving Ground during a promotional photo shoot. Mote its Michigan manufacturer license plate (denoted by the "M"). This photo is in Ed Sanow's book, and Harry gave me the original photo which he loaned to Ed for use in the book.
I am also attaching an article from the March '78 issue of Hot Rod magazine. The article was written by Dave Wallace, a well-known writer for Hot Rod, Motor Trend, and Car Craft magazines during the '70s and '80s. The article is titled "Secret Weapon 9C1", and the sub-heading says, "They don't call it the 4-door Z28 for nothing".
I believe at this point that I have refuted all of Kurt's negative remarks: 1. Its 14x7 inch wheels are nothing special (they are), 2. That it doesn't have Z28 parts (it does), and 3. That it is nothing more than a "4-door Nova SS" (it's actually much closer to a 4-door Z28). Kurt can post his apology (or say "I stand corrected" if he can't do the apology), and all is forgiven. Otherwise, I do not want to ever hear from him on this forum because I will not value his questions or answer them.
Further, I believe that not only should the existing guys on here treat each other with respect and not blow up each other's cars, but that the new guys should be treated equally (maybe even a little nicer than the rest till the novelty of their newness wears off
. I think the moderators on here should discuss this with Kurt and let him know he was in the wrong and to tone his ego down a notch or two and to actually research the cars he's not an expert on (or don't comment on them altogether).
Kindest regards to all on here (including Kurt), Alex