I moved this so the 68 Gibb COPO Nova has a thread dedicated to all things related to these unique and rare 68 COPO Nova. I want to thank Ray Morrison for his research and dedication to these cars and sharing his information these cars and being a great caretaker and historian.
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Originally Posted by William
Since 1989 when Fred Gibb gave Bill Porterfield much of the original paperwork from his dealership, I have been pestering him about what would happen to the docs when he tipped over [he’s 10 years older than I]. Told him his daughter would probably heave it into a dumpster. Despite promises and assurances I heard over 34 years, nothing came of it.
Backing up a bit, late 2019 out of the blue I heard from an individual that had privately acquired a Gibb ZL-1. Related the story about the dealership paperwork and referred him to Porterfield for the paperwork on his ZL-1. They hit it off and voilą, he recently acquired all of it from Porterfield. He invited me to visit for unfettered access; free to copy anything I want.
So that’s where I was this week. 10 hours was just enough time to buzz through the literally hundreds of folders in a dozen cartons; everything from letters from John De Lorean to engineering drawings of the ZL-2 hood pad [too big to copy]. Still has about 25 original ZL-1 shipper’s copies and a few PDIs with the POP imprint. Some info on the ’69 ZL-1 show car; a folder with several original decals for it. Finally, have complete copies of the ZL-1 Engine Assembly Manual. There are two versions, one noted COPO 9567 [show car]. I flew with a carry-on only, limited in how much I could bring back.
Also, docs on the 50 ’68 COPO Novas, the first TH400/L78 cars Chevy built. No shippers on those, but a number of PDIs with POP imprint. For some reason, a number of docs concerning the later big bore Can-Am 430” block that most racers switched to for the better bore/stroke ratio.
The info did not include every ZL-1 Camaro or L78/auto Nova the dealership acquired.
This was just a beginning. A more thorough review is planned for a later date. The desire is to eventually reunite docs bearing a VIN with the vehicles they belong to. If you have a Gibb car w/o documentation, pm me here.
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I am the original owner of #37 of the Gibb COPO Nova's which originally was prepared by Dick Harrell. I had no idea my car was anything more than a Dick Harrell prepared 427-450 68 Nova with an experimental automatic? The article I read in the November 1968 issue was about the hot new 396-427 Nova available through authorized Chevrolet dealers. This article is the reason I came to ownership of one of these cars. This article did not disclose anything about Fred Gibb & his original purchase of the 50 copo's. Only in 1989, was I later to find out the rest of the history from Fred after I had a bug put into my ear that more background of this car might be worth checking? Should you Not have the engine code on the Gibb Novas or transmission codes, they are E3 that may be hard to find in any Chevrolet manual and the experimental 400 coded as CY. This special engine code I have wondered if that might have been arrived at because of the experimental 3 speed automatic? The E3 engine code brought up a lot of questions, but in talking with Fred before his passing, he told me all 50 COPO 9738 Nova's had that code. Ray