Original 1969 COPO paperwork

[William]

That's how the ZL1 VINs became known-the sanctioning bodies required proof. When Bill Porterfield bought what was supposed to be a 'factory ZL1 Camaro' around 1980 there was no proof. He worked for Oldsmobile at the time and was connected enough to get in touch with Vince Piggins at Chevrolet. At first, all he could find were the VINs of the Gibb cars. Bill had #3, not a Gibb car and asked Piggins to check again. Fortunately, he did find the other 19 VINs and the rest is history. Super Chevy printed the ZL1 Camaro VINs, saving many of them from further abuse. The famous COPO letter references a VIN listing of all COPO cars available on request. Probably tossed when Piggins retired.

Huebner Chev had the last ZL1 Camaro built. They ran a newspaper ad for it stating "1 of 69 in the United States equipped with the ZL1 all aluminum 427 engine." Wonder where they got that info.

[JoeC]

here is one of the 1969 ads that I had found when doing research in the 1980s from Byrne Brothers Chevrolet to help prove the 427 cars did exist

They were not called COPO cars back then

They called them 427 Factory Camaros and Chevelles

I had talked with the parts manager from Byrne Brothers and other Chevy Dealership employees and they confirmed the the 427 cars and remembered them well

Some had great stories where they would take them out for "test rides" and race each other

[RayC]

Joe, Love the post. Nice to know our car's came from there.

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

If they only spell checked their ad's back then!!