COPO Identification

[bkhpah]

Joe you are correct about the radio plus the AM/FM mast is different than the AM radio. Plus the original FM ariels have a larger ball on the end than the GM replacments that I see all the time. Correct tire size is E-70-15 Goodyear Wide Tread GT. I have been told that a few cars came with the Firestone Sports Car 200's but I cannot confirm that one..I also believe that the sticker you have is a very nice repo. Nothing wrong with that, just the wrong info printed on it. See you Sunday...
BKH

[bkhpah]

The air spoiler equippment is standard on a Yenko, so it would be an option and was factory installed but would not show up as an exta cost option since it was mandatory on a Yenko Camaro in 1969. It just does not appear on the tags till O6A. However the AM/FM radio on the list seems out of place. This was not a regular offered option on a Yenko. Are you sure it is not added? When I look at the car Sunday I will look for the FM clues.
BKH

[JoeC]

Another interesting topic on the COPO cars is the production numbers. Some people use the number total of 1338 COPO Camaros and COPO Chevelles built (derived from the number of engines produced) to estimate the number of cars built. The engines were built on a forecast of car production and I believe it is too easy to over estimate car production using engine production since it can be up to 100% inaccurate. There were situations where engines were assembled and stamped with a code for a car that was never built. If you use engine production to estimate that particular cars production number you would be 100% off. Another example is the 1969 ZL1 Corvette where over 70 engines were built and 2 cars were sold to the public.
According to Chevy documentation there were 700 COPO cars œin process” on July 7, 1969 including ZL1Ãs, Yenkos, COPO Camaros and COPO Chevelles. It is not clear what Chevy means by œin process”. What would be the trim tag date on a car that was œin process” in July? I guess the trim tag would get an Aug. or later date. If you take the 700 COPOÃs and subtract the 69 ZL1Ãs, 198 Yenko Camaros, and 99 Yenko Chevelles you get 700-69-198-99=334 remaining COPO Camaros and Chevelles built as of July Œ69. If you take the engine numbers estimate and do the same math you get 1338-69-198-99=972. That would be 972 engines left after July Ã69. ThatÃs a big difference.
(I subtracted the ZL1Ãs even though they were not included in the 1338 engines total)
If Chevy said there were 700 COPO cars œin process” on July 7, 1969 then they would have to have built 638 more COPO Camaros and Chevelles between Aug. and Nov. (972“334=638) to match the COPO engine production. I know the 1969 Camaros ran late into Nov.Ã69 but I have not heard of many COPO cars with a trim tag date of Aug. or later so I find it difficult to believe they could have made 638 COPO cars after JulyÃ69. How many 1969 COPO or Yenko cars have been documented with a trim tag date of Aug. or later?

[COPO]

Joe, great topic and you pose some interesting questions. My guess is Ed Cunneen would likely have the biggest database of 69 COPO trim tag info. I think you could likely arrive at a fairly close number of cars statistically, but much like the LS-6 convertibles, no one will ever know the exact number built.

[Chevy454]

Joe:

A good example on not using engine totals as production totals would be the LS-7 engines. LOTS of engines...but ZERO cars!

[Mis B]

None of the 40-50 Berger COPO cars fall into the August of later build date category. They had all already been delivered to the dealer by then.

[Kurt S]

We have about ~20+ COPO's in the CRG database that were built after July 7th. So they are out there.
But I agree with you, the 1338 is high. But how high?

FYI, CRG has been building a database of 67-69 Camaros for the past several years. We have well over 3000 cars so far. Individual car data is not distributed or published, only the results e.g. I recently crunched the paint production percentages and they are posted on the site. We als can help answer questions like above.

Any data sent our way ([email protected]) is appreciated and is helpful to all of us. I'd be esp. interested in any Yenko cowl tag data.

Thanks.

Kurt
CRG - www.camaros.org

[Edited by Kurt S (08-13-2000 at 12:40 AM).]

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

NWest Yenko:
I have a copy of your window sticker from your prior owner, and believe the am/fm line to be an error. I only know of one '69 Yenko camaro window sticker copy, and it is in Ed Cunneen's book. I use this example to reproduce the window stickers. I know of no '69 or '70 Yenkos that received an am/fm, and don't know where your window sticker came from. The spacing and wording does not match the other example, but that doesn't make it wrong. We have several '70 Yenko window stickers that have typos, wrong transmissions, ect. and have different type styles. Do you have any background info as to where your sticker came from?
Marlin

[Yenkofan]

Marlin:

I sent you a copy of my window sticker, although I can not guarantee that it is an original window sticker.
Didn't you get it?

Gary K

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

Gary:
Got your 'window sticker', did you get my package? I sent another one today, hope this gets me off the 'bad boy' list!

What you have with your car is not really a window sticker. It is a Car Invoice / Bill of Sale, and was not affixed to the window of the car as it sat on the lot. What we are referring to instead is actually a replacement window sticker. Yenko Chevrolet would remove the factory GM window sticker, and replace it with one of their own. These stickers had a large red and black Yenko crest at the top, then some car specific info, then some standard verbage regarding the COPO package ending with any additional options that were installed by GM or by Yenko Chev. These window stickers are generally only found on cars that were not sold out of Yenko, and seem to be more common on the '70 Yenkos than on the 67-69's.

Because the cars were ordered with just an AM radio, the only am-fm's or am-8 tracks would have been dealer installed. If there were any Yenko installed radios, they would most likely not be a GM unit. Yenko advertised the Lear Jet brand radios in his parts catalog, and probably would have installed one of them. I have been looking for a Lear Jet AM-8 track radio for about 4-5 years now and have found none. Anybody have one??

Marlin