70 COPO

[70 copo]

[ QUOTE ]
Phil in your opinion and in todays world what % does the COPO option tack on to the price of a fully restored Z?

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First you have to want one and to many the '70 just does not look like a '70 without the standard short RPO Z28 spoiler.

But if you do want a real COPO 9697 and if the car has good history, documentation options and colors perhaps 50% bump in value.

I am going on what I was offered for mine compared to a simular optioned ( good resto-same color combo and a 4 speed) Standard Z-28' sale that was completed almost two years ago.

Phil

[70 copo]

[ QUOTE ]
And how many 70 Copo's have been found to date? vs, how many do we think were produced (500 or so?)?

Rich

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I think perhaps 250-500 someplace in there. Piggins told me in 1985 that they needed 1000 for SCCA, but had "cheated the hell out of them" with the big problem being fit problems on the line pertaining to vendor AO Smith.

Perhaps the better question is how many of the original cars have actually survived two seperate time periods the late 80's and today where the majority of restorations completed on a 70 Z-28 require the addition of a short spoiler reguardless of what the car came with stock.

As late as a couple of years ago information on the 9796 option was limited to hard core Camaro people only. Heck in the mid 90's I was getting hammered at Super Chevy by the judges for the "wrong spoilers" "not availible till '71". It has been an up hill climb to correct the record and inform folks on these cars. Things really broke wide open two years ago when I re-discovered the Mechanix Illustrated article actually showing a picture of one of these rare cars being road tested.

Phil

[70 copo]

[ QUOTE ]
I have one that is being restored. My car is an 06B build. It still has the original quarters and deck lid with the factory drilled holes. The quarter panel holes were done very crudely. Matter of fact the deck lid holes look pretty bad as well.
The quarters are being replaced but I am documenting everything.

Rick H.

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Rick,

Sounds right. The struggle to get the end caps to fit and line up required oversizing the holes.

Phil

[70 copo]

[ QUOTE ]
Please help me here. I've always had trouble understanding the signifigance of the COPO 9697 on 1970 Camaros. Isn't it the same spoiler that was used on all 1970 Pontiac Trans Ams and Formula Firebirds? If this is so, then Pontiac should get the credit for developing the superior spoiler and Chevrolet just robbed it from their parts bin. My own 1970 Z/28 by the way is a smaller spoiler (holes filled in)car built in the third week of May in Norwood.

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You are right! Pontiac General Manager Jim McDonald agreed to let Chevy (Jim Delorean) use the center section developed for the Firebird Trans-AM. This was a favor by McDonald, and many at Pontiac were not happy at all about this deal. Then Pontiac vendor AO Smith then started manufacturing the Camaro end caps in "rush mode" on Temporary tooling and the production problems experienced with end cap fit significantly delayed the overall project and greatly reduced the total production.

Phil

[Rick H]

Phil,
You should see a few of the holes in the quarters. You can stick your thumb through 'em.

Rick H.

[markjohnson]

This is an interesting subject as I just finished looking at the Camaro Registry and there are cars built before mine (05C build) with the tall COPO spoiler. I had always thought that Chevrolet had stopped production on the short spoilers and the remaining late '70 Z-28's got the tall spoilers and COPO designation. Apparently there was a mixture of the two spoilers as the cars came down the assembly line. Regular Z's got short spoilers and COPO Z's got the tall one. Interesting. I picked up my car recently advertised as a used and abused bracket racer in Oklahoma. It turned out to be a Shadow Grey, 4-speed radio delete Z-28 that has supposedly been a race car since new. Lots of neat features: magnesium Ramchargers dana 60, vintage four wheel race disc brakes, old fiberglass front clip and lots of swiss cheesing. An exciting find with a lost history that I'm trying to dig up.

[Xplantdad]

Hey Mark...sounds cool! Shoot some pics of it. BTW, I still see the AA/FX car around here every once in a while

[Rick H]

I believe that all 1970 Z/28's came standard with the one piece spoiler and after late April, early May of 1970 the three piece COPO spoiler became available but only as a special dealer order, not standard equipment. Phil??

Rick H.

[DarrenX33]

[ QUOTE ]
50% bump in value

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So like 20K or so for the spoiler option. Wow.

[CamarosRus]

FYI, My 07E Norwood Shadow Gray R/S Z has short spoiler....as shown in this 1978 picture