Originally Posted by Sparkz28ss

Anyone.........

Originally Posted by jg95z28

Yes it was. It was RPO Z28.

That is exactly what I am saying.

You're clouding the facts. "COPOs" started life as Camaro SS trimmed cars who had motors and other components swapped out through the COPO process. "COPO" is a document/order that creates these unique vehicles. In its original inception and intent, it was done to order special cars to be used for special purposes.

Originally Posted by 5thgen69camaro

Thats the first time Ive heard anyone suggest the original 1969 Factory built COPO cars had an SS 396 yanked out of them.

Originally Posted by jg95z28

I didn't mean physically swapped out. What I meant was they started with an SS 396 as the "base" vehicle on paper and then through the COPO order "swapped" out the components before the vehicle was actually assembled.

Originally Posted by http://www.camaros.org/copo.shtml#rpozl1

Assembly line workers wrote "427" in crayon on the inside of the fender extensions so the fenders would not be pierced for emblems as all other 8 cylinder Camaros were. All ZL-1 cars were equipped with AIR pumps and Gibbs' cars were produced with standard N10 dual exhaust.

Originally Posted by jg95z28

However, some of the early Dana, Yenko, Motion etc 427 Camaros (1967) did in fact start out as SS 396s that had their motors yanked and replaced with 427s by the performance dealerships/builders.

Originally Posted by http://www.camaros.org/numbers.shtml#CowlTag

1969 Norwood Camaro Fisher Code Interpretation

with Z21 Style Trim
(or Z22 Rally Sport)
-----------------------
X11* non-SS396, non-Z28,
includes SS350
X22 SS396
X33 Z28

without Z21 Style Trim
(or Z22 Rally Sport)
----------------------
X44* non-SS, non-Z28
X55 SS350
X66 SS396
X77 Z28

* COPO Camaros were an exception, as most COPOs
were built out of bodies coded with X11 or X44.
Some early Yenko COPOs had X66-coded bodies.

Originally Posted by jg95z28

Originally Posted by http://www.camaros.org/copo.shtml

The Origins (Camaro COPO ZL1)
In the early days of racing, select racers enjoyed, in varying degrees, a mutually beneficial relationship with Chevrolet. These racers include Smokey Yunick, Roger Penske, Jim Hall, and Fred Gibb, to name a few. Fred Gibb was an AHRA drag racer and owner of a Chevrolet dealership in La Harpe, Illinois. Due to his direct involvement in drag racing, Fred was no stranger to key people at Chevrolet, including the famous "Product Performance" department. But his closest ally was no less than Chevrolet General Manager (and GM Vice-President) Pete Estes, who could be considered the godfather (with Vince Piggins as father) of the Z/28.

The Camaro was Pete's baby and when it did not perform well in the 1967 Trans-American Series, the resources of Chevrolet's massive engineering department were tapped. Photographs exist of the Penske-Donohue Trans-Am Camaro undergoing testing at the GM proving grounds. Soon "Heavy Duty" (read "racing") driveline, suspension, and braking components appeared along with virtually unstreetable engine parts. Camaro went on to win the Trans Am series in 1968 and 1969.

In 1969, Pete's baby was under attack again, but on a different front. Drag racing sanctioning bodies had a simple rule: if at least fifty units of a particular engine/platform combination had been produced, such combination would be considered legal for stock-class racing.

Ford was building Mustangs with 428 Cobra Jet engines, Chrysler had commissioned an outside firm to build Hemi Darts and Barracudas, and even lowly AMC was having 401 engines placed into AMXs. Fred Gibb thought a Camaro with the new, aluminum block 427 engine slated for the Corvette (RPO ZL1) would be perfect. But Camaro could not participate, for GM had a corporate policy forbidding the production installation of an engine larger than 400 cubic inches in any non-Corvette passenger vehicle smaller than "full-size". A proposal to management for a production 427 Camaro would take significant time for approval, and even if accepted, would be politically unpopular within the higher levels of GM.

Time was wasting and Fred Gibb wanted to race the car at the AHRA opener in Phoenix, January, 1969. There was an easy way around the corporate bureaucracy: a special fleet order procedure (known internally as the Central Office Production Order) normally used for special equipment on commercial vehicles like trucks or police cars. (In fact, Fred Gibb had used this trick in 1968 to have fifty COPO L78 Novas built for drag racing with special automatic transmissions.) Fred and Pete decided on equipment that would become part of their new 1969 Camaro package: the aluminum ZL-1 engine, the new cold-air hood, heavy-duty cooling, transistor ignition, and a special rear axle. Additionally, the cars would require mandatory options of F70x14 RWL tires, power front disc brakes, and either a new Turbo 400 automatic or any of three Muncie 4-speed transmissions. Thus Central Office Production Order (COPO) 9560 was born. The cars were emissions-certified, carried both the 12/12 and 5/50 warranties, and were street-legal. Gibb received verbal assurance that the option price would be around $2000. During October 1968, fifty 1969 ZL-1 Camaros were ordered for delivery to Fred Gibb Chevrolet: four automatics and six M21 4-speeds each in the five colors of Dusk blue, Fathom green, Cortez silver, LeMans blue, and Hugger orange. No other options were specified, not even radios.

The AMA specifications filed for COPO 9560 listed horsepower at 430 and shipping weight at around 3300 pounds. Fred and Pete probably did not realize they had just created the most powerful passenger car Detroit ever built.

Originally Posted by Sparkz28ss

Does that say 327ci (5.3) with square port ls7 heads?