68'Camaro COPO 9737: The history

[BAD LS1]

Here is a little history with pics on my Dad's 68 COPO/ Non-converted Yenko Camaro, as well as other, only know to exsist Rallye green non converted car.

My dad bought this corvette bronze example brand new, a plain jane 396/375HP SS camaro with the stand black interior. He bought the car from a suburb pittsburgh PA chevy dealer(Kenny Ross Chevy), it was a little diff from the rest of the SS's on the lot, it had a 140 speedo, multi-leaf rear springs and a 12 bolt with 4.10 gears where what set it apart from another yellow 396/375 horse car next to it. He had no idea it was a dealer traded car from Yenko. He traded in a 6 month olds 4-4-2 W30, black with a red stripe on this Camaro as he was not happy with its performance to say the least. He began to drag race the car almost immediatley, slowly modifying the stock 396 with douhg thorely long tube headers, M&H slicks, and GM dealer installed 5.13 gears anda aftermarket Sun tachometer. With tuning of carb and timing, and getting a clutch to stay in the car, it went 12.0@ 117 on this combo in A/stock competion. Soon he saved up money to buy a L88 427 short block from Yenko chevrolet's parts dept. Transfered over all the 396 parts, including the small chamberd heads, then went racing again! This combo proved to be good for a 11.410 @ 126.77 according to the Keystone drag strip, C/modified contestant time chart my dad still to this date!!!! its quite brittle but its sure enough says his name with the time next to it .

Here is a shot of it in the C/modified production, preparing for a launch at Keystone Dragway just outside of Pittsburg, That is the exhaust wired up under the car, as he ran open headers to race.

He sold the car in 1971 to his tuner and friend Bobby"wild man" williams, where the origional 396 short block sat in the corner, and the car got a black paint job and was driven on and off through the 70's-80's and then was sold in the late 90's to a guy who knew my dad back in the day, and called him and asked if he would like to buy it back. My dad aggreed to buy it back, had it restored by muscle car CPR,which a couple of my dads freinds who specialize in high end chevy supercar restorations.

Here are some pics of the Ed Cunneen documentation proving what the car is exactly and some shot of it fresh after the restoration. The car only has 4500 original miles on it!!! its stll got them same 5.13 gears too! Sure makes it a breeze to load on and off the trailer.








Up next Copo 9737 Rallye green, 1 of 1

[Prince Valiant]

neat car...gorgeous color too.

How I wish that you could order cars the way you used to be able too...right down to the littlest things. The COPO cars were that, just taken to an extreme.

[Crawlin]

i'd give both nuts, my Z, my soul, and a bag of cheetos for that car

[BAD LS1]

My dads friends who restored our car ran accross this Rallye green/white stripe car at a local car show in PA. They immediatley knew what it was, the current owner had all kinds od paperwork with it, including bill of sale, pro-tec-to plate, and build sheet. The owner had no idea what it was though...

But its the only Rallye green non-converted COPO in the batch of 6 total (5 were corvette bronze) that never were converted at the end of the 68 model year, as the 69's were due to show up any time. So the car was sold to a gentleman, directly from Yenko chevrolet, and had the stewart warner 970 tach installed when he bought it.

My dad recently got some of these pics from the brother of the original owner, the car used to be a real heavy hitter at Skyline,Keystone, and Quaker city drag strips in the late 60's. Supposedly with a 427 transplant this car was rumored to have been a mid 10 sec car on motor, but we dont have proof, but this is for sure the car is the pics though!! you wont regcognize it from the pics of it when we bought it, as the previous owner had attempted to restore it and paint it corvette flame red. The car was painted red in teh late 60's too as u can see in the pics.







Here is the car, 30 some years later when we bought it from the 3rd owner, with 16,000 miles:





Miraculously this car still remains with the orginal drivetrain, as the owner kept all the stock parts as well.

My dad's corvette bronze 68' is the summer 2005 issue of "muscle car review" under the "bronzed brawler" write up.

[BAD LS1]

Yeah the color is something else, its just about identical to GM's Sunset Orange metallic in person. This color actually was not popular at all in ts day, it was a 6 month only color on the camaro's too for that year.

My dad said when he bought it, he hated the color, but it was the best of the worst LOL

[Prince Valiant]

It kind of reminds me of the mopar "FK5" color (an orange, with a gold undercolor for a "deep burnt orange" color with a nearly imperceptible "gold flake" effect mixed in). It wasn't a popular color either...but today people drool over them when a car pulls up in that color. That was the color of my dad's 'cuda.

[jbiscuit]

awesome story and write up tommy....I might have to track down some info from my pops and some of his stories with his Oldsmobiles from the late 60's.

[STEALTHZR2]

BEAUTIFUL CAR!!

[BAD LS1]

Thanks! yeah the old man was a BIG olds nut in the mid 60's bought a brand new 65' 4-4-2 and raced that to low 14s and then bought the 68' W30 but had a bunch of mechanical issues with it, like head gaskets and such, it never went faster than mid 13's.

[DirtyMax]

Neat write up.

Are you guys going to turn that "green" one back to original as well?

[BAD LS1]

We actually sold the green one this past spring to a collector that my dad is close with in virginia, its scheduled to get restored by the same guys this winter that did the bronze car.

The car was very very rough in person, basically a bondo bucket... but all the parts, drivetrain, paperwork etc... were all there yet, so it was able to rake in a hefty price in as is condition.

[T-Bag]

Awesome story, awesome car.

[Poncho]

thats awesome. My dad told me back in the day those damn 427 cars were nuts. Said at the track, those were the ones that consistantly could spank his SS.

He told me he had on order for months a black '69 SS 396/375, but got so fed up w/ waiting (back then prolly giving him the run-around since he's hispanic) he settled on a lemans blue 396/325, auto SS. wild cam, balanced and blueprinted, 427 heads, etc. I still remember his old slip 13.5@109 w/ a 2.3 60' apparently traction was a no-go w/out expensive (i guess at the time) slicks. I still remember on the back of the spoiler it said "Hell's Reject". I believe later it said "Adios Motherfuc(k)er He was also the founder and president of the CCoM Camaro Club of Milwaukee back in the day.

I guess my pop still knows where his old '69 SS is, but it's been tubbed, and rear 1/4s cut, and has a 454 in it or some crap. he'd love to get her back and restore her to her old glory, but I doubt he'd EVER part w/ his Bel-Air.

[A B4C Z]

Bust it out lets take it to the grove friday or saturday. Ill drive! Bring some extra fuel we wont be able to make it on a tank.
Seen the car in person its awsome.

Kyle

[GrimreaperSS]

That is a sweet *** car! I saw it at the Greenfield Car show. Flat out amazing. I cant believe that wasnt a popular color either. Sorry if I got any drool spots on it at the show.

[BAD LS1]

That is a sweet *** car! I saw it at the Greenfield Car show. Flat out amazing. I cant believe that wasnt a popular color either. Sorry if I got any drool spots on it at the show.

It wasnt at any local carshows this past year. It was at the vettefest, my dad spotted a corvette bronze/black vinyl roof 68' SS396 350hp car at solid golds in spring, maybe thats the car?

[GrimreaperSS]

Sorry, Could have sworn it was the same car. Looks exactly the same from what I can remember. I think it was the Down town west allis car show (just for clarification). The one on greenfield. There was a show the same day on
Rawson, cant remember the name of the place, but was a nice array of cars there. Either way, Still a nice ride. Would love to own one like it, even if it
wasnt a COPO.

[JC70SS]

Seen the car in person....WOW! You could eat out of the engine bay. It is too clean. I wish I could have seen the rally green car, that is my favorite color on the 1st gens. I did see a few Berger LS1's done in rally green.

[SLONOMA]

None of the pictures do this car any justice. The paint is just nuts in real life, but so is the rest of the car.