COPOs, Nickeys, and Yenkos...Oh MY
 

Today was an interesting day at work. The Yenko club rented the dragstrip. Sorry but I forgot to take my camera. It was mostly Yenko cars. But there was some really cool copo, Nickey, Fred Gibbs Cheverolet and a few others. There was 1 Motion 'vette. There was a few 2010 Yenkos. VERY COOL!

http://www.detroithorsepower.com/for...0643;topicseen

And a couple of 2010 Nickey Camaros.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3498/...c27eaa8754.jpg

Ok what is a COPO Camaro?? I have seen a few 69 COPO Camaros on ebay.

http://www.cartersclassicmusclecars....aro/camaro.htm

They said they could run 11-12's from the factory.

Cool I didnt know that. Also correct me if I am wrong. I just want to make sure I am thinking the of what a Yenko is. Yenko is basically the same thing as a Shelby Stang right?

Central Office Production Order or Corporate Official Production Order

The Central Office Production Order (COPO) was a back door around Chevrolet's performance limits and or special order special equipped vehicles.

If I am not mistaken, the request for chevrolet to start making COPO's came from Don Yenco.

I think in the early to mid 60's he was actually building corvairs and then later on camaros with high horse power 427 BBC motors and also installing body and interior mods, Kinda of like limited edition aftermarket brands. Once he started building these car, the orders came piling in and he could not keep up with the orders, so he asked chevy to build them due to the large market demand.

Well chevy had certain criteria and hp restrictions they had to follow so.
GM gave it a try, found out that the cars were found to be quite reliable and the orders in high demand followed.

Coming up with the means to shirt the restrictions was the invention of the term COPO.

A orporate Official Production Order was a car ordered by a high ranking GM official that usually came with few accessories and the biggest HP engine and tranny upgrade they could cram in the car.

My boy just found out he has a COPO 98 C5 Vette

COPO didn't have to be a performance thing...I think it was anything that wasn't on the RPO list. (Regular Production Options or Regular Production Order not sure which) but when someone refers to a COPO Camaro or Chevelle they are usually talking about the rare high performance odd ball stuff

Todd, I really think you are on to something I just googled it and found this link.

http://www.holisticpage.com/camaro/camaros/copo.htm

In this link was this paragraph.

The Central Office Production Order (COPO) was a back door around Chevrolet's performance limits. COPO 9561 was the factory 427 cid Camaro, with either 435hp and solid lifters in the 4-speeds or 425hp and hydraulic lifters in the autos, and COPO 9737 was the Sport Car Conversion Kit, consisting of E70X15 tires on Rally Wheels, a 140 mph speedometer, and a 1 inch front stabilizer bar. The first COPO 9561 cars were delivered to Yenko Chevrolet in January, 1969. Cars built through late May had a Stewart Warner 970 custom service tachometer with a special sending unit installed. Later cars received the factory tach. Your Yenko could be ordered with or without stripes and spoilers. The stripe package included "SYC" decals on the front headrests.