Click here to view the embedded video.

What’s better than a COPO?

Now, if you were really cool in 1969 a regular COPO wasn’t enough, you wanted a Yenko Camaro with the big 427. Bright yellow with black stripes would be a good choice of color. Then what did you do? You tweeked it, you wrenched on it some more and then went to the drag strip.

Here is the ultimate in street legal Camaro. It is a 427 Yenko Dragster with Cliff Ernst name on the side. Sit back turn up the speakers on your computer and listen to this special Chevy sing to you.

Click here to view the embedded video.

What is it?

This is a 1969 427 ZL-1 COPO Camaro from the Ciff Ernst Collection. You can see the complete collection on our Museum Page. This is car number 60 out of only 69 built. I is painted Fathom Green with a Black interior.

The COPO Package included the all aluminum 427 430 HP engine, ZL-2 Ducted Hood Assembly, Heavy Duty Radiator, Transistor Ignition, 12 bolt 4.10 Posi and optional M-22 HD Transmission.

This option package added approximately $4,500 to the base car! No wonder there were only 69 built.

Click here to view the embedded video.

We have just posted another terrific Feature Car. This one is owned by Barry Miller and is an actual 1968/1969 Holman and Moody.

It was the Pole Winner at Daytona in February 1968 at a speed of 179.459 MPH. It led the ARCA 300 for 25 laps until crashing and finishing 22nd. It was one of tow Torinos that won eleven races that year.

We photographed this car at the Monster Mopar Weekend in St. Louis during the 2008 event. Certain Fords were allowed to participate as part of the Winged Car (Daytona and Superbird Club activities).The is not pristine with immaculate paint and body but it is beautiful. The 427 sounds terrific (watch the video and listen for yourself) and the pure rawness of the race car makes you quiver. Unlike today, the race cars were not massaged to a silky smooth finish. When they started a race they often carried the scars of the previous race. You have to remember that in those days there were a lot more races and some of the drivers would compete in multiple events during a weekend. There was no time to do minor body work and repaint. These were race cars and not show cars.

For more information an dozens of photos on this car go to our Feature Car page by Clicking Here.

Here is Benny behind the wheel back-in-the day!

Motorbooks has published a great book by Darwin Holmstrom titled Camaro Forty Years. It is a combination coffee table book with wonderful David Newhardt photos with great historical info on the Camaro. Some call the Camaro a Pony Car but it is a Muscle Car in the right trim levels. Although most of us will want to focus on the early 1967-1969 years of the Camaro the book does a thorough review of all years of Camaro including the smog sleds and the new Camaro that hasn’t even been sold yet. There are even photos and references to the first Pony Car, the Mustang. It seems the Mustang has always been the Camaro’s chief rival although the GM internal struggle with the Firebird was no small conflict.

I usually spend most of my time with such books looking at the photos and reading the captions. This was still a highlight of this book for me but the text has a way of sucking you in. I learned a lot about the first generation Camaro. I have never owned one of these cars but have had friends who did, or do and have always lusted after a 1967 Z28 or a 1969 Hugger Orange SS 396 RS. I thought I knew a lot about these cars until I read this book. It is both entertaining and informative.

Although I never owned the first model of Camaro I have owned my share of the later versions, all Z/28s. My very first new car was a 1970 model Z/28. I was shopping for a little luxury car with full power, automatic and air to replace a 1967 427 Corvette that had side pipes and radio delete. It also had 411 gears, 4-speed and obviously no air. It was a blast to drive and obviously a real muscle car. However, it took its tole on you during long trips. I drove 700 miles non=stop one time and thought I was deaf when I got to my destination. It took a day before I could hear normally again. With the new car I wanted to sit back and cruise in a powerful car but one with all the amenities.

My mistake was stopping by the local Chevy dealer and letting him convince me that I should drive a new Z/28. He knew what he was doing. I absolutely loved that car. It remains one of my favorite cars to this day. I still don’t know why I don’t have one in the garage today. Maybe this book will get me motivated to look for one.

Holmstrom even gets into the rare cars and engines often overlooked in such books. He talks about Smokey Yunick’s Hemi. Not a Chrysler Hemi, the Chevy Hemi! On pages 102-103 he says:

“The heads featured modified hemispherical combustion chambers; like Mopar’s 426-cubic-inch Hemi engine, these heads used a semihemispherical design rather than a true hemispherical design……The design increased top-end horsepower, but with a corresponding loss in torque, lead to a peaky power band that compromised overall on-track performance.”

The book also describes some of the successes and behind the scenes exploits of the Trans Am race teams. Rodger Penske was the man behind what was arguably one of the most beautiful race cars of the day; Mark Donahue’s Sunoco Camaro.

There is not enough space in this Blog to tell you everything I liked this book. Jump over to our Product Review Page and read more and see more photos. If you like this book you might also be interested in the other reviews of books on the Camaro.

Way back I had a 1967 Corvette 427, 4-speed, side exhaust, radio delete car that was unbelievably fast. I loved the car. I drove it on long trips, I drove it every day. I raced it, I showed it. It nearly killed me a couple of times but it was just too much fun. It was like an amusement ride, strangers would ask for rides.

Mine was green with a white stinger and was in Des Moines, Iowa. Anyone know where it is today?

As all good things come to an end, I traded it in on a new Z28, another car I truly loved, but that’s a story for another day.

When I traded the Vette in for some reason the owners manual and plastic Protecto Plate (warrantee plate) stayed on a shelf in my garage. Since then I have moved a bunch of times. I moved from Iowa to California and then to Tennessee. Guess what, that dang owner’s manual and plastic plate have made every move. What was I thinking?

Well, I will tell you. I kept thinking someday the owner of that car will want these and I will give them to him. Oh, like that is really going to happen. I will be sitting at home watching reruns of Green Acres and it will be some Corvette fanatic in Idaho who says I hear you have my owner’s manual and Protecto Plate!

But it is a real problem. Ever since they started televising the Barrett Jackson Auctions on Speed everyone is aware of the importance of paperwork and prominence. How many of you ever heard of “prominence” until you heard it on TV. I thought it was that white cheese you put on your salad.

Ok, so I am sure most of you gear heads have similar weird stuff that has no use to you, but would be treasured by only one other person in the world. I know the guy who owns my old 67 Corvette would love to have those two items, but how do I find him? I would gladly just put them in the mail and send them to him, but who is he?

How can we do this?