Beschreibung:

This Norwood, Ohio built 1969 Camaro was first delivered to Mr. Willard Clements in Toronto, Ontario. That is important. It’s important because, unlike Chevys delivered in the U.S., GM of Canada kept records of the cars delivered through it and those records are still available. Thus we know conclusively with documentation from the factory that this was built by Chevrolet as a COPO 9561 Camaro with the 427 cubic inch, 425 horsepower big block V-8. Chevrolet developed the Central Office Production Order system to meet the need for a procedure to build non-standard cars with Regular Production Order parts. It was intended for fleet orders: fleets of police cars; fleets of low-powered strippers for meter readers; fleets of taxicabs. It enabled Chevrolet and its dealers to compete effectively for large orders of exceptionally boring vehicles. A few intrepid dealers saw in the COPO system a means to a very different end. That was to build vehicles more powerful, more purposeful and more specialized than anything Chevrolet could justify offering through the Regular Production Option system. The most common of these was COPO 9561 which put the 427 cubic inch, 425 horsepower Mark IV big block V-8 into the Camaro where the biggest RPO engine was the L89 396/375hp aluminum head big block. COPO 9561 was sparingly used. It is believed that only 822 were built with 4-speeds plus another 193 with automatic transmissions. In addition to the 427/425hp V-8 COPO 9561 included the ZL2 cowl induction hood, L78 cowl induction air cleaner, heavy duty springs, 12-bolt Positraction rear axle with 4.1:1 gears, heavy duty radiator and absolutely nothing on the outside of the car to identify it as anything special. It was a serious racer’s car that made its statements with performance, not posturing. The example offered here has the M21 close ratio four-speed gearbox, power disc brakes, radio and heater. It has plain steel wheels with dog dish hubcaps mounting a set of Firestone Wide Oval tires. It is the only COPO 9561 1969 Camaro known in its distinctive color scheme of Olympic Gold with Dark Green vinyl interior. Its first owner was Willard Clements in Toronto who immediately blueprinted the engine and bored it .030 over to maximize the displacement. As expected, he drag raced it, turning times in the high 11s at Indianapolis, but used it sparingly and never in the winter, storing it inside and protected from the elements. Even driving to and from the track Clements accumulated only 16,000 miles before selling it in 1978 to its second owner, Barry Allen, who thankfully removed the original engine and set it aside while driving it over the next 20 years with a 427 crate motor. He restored it in 1982 and accumulated some 26,000 miles before selling the car, still with its crate motor installed and the original engine included to the third owner, Tony Begley of Northern Illinois Classic Auto Brokers, in 1999 who quickly turned around and resold it to Steve Stange. It was purchased by the most recent owner in July 2000 who had some additional restoration, detailing and mechanical work done including installing a new chambered exhaust system. The car is today in better than new condition. It is correct and has all the original components – engine, transmission and rear axle – that are crucial to its accuracy, originality and value. There is probably no better, more thoroughly documented COPO Camaro in the world. Coming with the car are the original Owner’s Protection Plan booklet with Protect-o-Plate, the original order sheet, bill of sale, Fisher Body Control Card, window sticker, resale certificate from War-Dan Auto Sales in Canada and a certificate of authenticity from General Motors of Canada. Most of the documentation is contained within the original selling dealer’s customer folder with the business card of Dave Mackay, Performance Division of Belmont Chev-Olds. There also is a set of original keys (for the Camaro and a few other unidentified things