Have you wanted a COPO but been shunned from the list? Maybe you’ve got $55,000 saved up for a factory drag race Camaro but not a penny more. Well, consider your prayers answered because Chevrolet performance is offering for sale a “limited number” of COPO rollers for $55,000. They’ll be ready to drive….minus and engine or transmission, but they will have the roll bar, suspension, and chassis upgrades that all COPOs have to make them NHRA legal drag machines.
GM has set up this special phone number – 1-800-306-3005 for people to call and place their orders. The cars will only be sold in white and they will come with a sequential chassis number and COPO id plate. Why would you want one of these rollers without an engine or transmission? Say you wanted to put a 502 crate engine and four speed behind it or run a 2bbl 327 in it with a ‘Glide. Now you can and you don’t need to start by ripping out the blown 5.3 or naturally aspirated 7.0L engine. There must have been enough requests for this program that the management at Chevrolet Performance green lighted it. We think that’s cool and look forward to seeing some of these cars with new and interesting engine combos in them. Wonder if Ford will follow suit with the Cobra Jets?
UPDATE: We had a recent conversation with the folks at Chevrolet Performance who are administrating this program and were told that the quantity of these cars they were planning to sell has nearly been reached, so if you are considering buying one, you need to call the number above and get more info or place your order.
This is the cheapest way you’ll find to get a cutting edge rolling stock eliminator car. Could you bolt 9-inch slicks on your Chevelle and go stock eliminator racing, sure if the engine and car met the rules but you’d get your ass kicked seven ways to Sunday. These COPO-prepped body in white cars are read to accept an engine, transmission, whatever gear ration you want to run, and the hit the strip meeting all NHRA standards. We’re hearing that the buying window for these cars will be closing soon, so if you are interested, call the number above…now!
HERE’S THE OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE FROM CHEVROLET–
DETROIT – Chevrolet will produce a limited number of Camaro NHRA-certified rolling chassis designed for drag racing that provides racers with a professionally assembled, painted body and chassis ready to be finished. Consumers add their engine, transmission and other drivetrain components.
The rolling chassis go on sale Thursday, March 28, at noon EST and will be priced at $55,000. Each specially numbered chassis is assembled by hand at the same facility that constructs Chevrolet’s COPO Camaro production race cars.
“This is a great opportunity to buy a factory-built foundation for a competitive Camaro race car, saving racers the time of building their own from the ground up and offering them the opportunity to compete with a piece of Chevrolet history, because we’re only going to build a few of them,” said Jim Campbell, General Motors U.S. Vice President of Performance Vehicles and Motorsports. “Add your powertrain assembly and you’ve got a race car that’s ready to tackle the drag strip.”
Many of the components required to complete the transformation into a full race car, including crate engines, racing engine components, electronics – controllers and harnesses – and more, are available direct from Chevrolet Performance. The catalog is online at chevroletperformance.com.
“Finishing off your race car with authentic Chevrolet Performance parts helps make it all-Chevy, with uncompromising performance and confidence-inspiring durability,” said Campbell. “All of our hardcore racing parts have been designed and tested to standards unmatched in the aftermarket.”
Ordering information and chassis details
Customers will call 1-800-306-3005 to order a Camaro rolling chassis. The call center will send purchase certificates for the limited number of rolling chassis to be constructed, and customers will take the certificates to the Chevrolet dealerships of their choice to complete the sales.
The completed rolling chassis requires customer pickup in the Detroit area. Each will be serialized, but will not have a Vehicle Identification Number, so they cannot be titled or licensed for road use.
Each rolling chassis is constructed with hardware from the Oshawa assembly plant that manufactures regular-production Camaros. Each is fitted with an NHRA-approved roll cage and other safety equipment, along with NHRA-approved racing chassis and suspension components, including brakes and solid rear axle – minus the third member. Bogart racing wheels mounted on Hoosier tires are also included.
All will come in Summit White, with a production Camaro hood and SS grille, production window glass, headlamps, tail lamps and more. Inside, racing seats, a production-style instrument panel, steering wheel, racing switch panel, door panels, headliner and black carpeting are included. Basic body and chassis wiring is built into the rolling chassis, but it does not come with engine harnesses or a battery.
Customers will need to add basic equipment to complete the assembly, including:
- Engine and air inlet system
- Engine mounts
- Engine controller and wire harness
- Exhaust headers
- Coolant hoses (a radiator is included)
- Transmission and shifter assembly
- Driveshaft
- Differential third member.
Chevrolet Performance’s entire range of high-performance and racing crate engines is available to power the rolling chassis, including the three 2013 COPO LS-family engines, which were developed for NHRA Stock Eliminator classes. They include a 350-cubic-inch engine rated at 325 horsepower; a 396-cubic-inch engine rated at 375 horsepower, and a 427-cubic-inch engine rated at 425 horsepower (part number 17802825). Supercharged crate engines based on the 2012 COPO Camaro program are also available, including a 327-cubic-inch engine with a 2.9L supercharger (part number 17802826) and a 327 with a 4.0L blower (part number 17802827). The 350 and 396 engines will be available later this year.
Chevrolet Performance’s new “COPO Build Book,” part number 88958767, provides an overview of the factory race cars’ assembly process and can be a reference manual for those who intend to complete their Camaro rolling chassis for Stock Eliminator or Super Stock drag racing. It also provides general assembly details that can help builders complete their race car more quickly.
Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is now one of the world’s largest car brands, doing business in more than 140 countries and selling more than 4.5 million cars and trucks a year. Chevrolet provides customers with fuel-efficient vehicles that feature spirited performance, expressive design, and high quality. More information on Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com.
“Each is fitted with an NHRA-approved roll cage and other safety equipment, along with NHRA-approved racing chassis and suspension components, including brakes and solid rear axle – minus the third member.”
As these cars were fitted with an IRS for street use, I wonder if the solid axle will accept GM or Ford internals… Hmmmm….
No engine, trans, or third member for 55 grand?
That’s not anywhere near a bargain.
Breakdown of the “roller” price:
Cost of goods: ~ $20,000 (being very charitable to “Government Motors” and their economies of scale)
Obscene profit: $35,000
The only things getting “rolled” here are the deep-pocketed zealots who pony up for these “pushmobiles” (in faithful service to their quasi-religious monomania and veneration of all things “Chevy”)
“A fool and his money are soon parted” — John Bridges (circa A.D. 1587)
so Ford’s $50k roller is a better deal?
send COPO catalog. OR i will buy F-O-R-D!!!!! j gwozdz 26 bracelan lenox ma 01240
55k is a lot of money for a roller, no doubt….. but how much would you spend building up a old beat-up nova/camaro/mustang etc to be used in NHRA Stock Elim? I would bet you wouldn’t be far off of that number all said and done for a comparable roller. (I’m assuming the kind of guy that is going to buy this thing can’t do most of the work himself and would be paying a shop to “stock prep” an old street car…. $$)
“[E]ach [Ford] Thunderbolt sold at the sticker price of $3900” (in 1964 dollars)
According to the inflation calculator: “What cost $3,900 in 1964 would cost $28,487.84 in 2012.”
Even if Ford’s actual cost for a fully-powered 427 Thunderbolt was $5,000, that equates to only $36,522.88 in 2012.
Surely a bunch of chrome moly tubing, a refrigerator white robot paint job, and a few bolt-on racing baubles (while deleting all of the motive powertrain bits) can’t be worth an extra $20,000!
The people buying these factory racers are getting hosed. And rules that encourage such reckless spending just to “compete” are wholly misplaced.
Hurricane Sandy Camaros are available, many for under 10 grand with little or no body damage. I’ve seen several and a lot of them were barely even wet, while others were completely underwater. For about 45 grand less you can even have a title and vin numbers.
Seriously … $55,000 for a rolling chassis that fits in no NHRA category and with an IRS thats completely unsuitable for drag racing ?
And thats GM/Chevy’s idea of a bargain ?
Mr Harder got it bang on.
Ladies…..per the article” … including brakes and solid rear axle …” so this isn’t a “street car painted white” . Check out the NHRA class and how much it costs to put in a cage, ALL the chassis prep, etc etc.
Or you could buy a SCJ Mustang and go racing today with a finished car that will kick @ss. Ask the Drag Pack guys if that roller situation was a good deal for them. I am not even counting the bad crankshafts which made these cars an endless money pit. The Mustang is without question the way to go. Sure the COPO looked good when Dave C beat Fletch at ZMax but you need 150K if you want to play.
Old article, we now know it’s got a Strange solid rear axle….
It’s about 35k overpriced and you still have a car without a VIN – not that you could ever drive it on the street after race-prepping a basic car (not smog or fed-mandated safety stuff)… I guess I don’t understand the marketing behind it – you can buy a stripper Camaro, out the door, for less than 23k; so what’s the benefit of having GM put a roll cage in your car?
And.. what’s with the COPO name? the whole point of COPO was buying a race car in street car clothing… this is just a race car….