(Words and photos by Kaleb Kelley) – In April 2010, Chad Williams was driving his beloved ’69 Camaro when an older lady pulled out in front of him. He locked the brakes up and did his best to avoid her. Barely clipping her, he crumpled his front driver-side fender. His nitrous-fed daily driver now needed body work. He realized the fender needed to be replaced after he got home and inspected the damage. Chad removed the fender to get repaired, but went overboard. He just kept yanking stuff out of the car, including the motor, transmission, suspension and the interior. His dad Steve saw the car torn apart in the garage and realized that this quick trip to the body shop had turned into a much larger project. Steve was fine with his son using his shop to restore his car, but he had one requirement: Chad must do something on the car daily, no matter how large or small the job. This is what helped 25-year-old Chad get through the momentous task of restoring a car at such a young age.

He fell in love when he found the car at Knippelmier Chevrolet in 2003. His family was full of hot rodders, so his urge for his own hot rod was imbedded in his mind. Not only was it a ’69 Camaro, but it was a factory big-block car; it was perfect. With a healthy shot of nitrous, he drove it to high school and drag raced it on the weekends. His love for the car increased as he made memories throughout highschool with it, but now he had reached a crossroads.

With the car apart, he had the opportunity to make it whatever he wanted.  No longer would it be just any big-block ’69 Camaro, he could make his car into the big-block king of muscle cars that he had dreamed of, the COPO L/72. Chad has always loved the COPO, but owning a real COPO and driving it on a trip like the Power Tour is just irrational and far-fetched. He wanted to do it right, so he began researching where the COPO originated and what made it different from your average ’69 Camaro.

Don Yenko had been installing 427 engines in Camaro’s since they were released in 1967, but he had become tired of the motor swaps. He talked to Chevy and they agreed on a special production run of Camaros with the 425HP L72 iron-block V8. This would make it easier for Yenko to beef up the big-block cars and created a lot of hype for Chevy. Their agreement resulted in the Central Office Production Order 9561. This was the same car as the ZL-1 except for the engine, ignition system and front springs. The COPO looks like a completely base-model Camaro on the outside. The plain-Jane look is emphasized by the lack of chrome trim and the body-colored steel wheels. There isn’t a giant “Look at me, I have a big-block 427,” badge on the side, just a pair of simple bowties to make you wonder. This is part of what attracted Chad to the COPO – no frills, all business.

While the exterior may have looked basic, the car had many unique features. Like my mom always told me, it’s what’s on the inside that really matters. Obviously the COPO had the powerful 427 L72, but there is much more that separated them from a standard Camaro. Heavy-duty suspension, a ZL2 special-ducted hood, body color tail lamps and power front disc brakes are a few of the things that made the 9561 special. Another important piece of the puzzle is the special BE 12-bolt rear end with a heavy-duty positraction carrier and heat-treated 4.10 ring and pinion. The cooling system was also heavily upgraded with a 4-core radiator with a bent neck and a 7-blade clutch fan.

The L72 was a special motor throughout. The limited production motor produced 425 horsepower and displaced 427 cubic-inches with 4.250-inch bore and 3.760-inch stroke. They had 11.0:1 compression with forged-aluminum closed chamber pistons. The crankshaft was a tuffrided forged-steel cross-drilled unit. It also had rectangular large-port heads, a special solid-lifted cam, aluminum high-rise intake manifold, and an 800cfm dual-feed vacuum-secondary Holley 4346 4-barrel carburetor. The .520 lift cam allowed it to idle around 900-1000RPM, but also let it rev to nearly 7,000. The engine block casting numbers for these motors all end in 512 and they were later carried over into the 1970 LS-6 454 Chevelle motors.

The records for COPO 9561 production have never been found or confirmed. However, there are records of how many engines were produced, so you can do the math and subtract a handful for service or warranties to get an estimate. Chevrolet produced 822 for the 4-speed cars and 193 for the automatic cars. We can assume that there were approximately 900-950 COPO 9561 cars produced. That’s a conservative estimate, but just like how many licks it takes to get to the Tootsie-roll center of a Tootsie-pop, the world may never know.

Chad wanted to transform his car into a tribute to the legendary 9561 cars. He spent 3 months researching what parts, stickers, tags, chalk marks and such that would be necessary to replicate a COPO. He spent a year assembling the COPO after he completed his research. While this may seem quick to put together a car from pieces, his dad’s philosophy of doing something daily helped him keep the momentum necessary.

He had the body, but he had to source out the parts for the suspension, rear end and transmission. He struggled to find a 427 for the car to be COPO-correct. Instead of continuing his search, his dad gave him the idea of buying a crate motor from Chevrolet Performance. Chad purchased a ZZ502 Deluxe big-block and it showed up in a crate, all ready to make its way into his ’69. The 502-horsepower powerplant would be more than enough to make the car live up to its heritage. The motor comes complete and ready to go with the distributor, water pump, intake, oil pan and accessories included. The peak horsepower comes in at 5,000 rpm which is when the torque finally starts to dip. The torque is above the 500 lb-ft mark from 2,500-5,000 rpm and peaks out at 567. That’s a lot of power that can easily put the old L72 to shame.

They discovered that the 502 is not compatible with a mechanical fuel pump. Chad didn’t want to slack in the details. It’s hard not to grab attention in a Hugger Orange COPO, so he had to make it right. The bolt holes for the mechanical pump were still there, so they gutted a correct fuel pump for the car and ran the fuel lines through it to the carburetor in order to make everything look like it was a working fuel pump. The detailed touches he put into the car are crazy. Before leaving for the Power Tour, he even waxed the underside of the car to keep the grime from sticking to it. I can’t blame him after he put the effort into having the correct markings and stickers on the frame and suspension. He used chalk to mark COPO on the frame like they did from the factory.

Chad’s Camaro is a standout car and nothing like most clones or tributes I have seen. The average person wouldn’t pay such close attention to detail like Chad did. He spent at least 30 minutes showing me markings and stickers that came on them from the factory. Most people would not know the difference if they were there or not, but he had to have them. Although it does not have the iron-block 427 of old, it has more tire-slaying torque than it had with the ZZ502. Though CLNCOPO means clone COPO, it also means clean COPO to Chad who is seriously proud of what he created with the help of his dad. He now has the car he has always dreamed of. Don Yenko himself would be proud of this car and why it was created. The legend of the COPO Camaro lives on through Chad’s car. It may not be a real COPO, but the concept of stripped down car with big-block power under foot is ever-present in Chad’s beautiful ride.

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