COPO Camaros all seem to have led interesting lives. Obviously they were purchased by guys who “knew the system” and were looking for the maximum level of factory muscle. This car that we’ve found for sale has 215 original miles on it. All but 21 of them were put on at the drag strip. To say that this car has made a few laps would be a gross understatement.
The original owner of the car was Vincent Tarantola (a nice Irish kid..heh) the owner and operator of Vitar Engineering, one of the country’s first and foremost performance automatic transmission and torque converter builders. The company lives today but is known as Select Performance and their stuff can be found on some of the strongest Top Sportsman and Top Dragster machines in the country. But back to the Camaro.
The car was a stripper from the factory. It was radio delete, spoiler delete, and the only “option” was the Turbo 400 transmission. After Vincent drove it the 21 miles home from the dealership, The car was used as a test bed for all of Vitar’s products and it was also used to help them develop high performance torque converters. Famous New Jersey engine builder Jack Merkel balanced the rotating assembly. Once sorted out the car was a local terror, dominating class at tracks in the greater New Jersey and New York area. Proving how awesome the car was, it hit the big stage and won Super Stock at the 1970 AHRA SuperNationals.
In 1972 the car changed hands and was updated with a roll cage and wheel tubs by famous chassis shop Speed Research and Development. Those guys had their hands on a lot of early Pro Stock iron back in the day. The car lived as a racer being traded around multiple times until the early 1990s when it was fully documented and restored to the state you see it in today.
This thing is the real deal, and full on bad ass! Do want.
Source — AutoTraderClassics.com — 1969 Copo Camaro drag car
