New Magazine Alert

[Rick R]

Two titles of interest to modelers, and One's FREE!

MaxChevy, a FREE online title, has my article on a real find, the first of several titles that will have coverage of the car in the next coupla months. The car is an Orange '69 COPO 427 Camaro, but this one is a factory prototype with a fascinating history. Google MaxChevy and check it out!

Not free, ($14.99) but well worth the money, is the Summer 2010 issue of Motor Trned Classic, a coffee table title that never ceases to entertain. Besides a '69 Camaro Indy Pace car, the big news is a Road Test of the TV Batmobile including some magnificent photos and an in-depth (truth optional...) interview with George Barris plus a great piece on Adam West. This one should be a valuable addition to anyone's Batman archives.

[impcon]

Just read the story on the COPO Camaro - Wow!!!!!!!! What a read! It brought a tear to my eye when I read that the guy who rescued the car from the junk yard passed away before he managed to ever see the project completed. hat story really does go to prove that anything is indeed possible when it comes to older cars.

Case in point - my middle son loves '69 Camaros and we found an orane with black stripes '69 Z28 in North Central Washington about six years ago. It was sitting on a native reserve and to make a long. sad story short, my son was promised the car and then the owner renaged because someone else offered him more money for the car than what he had promised to sell it to my son for. It was a good, solid desert climate car butthe original engine had been replaced with a 350. It still had the 4 speed and it was drivable. The stickler was that the car had factory air conditioning. I posted on some Chevy boards asking if this was a genuine Zapper and most guys said that because it had a/c, it was a clone. You have to realize that we live in a desert area and it does get HOT here in the summer. The man who owned the car said that his brother had special ordered the car brand new and given the summers here, I really can imagine someone wanting air conditioning.

I do not remeber the particulars now but the Z28's were built in two different plants - one back east and one in L.A. The eastern cars were designated as being a Z on the cowl tag by a specific letter - I do not recall what that letter is. The L.A. cars did not have that stamping and this car was an L.A. car. Anyways, it doesn't matter now and it hurts to even think about it now. As we had agreed, the day before we were going to go and put a deposit on the car ( the man agreed to let my son pay for it in payments ), my son called to confirm that we were going to make the hour and half drive the next day and that is when the owner's mom said thatthere was someone else looking at the car at that moment and they were willing to pay more money - and how much would my son pay? Yeah - his feelings were really bruised.. anyways - a sad story..

[impcon]

There are a few "they never made on of those - ever!" cars out there and those were the days when the right dealership with the right connections could squeeze some pretty bizarre things between the cracks. I am still not convinced that the car was not maybe a one off Z... I am not saying thatyou are wrong - I am just saying that dealershps could pull some things off and circumvent the system if they had the right connections at the factory or at corporate. If the car was a clone, then someone sure went to a lot of work to duplicate the real thing. Again, I do not recall all of the information that we dug up including some hints as just what little things to look for to determine a Z28 - and this car had all of it's ducks in a row. Forgive me for not remebering all of the details but I had a mild stroke a few years ago and my memory was one of the casualties - not real bad - but just unreliable. I will ask my son and see what he remembers and post again. If I am wrong - then so be it but both Matt ( my son ) and I could find no issues at all to dispell the car's authenticity.

[Rick R]

Couple of things...

As I remember the 'rules' of Z/28isms...

As I recall the reason given for the no A/C edict was that the 302 was a high-revving engine that could burn up the compressor with extended periods of high-RPM operation. There was also a weight transfer situation, the heavy compressor would upset the delicate (and delicious) balance the car displayed. I'm wondering what rear end ratio nwas installed in the Z you were connected to, that could have minimized the situation. I also remember that Car & Driver magazine had a '69 Z special-made from the Van Nuys factory, equipped with factory air.

Car was very cool, called 'Blue Maxi', painted Sunoco Blue and prepped by the Penske shops during the Camaro Trans Am effort. Supposedly the car was found a few years ago in a junk yard, totalled... paralleling the COPO car.