I know this is a terrible newbie question, but I'm a b-body guy

From time to time when I was in Canada I'd hear about what was essentially a COPO 427 Beaumont.  Anyone know if its legend or fact?  If the latter, any info on them?

Thanks!
Dave

There was no option for a 427 in a Beaumont available.
 Now it has been brought up before that anything is possible but there was no COPO provision for Oshawa.

You might like one of our member's cars. This is jfkheat's 427 Beaumont that he did up.

http://canadianponcho.activeboard.com/index.spark?forumID=118110&p=3&topicID=18706689

SD 396 wrote:

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there was no COPO provision for Oshawa.

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I was watching Speed TV a week or so ago and the Barrett Jackson auction. A 1969 Chevelle, not a SS, comes up and they described it as a Canadian COPO car, only one of three Canadian COPO cars ever.

It was an interesting car, 427 auto on the column, bench seat, SS style hood, magnum 500 wheels, vinyl roof. Sold for $110,000.

I am a Doubting Thomas though because like SD 396 I never knew Oshawa could get a COPO order done.


-- Edited by 73SC at 19:55, 2008-09-28

There were actually more than three COPO cars brought into Canada in 1969 as I purchased a 69 427-425 Chevelle from B&A Chevrolet in Toronto in September of that year. They had three to choose from and had sold two earlier that year. A friend of mine had purchased another Chevelle from the Chev dealership in London and I saw another in Kitchener in 1971. There were several COPO camaros around the province also at that time and quite a few were sold by B&A as well as a yellow 69 Camaro I had looked at at Morris Carters in Hamilton. By the way B&A was located in Yorkville and became Addison Chev-Olds about October 1969 and relocated up to Steeles Ave. in Toronto. When I purchased my Pontiac in 68 my father-in-law at the time had tried to get me a 396-375hrs. and even that was not available, hence the Stratochief. I have looked at a 1969 SS Chevelle 2dr. sedan in Ontario that is documented as one of fifteen and I suspect that this is also qualified as a COPO. I don't know if this suits this site however I was certainly interested by the subject. Doug.

Doug Although this is a Canadian Pontiac site, I think it is VERY safe to say the majority of people participating on here have a general muscle car interest. Heck, I even own a couple of Ch******ts. (man, I STILL can't bring myself to say that word on here.....)

CHEVROLET

Same brand as your Impala SS cars... lol

The only 427 Beaumonts would be dealer conversions only...like the Conroy Cheetah cars..

And no Copo L72 Chevelles were factory built as 2 Dr. Sedans, all were Hardtops..

Love to hear more on your cars 427Strato!!!










-- Edited by Ghost Post at 12:58, 2008-09-29

Thanks for the help Dave and Carl. I need therapy to enable me to say that word on a Pontiac site. One thing I will say, if Pontiac had made a B body rear drive LT1 in 94-96, it's likely what I'd drive. While I enjoy the "C" word, my heart is still in Pontiacs (and Acadians and Beaumonts) if they don't qualify as Pontiacs.

Unfortunately 73SC I traced my COPO at the same time as the Stratochief and found the last owner. He advised he had totalled it two years before and gave me the name of the wrecking yard it went to. I went to the yard and the owner advised me he had purchased it six months earlier and crushed everything they had. This was the car I first tried to find and the second, being the Stratochief, took me about seven years to repurchase. I have now had it in my shop for nineteen years and am just starting to restore it. In 1969 I was told by the local Chev dealership that the 69 was a 396 car, ie they were always upset at me purchasing my cars in Toronto and having them serviced locally. I called B&A in Toronto who in turn contacted GM and it sent me the broadcast copy, the transport copy, etc., which I still have ie I don't throw anything away. I do have a couple of pictures of each however my exwife has my digital camera which I have not replaced, not that I would know what to do with it, hence no pictures of anything. By the way, someone posted some information about a 1968 427 Stratochief on a Chevelle website in the States which was obviously my car. This was some time ago and someone from London posted a for sale ad from the New Old Car Tradecenre in Toronto, which was in Wheelspin. advertising this car. I traded the Stratochief in at that dealership in October of 1968 on a 1967 435hrs. Corvette, which car is in London, Ontario. I spoke with the individual that still owns it about a month ago and he has plans of restoring that car, although I would like to repurchase that one as well. I realize I am being long winded however its just another old car story. Doug.

I was the Strato Chief poster on Yenko.net. I tallked to a fellow who worked at Sinclair Pontiac in London back in the 60's and he states they ordered seven 68 Stratochiefs with 427's, bench seats and 4 speeds. He bought one of them and showed me a photo. He said they ordered them in response to Central Chev stocking (and racing) 427 Biscaynes. I wonder if any of those seven are hiding in garages around here..

There is also a 1970 COPO nova with a 350-360 LT1. This car was featured in Muscle car review quite a few years ago. I phoned the owner asked if I could go look at the car while I was in London. He said OK and I went to his farm early on a sunday morning. The original engine was sitting on a stand and he had built a 350-360 hp and was using it and racing the car to avoid possible damage to the numbers matching engine. In his barn he also had 3 1969 COPO Camaros, a Yenko chevelle and numerous other GM muscle cars. Shortly after my tour of his garage he was featured in another magazine article about him being one of the top authorities on the COPO cars who not only collected them but raced them. There was one COPO 1969 Camaro that was in Timmins for quite a few years. Bob Charbonneau (Charby passed away a few years ago) bought the Camaro in London and brought it to Timmins. He raced the car in Cayuga quite a few times and had a best et of 12.01. The only mods were headers,Lakewood track bars, 4:88 gears and a Hurst dual gate shifter to replace the factory shifter. If I remember correctly the original owners name of the COPO  Camaro was Holly Marshall. 

The Copo Nova owner is Peter Simpson from Glencoe Ont..
Very cool guy and his Copo Nova is the sole example remaining of the only two that weren't converted to Yenko Dueces by Don Yenko's dealership (the other is confirmed as scrapped/destroyed)..
Both of the two Canadian Copo Novas were shipped w/ the LT1 etc and esentially the same way as Yenko recv'd them before converting them into his famous Dueces..

As far as Copo Chevelles go, Keith Tedford who posted here once a few weeks back is an original Canadian Copo Chevelle owner and very knowledgeable about these cars..
If anyone needs any info and/or the truth about them, get ahold of him..
Keith's a great guy and has a real '69 L78 Chevelle too!.



-- Edited by Ghost Post at 11:32, 2008-09-29

Yeah, and his L78 Chevelle is a 300 deluxe hardtop car. Barry

The scrapped COPO Nova was owned by a friend of mine in the 70's. He lives in Stratford. I have a photo of it somewhere..

69Laurentian wrote:

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The scrapped COPO Nova was owned by a friend of mine in the 70's. He lives in Stratford. I have a photo of it somewhere..

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WOW...love to see that pic!!!

If I cant find it I'll email him for one.

?That would be Cool! I heard it was Green.

I was invited recently to drop in at a friends house in Simcoe, who is another antique dealer, and a number of people were there that I have known over the years, one of which is one of the last antique pickers in Ontario, who I have known for a number of years. Yes, we did evntually start to talk about cars and I mentioned my COPO. The "picker" replied, "oh yeah, I had one of those too". Well, I'm always sceptical however after the stories he told I realized he had been in fact the owner of one of the original 69 Camaro COPO cars in Ontario. To him it was just another car and I had never realized that he was even interested in cars much less had one of the rarest in our Province. I just thought it was interesting after 40 years to be sitting talking to someone you had no idea would have been interested in or have had an unusual car and all this time he had had something that most of us would think would be somewhat dramatic. As most of us did he just sold it as a used car, and thats all they were back then. Doug.

Cool story Strato..
Did you ask the guy if he happens to still have his Vin noted?.

Pete, if I remember correctly he knows where the car is, and the gentleman that owns it, who knows what its worth, however the next time I see him I will ask to satisfy our curiosities. Doug.

Doug, being another Brantford guy, weve met a number of times. The last was talking about the SD in A&P about 6 months ago. After seeing it a Teasdales on West street MANY years ago. But the reason for this post, was back in the early 80's, I worked on a co-op program at Hertz rent-a-car on West St. While there, I work with Edgar VanDertuien (SP) about a 427 COPO Nova that he had owned a few years earlier. Story went that you either sold him the car, or bought it off him, that was over 20 years ago. I remember seeing pictures of it before it went to the Motion Car show in Toronto. Back in those days, I had a '68 GTX rag top. Black. I now own Gordy Seiposts 1969 SS Nova now, along with my 1967 Acadian and 1931 Chevy P/U.

BUT was that really a "factory" 427 Nova that Eddy had??? Do you recall the car if you were not "involved" with the car?

Thanks, John

Bringing this back from the dead.

Here is ALOT of info on Dougs '69 COPO Chevelle.

www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/214766/1969-chevelle

But also a note on the COPO 1970 Nova.

I know COPO Pete passed a few years ago now, but I do have a story about a SILVER COPO Nova that was for sale in front of a farm. This would have to be early '90's. I had just finished up a day of racing at St. Thomas, and was heading home. There was a 1970 Silver Nova sitting on the lawn. It looked like a plain-jane Nova. The owner came out and we got to talking. He claimed it to be 1 of 2 "CANADIAN Yenko Nova's with the 350/360Hp 4sp. He said that ALL the 350/360Hp Nova went to YENKO BUT 2 that came north of the boarder. Funny I don't recall the COPO phase coming out of his mouth. He said his silver car was the only one "with factory traction bars"???? To me that didn't mean much as I recall that the car was tubbed at the time. But it was Silver with black interior and this guy DID say it was 1 of 2 FACTORY 350/360Hp Nova's that came to Canada..............