[COPO]

For the most part, the BM cars did in fact start out as factory hi-horse cars. Typiclly the L-78 short block was pulled and then re-sold through the Baldwin Chevrolet parts department. This kept the overall build cost of the cars low and made the swap to a 427 relatively easy. I recall reading some articles stating this and my own actual experience on 67, 68, and 69 BM cars that I have owned were they all started as original SS L-78 cars.