1969 ZL1 Copo Camaro Test, Prepped by Dick Harrell -Motor Trend

[JoeC]

I was looking through some old ZL-1 posts and found one from Bill Porterfield about ZL-1 #2 and #5. He said when he was putting the info together for the Hooper book in 1990 he assumed that #1 and #2 were the cars tested by Dick Harrell but later thought that the ones in the article were #1 and #5.

The 1969 article he used stated that the street ZL-1 in the test article was set up for Shay Nichols (#5).

Bill said Nichols purchased the #5 car from Fred Gibb on 5/7/69 and #2 was purchased by a guy in Oklahoma on 3/6/69.

I assume Bill got the info and dates from Fred Gibb.

If the article was done before the first race , it had to be before Jan 23, 1969.

#2 and #5 are both Dusk Blue TH400 cars so may have been easy to mix them up.

[William]

The info came from the Gibb dealership ledger for the ZL-1s. Bill had much of the dealership paperwork for 34 years, did basically nothing with it. The files were sold to a private collector last year; finally got to see them. 10 hours was not nearly enough, making a return visit soon.

#5 was a career race car, not known to exist.

[JoeC]

I save the info and photos on ZL-1s that comes up on the drag racing sites.

This came up on the Nichols #5 that became Lemon Drop , it was run by Larry Nelson

This photo was in Texas 1973 where he failed to qualify for Pro Stock then ran the car in Competition Eliminator class

[William]

Little bit of a mystery surrounding it.

It is seen in vintage photos with a white interior. Must have been swapped soon after they bought it. This is from the early '70s. There are pics of it in '69 with the same paint, the Dick Harrell shield on the doors and the original ducted hood. No 427 pro on the fenders.