COPO Convertible

[JoeC]

That story has been around for many years and seems to be accepted as true. The way I understand it is in 1967 the car was just RPO Z 28 but did not have the Z/28 emblems on it. In order to race in Trans Am the SCCA homologating requirement was 1000 cars. Chevy built 602 1967 302 Camaros but the SCCA let them slide by counting the 350cu in Camaro to make the 1000 unit total. In 1968 they wanted management (Estes) to approve the promotional ad campaign advertising the car as the Camaro Z/28. Turned out to be another one of Vinnce Piggins's good ideas.

[Rat_Pack]

Kevin, you are right about Milton being "excited" when he first got that car. Jake (JT) who was his right hand man for many, many years told me that I needed to come up and see this oddball Z-28 that Milton had just purchased. I thought it might be "Agent Orange" as he did not tell me the year of the car.

When I got there, JT and I finished watching a race that was on TV and went down to the bottom of the hill to his shop. We walked up to this British Green 68 convertible that had Z-28 stripes and emblems on it and a cowl hood. I said "is this the car?" He said yes and I said "okay someone put Z-28 emblems on a convertible Camaro." JT said nope, look at this and he handed me a stack of paperwork. I read through it and was just blown away that I was looking at the one and only Z-28 convertible. While I had been looking at the paperwork he went over and opened up the trunk and hood. I peered inside the trunk and there layed the crossram setup. He told me that Milton was more excited about this find than the Motion car. Then JT explained the hood to me as being the prototype for the over-the-counter fiberglass hood for the 69's for the Trans Am series. This car was loaded with options that I had not seen in a while on any Camaro, much less a Z-28. He told me that it was built per Estes request, because he liked convertibles, and was used as a promotional tool for the Z-28 plus as a test bed for parts for the 69 model year. He also said that Estes had another convertible 68 RS/SS 396 that was loaded.

I was up there one Sunday doing some research on some of the cars Milt had. JT and I were watching a Nascar race this time, and I told him that I wanted to get some more pictures of the Camaro's but I didn't have time that day and I told him I would be back towards the middle of the week. He said that was fine, just to give him a call and he would pull out any car that I needed to look at. Well I didn't get a chance to get back up there as JT passed away a couple of days later.

Shortly after that is when Milton sold off his collection, which you have a lot of his Camaros. I have not seen any of his cars since that day except for a few Mopars that were at Floyd's on display..............RatPack...............

[Denis]

Joe, the writeup claims the car was built mid-July 1968. The Z28 had already been in production for two model years by that time.

[JoeC]

From what I remember, the 67 and even early 68 Z/28 did not have the Z/28 emblems on them and they didn't really start promoting the Z/28 until later in 1968. They were looking for promotional funding from Estes. I don't have my books here but found another link with info from a Camaro book. I would have to look it up to check dates. By the way, does anyone know if this convertable Z/28 has AC?
http://www.67z28.com/history.htm

[Rat_Pack]

Joe, a/c is the one of the few options this car does not have. It is loaded, dlx int, fold down seat, am/fm multiplex, console and gauges, tilt, woodgrain wheel, remote mirror, spoilers, bumper guards, and pwr window. I have probably missed something but it has been a while since I saw the car.

There is a picture of the front end of it in Hooper's 67-68 Camaro reference book on page 236. For a car that was this loaded it is amazing that it was not an RS.............RatPack......................

[Jeff H]

Don't you just hate when cars like this pop up and break all the rules. LOL! Personally, I think if it was a Rally Sport car too, it would have been perfect. I wonder if the car originaly had the crossram with cowl plenum setup before they came out with the fiberglass crossram hood. But like Kevin said, it's hard to compare a 302 to a 427.

[REDZ]

Like Supercars, I had a chance to buy this car when Milton was selling after Jake's death. I also thought it was priced too high, but got caught up in the "wow" factor of the rarity of the car. You know how we play those rationalizing mind games with ourselves when trying to justify the purchase of something very expensive ( I think Milton priced the car to me at $185,000). Well I made him an offer and he laughed. Thank God! Several days later I came to my senses and realized that I had almost given away the ranch for a small block Camaro ( I also have always believed in the more cubes the better).

Milton called me several weeks later and said he would accept my offer, but by then I wasn't interested, which was good for him and for me. Good for him because I heard later that he sold the car for somewhere very close to his original asking price. Good for me because I didn't end up in the "poor house" with nothing but a $150,000 small block Camaro.