1967 Camaro Pace Car

[FESTIVAL78]

I have never noticed the 1/8" punch but wasn't looking either..I'll check mine. The - does make sense for the paint to me but only if the GM plant workers also read the trim tag. Many Norwood cars that I've seen have the tag painted white as if hit with a shot of spray paint(can).If the Fisher guys read the tag and built their part with paint being the final task then why paint the tag white unless the GM side needed to read it as well (I suspect the white helped to shadow the tag imprints for better readability?)I've seen tags that were taped over and remained silver color? Another method of keeping them readable?

[FESTIVAL78]

Matt and Charley..What are your thoughts on the clear coat assumption..I'm hedging towards no at this point but that throws a curve ball to the C-1 vs. 0-1 explainations

[JoeC]

I have been researching a similar dash that I found on my 67 Yenko Camaro trim tag and 3 other documented 67 Yenko Camaros so am also researching a little on the dash on 67 Pace cars. I am not happy with the quantity of data to make any firm conclusions but here are some theories I am working on. Some Camaro researchers tell me my dash was for special paint but I know the original owner of my car who said it had the white stripe no different then other SS Camaros. Also I would think that a dash just for paint or stripe delete would be in the paint code field of the trim tag not in the area of the 4-5 code field. On the 67 pace cars there were some factory clear coat paint cars with a 0-1 paint code where other cars had a C-1 paint code. I think the dash in the 4-5-code field was for some type of COPO. This would not be a high performance COPO but one for a fleet or special order. I have found strange trim tags on police cars, military vehicles, red cross bloodmobiles and other cars that I believe were ordered COPO not RPO. One of the Camaro books reprinted some original Chevy documents on the 67 Indy 500 program where they list 79 vehicles (Camaros, 9-pass wagons, ¾ ton trucks, and ½ ton trucks) After the list is this sentence quoted from this document “ All vehicles with the exception of the brass hat cars have already been ordered out of Central Office for delivery as follows”. Does this mean a COPO was done on these dash cars? Maybe the dash in the 4-5 field of trim tag was some type of identification mark that told the assembly plant that there were some special instructions required for this car. A dash stamped vehicle could have had an information package that traveled with the car from time of trim tag stamping. When a dash car showed up, they knew the car had some type of special instructions required for delivery. I have some of the original files from Yenko’s Canonsburg office where I found documents where Don was requesting a COPO on the 67 Camaro but it is not clear what he was asking for. I don’t think it was for hi po equipment but more for a fleet order. There are a few reasons why I think Yenko may have been allowed to COPO vs RPO some of the 67 Camaros. Don was always looking for low price on the base car for his Supercars so a fleet order may have allowed a lower price same as a fleet order of taxi cabs or phone co. cars would allow special pricing. The fleet order would allow Don to order a large quantity of L78 Camaros. It was difficult to get an L78 Camaro in 67. There were only 1140 L78 Camaros built in 67 which would be less then 3 per dealer and Yenko batch ordered about 50 L78s. Yenko’s 1967 ads specified 4 colors which also indicated some type of batch order for some of his cars. All this is my opinion from my research on the 67 Yenkos but maybe this will help someone who is researching the 67 Pace cars with dash on trim tag.

[FESTIVAL78]

Excellent theorizing..Besides the published books do you have any thoughts on the validity of the clear coat?

[67ss350Camaro]

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On another note . . . anyone see a hole punch in the bottom of a trim plate ?? about the size of a 1/8" punch ?? I have seen this on many trim plates, not a ton, but more than a few . . . any ideas ??

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CRG has been tracking this for some time now. At this point it just looks like the only think in common is that they are in groups throughout the year.

As far as the dash goes, we have data on more than a dozen cars that have the dash that are not pace cars. Looks like it was just used for some kind of special order purposes.

[FESTIVAL78]

Oh and by the way JoeC,,I could get used to calling my smallblock pacer a COPO! But that might be splitting hairs

[JoeC]

I almost didn't use the term "COPO" because the magazines have blown up the term into a name for hi po 427 and LT1 cars that gets people over-excided but really there were a lot of "COPO" cars and trucks made for fleet and special orders that could not be built as RPO. It is unfortunate that Chevy didn’t keep better records of all the special vehicles they built but it would have been a huge record-keeping task.
The non Pace cars with dash on trim tags may be some type of special fleet order but nothing to do with racing. I read that some of the zones would get dealers together and order a fleet of cars with colors or options that were not available with RPO. They would run some type of local promotional campaign to sell the cars and build showroom traffic. I remember reading about special zone orders not only GM but others auto co.
Chevy took the 67 Pace car program very seriously. Looking through the GM documentation they mention the Central Office a few times. They even had a “Central Office Headquarters Room” at the Speedway Motel and set up a blanket purchase order so any cost to the Indy zones can be “ rebilled to Chevrolet Central Office Merchandising Department”. I would love to see those bills going by stories I have read about race car drivers and promo cars.
There is no mention of clear coat cars in these docs but I read somewhere else that the cars used at the speedway had factory clear coat. Maybe because of the sandblasting effect of running around the Indy track at high speed? Not sure about that but you know there must have been some hi speed runs in the Camaro L78s.

[matt murphy]

JoeC,

Great info . . . I don't think the 0-1 was a clear coat paint. I thought at first it was, but did they even have clear coat paint then and if so, what would it do for the cars. I believe it could have been a different, brighter, GM White, maybe from a Cadillac, Buick, etc. I was told they did that because it helped the decals stand out on the car better for public viewing from the grand stand or watching them on TV or in the parades.

If the - (dash) is not a stripe delete for the bumblebee and pin stripe, then my second guess is that maybe it is for different shocks or springs for these cars as they were used for parade purposes and they knew these cars would be carrying heavy loads. I have had a few guys say that their pace cars didnt have the right springs or shocks in them and they just replaced them with correct ones.

My guess though is that the - (dash) still had something to do with a paint delete . . . Didn't the '68's have a - (dash) as a paint delete ?? What about some '67 Yenkos with no stripes on them ?? Are there any like that ?? I think it was a paint delete item that just ended up in the 4th or 5th group in '67.