Grady Burch's Day 2 COPO Camaro

[DW31S]

That's the picture I saw at Skip's. Very cool.

[browncopo]

hey, more history on the copo. Grady was right, it was raced most of it's early life. the first owner, Ned Smith ordered the car to race it. He raced on the east coast, even had an englishtown race participant plaque on the console, 1971 I believe. He sold the car to Eli Dobrinoff from Dillsburg Pa. He owned a salvage yard in dillsburg. He raced at York U.S. 30. That's when the original motor was killed. A picture window in the block. He installed a 454 race motor. He then sold the car to Dick Barcellona in Harrisburg Pa without an engine. Dick bought a 427 L88 motor over the counter at Sutliff Chev. in Hbg. He ran the car on the street for a while. A mutual friend of ours talked Dick into going Super Stock racing so one night the front end came off and the motor came out and was disassembled. Thank goodness that's as far as it went. Dicks dad wanted his garage back and that's when I got the car. 1975 I think. I reassembled the car and raced it at york and south mountain in 1976. Toward the end of 1976 I lost reverse gear in the trans so I pulled it and took it to Winters transmissions in york. they said I didn't want to repair it but buy a full competition manual valve body trans so I did. That's when I thought the orig trans went. Evidently, they reused the case. My best time at york was 11.71 @ 117 mph. I raced only one year then did some street racing. I owned it 37 years and tried to maintain it best I could. Cliff

[1969grb]

Cliff happy to see you posting your memories of the car. When I got the car from Skip he did give me the full owner history. So far I have met Eli out of the group. Looks like you owned the car the longest of anyone. We will talk soon.

That plaque from Englishtown is still with the car. I attached it to the dash.


Do these look familiar?

[browncopo]

I think so. were they with the stuff I gave to Skip? Times were about right but 1 says 122h (heavy class?) and 1 says pro. I thought heavy class was 12.00 and up and pro class was 11.99 and under. seems backward. I also wanted to say that back when we were doing the racing we had no idea that it was a copo. we didn't even know what a copo was!

[mockingbird812]

Good golly, that just looks fine and FINE!

[DW31S]

Big MPH on those ETs. Must've been making some decent horsepower. I think the fellow Skip got it from new EXACTLY what it was.

[browncopo]

i just got my hemmings muscle car issue and saw my brown copo on page 38 right behind the blue camaro. finally after 37 years my car got in a magazine. ( of course i'm refering to gradys car )

[mockingbird812]

Welcome Ralph! Gotta be a hoot to see your old Camaro in a magazine. When did you own the car?

[mockingbird812]

Welcome Ralph! Gotta be a hoot to see your old Camaro in a magazine. When did you own the car?

Edit- whoops, missed your post above. Great stories!!!! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img]

[browncopo]

Hi mockingbird812, I owned the car for 37 years. Bought it in 1975. Garage kept the whole time. Sold the car in 2013 before we moved out to Washington state. I felt the car should stay in central Pa. near where it was purchased, (Williams Chev. in the Lebanon area). A mutual friend of ours (Scott Lightner) said the car was delivered with a white 4-speed copo. Would have liked seeing them coming off the truck! My friend Jim Gelenser had the first chance to buy the car from Dick (third owner) for 2,000.00 but said he didn't want that big motor so I got the next chance I got it for 2,500.00. Took it home and reassembled it and went racing in 1976. Raced at York U.S.30 and South Mountain, found out I couldn't afford it and put it on the street. I had a really good race record on the street. After I &quot;grew up&quot;, I just maintained it best I could, taking it to cruises and shows. More stories as I remember them. Later, Cliff