Authenticating A COPO

[Stefano]

William,

You certainly have quite a bit of knowledge about first generation Camaros and have been dealing with them for quite some time and I appreciate and respect your knowledge, contributions as well as what you have done and continue to do with CRG.

However, it seems to me that you are straddling both sides of the fence on this issue.

You are stating on one hand that you can't verify a COPO w/o factory/dealer paperwork and/or an original engine, then on the other you support and endorse an individual for hire who does certify COPOs without your requisite parameters,and who does so on a fairly regular basis?

Ed Cuneen has been out of the mix for a long time.

[William]

I'm not on any fence. Jerry and I have been friends for some time and he is free to do as he pleases. We agree to disagree on some of the stuff he does. I know I talked him out of one "COPO" certification years ago. The car had nothing more than a BE axle dated several weeks AFTER the car was built and evidence of a ZL2 hood. 25 years ago I added ZL2, N33, N34 and a few other options to a '69 Z/28. I watched that "all original car" sell at R-S last January. I laughed as people checked to see if it had a flat-bottom air cleaner. Of course it did.

In my 15 years at CPX some of our customers built clones. One of them, a black '69 SS-RS L78 convert, started life as an early-production Le Mans blue SS350. The current owner was quite disappointed to hear the real story. Every part in that car is date-code correct.

What I can say is this: given a reasonable budget and some time a knowledgeable shop could build whatever you want [exc ZL1] and no one will be able to prove it isn't real.

Therein lies the peril in "certifying" undocumentable cars.

[Hylton]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: William</div><div class="ubbcode-body">What I can say is this: given a reasonable budget and some time a knowledgeable shop could build whatever you want [exc ZL1] and no one will be able to prove it isn't real.

Therein lies the peril in &quot;certifying&quot; undocumentable cars.
</div></div>

Prove it isn't real? A restored car is fake unless proven otherwise and it 's been proven that a JM Cert is no proof it's the real deal.