1969 Camaro

Wow A 1969 Camaro!

Well General Motors did not in fact come out with a new model of the Camaro in 1969, instead they made the existing models better. 1969 Camaro’s are included in the first generation of the model, and with the first generation came the Z28 model that was designed to appear in the Trans Am race series.

The COPO

In 1968 Fred Gibb persuaded GM to make a Camaro with a all aluminum LZ-1 engine, they agreed only if Fred could order at least 50 of them. This new engine was dubbed the COPO option which stands for Central Office Production Offer. This option would inlide a large 427 cubic inch engine, in a small light Camaro. In 1969 there were only 19 produced and sold in the United States.

The Improved Camaro

When they began making the 1969 Camaro they designed it to be a more safer car than that of the earlier models. GM mandated that the car could not come from the factory with a engine bigger than 6.6 liters. Now to find a loop hole some dealerships offered the Camaro with the 7 liter engine. When this happened GM was forced to add another COPO to the list with the numbers 9560 and 9561. The COPO 9561 option came with the L-72 Corvette engine. There were only 1,015 of these ever made though. The 9560 COPO option included the 7 liter ZL-1 engine. Only 69 were ever made of this version and is said to be the rarest Camaro out there.

Differences in the years

For the most part the 1969 version of the Camaro stayed the same. The grille however was redesigned, and the headlights sat farther back. The car also had a reshaped doorand rear quarter panel. The rear valence changed which gave the car a more low and wide posture. The 1969 Camaro was the last of the first generation made, the last models within the first generation were made in late December of 1969.

An abundance of facts about the 1969 Camaro

Some may not know much about the 1969 Camaro so here’s a little bit of information for you. Upon creation the 1969 Camaro was placed under the HT Sport Coupe body style, with the car having rear wheel drive. The average weight of the car is close to 3,042 pounds and might cost you about $2,635 back when it was released. The car came with a normal 6 cyclinder engine, and ran at about 140HP. The manual version only had 3 gears, and it was possible to purchase with a automatic transmission which had 4 gears.