Thanks to some help from our friends at Chevrolet Performance, we can bring you the first videos and photos of the COPO Camaro drag concept vehicle taking its initial test runs at Bradenton Motorsports Park in Florida. The team doing the testing consists of Russ O’Blenes, Robin Wright, Scott Roslund, and Cliff Cohen, who we envy intensely for being able to take this car down the dragstrip for the first time.
We’re told that the first hit off the trailer was a 9.90 at 138 MPH, with several subsequent passes in the 9.70’s. The best run was a 9.69 at 140, with 60 foot times in the low 1.40’s. You can tell from the video that they’re launching soft, just off of idle – appropriate for the first time out in a brand new car.
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Tonight, the team is swapping out the 2.9l-blown 327 and replacing it with the naturally aspirated 427 LSX engine, and changing rear gears. We hope to have numbers for that combination tomorrow, and we’ve been promised a professionally produced video with in-car footage by the end of the week, along with interviews of the team members.
Remember, at this point the COPO is still just a concept – to make it a reality, you’ll need to help out by going to GMPerformanceParts.com [5] and getting on the COPO Camaro mailing list to show you’re interested…