The return of the historic Chevrolet COPO Camaro namesake this year in the form of GM’s first modern factory-built race car in decades has been a trip down memory lane for many of the old-school racers who owned or longed to own one of the original cars in drag racing’s heyday. And for longtime East coast class racer Lamar Walden, the arrival of COPO Camaro No. 40 is deja vu 43 years in the making.

Walden was a decorated Pro Stock racer and was recently inducted into the East Coast Drag Racing Hall of Fame. In his driving days, Walden was backed by Chevrolet and received one of the first ZL1 Camaro’s to race on the NHRA circuit. He later drove a Vega for Barry Setzer in the 1970’s and won a staggering 31 Pro Stock races in 1976. These days, Walden works on the technical side of the racing coin, building high performance engines at his business, Lamar Walden Automotive, but the re-launch of the famed COPO Camaro ignited that tough-to-extinguish desire to step behind the wheel once again.

Walden was the proud owner of one of the original ’69 Camaro COPO’s — a car that now belongs to hall of famer and well-known car collector “Mr. October” Reggie Jackson — and he jumped at the chance to purchase one of the limited number of 69 late model COPO’s.

Walden purchased the rare naturally aspirated 427 model (only six of the 69 have such a combination) from Jim Ellis Chevrolet in Atlanta, Ga. Walden displayed the car at the dealership for several days, and when he arrived to pick the car up on Monday, celebrated the lucky purchase as only a drag racer would: by performing a long, smoky burnout through the cleared parking lot in front of the dealer showroom, much to the delight of the staff and curious onlookers.

“Lamar Walden is a historical figure in the drag racing community and his willingness to display the power of this monster machine was as much of a rare treat as the car itself.”, touts Mark Frost, General Manager of Jim Ellis Chevrolet. “Their 2012 COPO Camaro is the 7.0L(427) naturally aspirated making around 850 horsepower. The non-street legal car was made specifically for drag racing which has a limited run of only 69 cars. This was the first time that they’ve been recreated since 1969 and there are no plans at this time to build them again. To have a famous drag racer performing a full burnout in one of the most rare Camaro’s on the planet was a very momentous honor.”