By now you should be familiar with Chevrolet’s COPO (Central Office Production Order) system, which was a channel used for fleet orders. It also was used to bypass GM’s cubic inch limit for vehicles that weren’t full-size models or Corvettes, resulting in the two versions of the 427 Camaro: the L72 and the ZL-1.

With about 1,000 Camaros built with the L72, there’s bound to be a few that have survived in as-raced condition. How about one with 215 miles on the odometer?

Vincent Tarantola was the original owner of this COPO Camaro. Unlike most of the COPOs out there, this Hugger Orange example was ordered without a radio or any of the usual trim packages (in this case, it’s spec’d as having the base “X44” trim level), plus the TH400 automatic transmission.

After 21 miles through the streets of Queens and Brooklyn, it was pulled off the road and then became an mule for prototype torque converters – after all, Vincent was owner of Vitar Engineering, a company that specialized in high performance transmissions and torque converters.

Many accomplished racers used Vitar’s products, including Grumpy Jenkins and Ray Allen, so I ain’t just whistling Dixie here when I say it’s no wonder that this COPO Camaro was the winner of National Super Stock Eliminator at the 1970 AHRA Super Nationals.

Two years later, the Camaro changed hands and was modified further, continuing a pattern that would last through the early 1990s when it was restored to its Day Two incarnation. Cool, right? But wouldn’t it be nicer in your garage? Because Nickey Chicago is offering this documented piece of COPO history for a cool $165,000.