The car on the trailer is the very first ZL-1 pictured above. Do those guys look happy? Well it is 22 degrees below zero, and to get the car off the transport they had to use a tow truck because the car would not start.
Fred Gibb was instrumental in the development of the ZL-1. He had became close friends with Chevrolet's Vince Piggins, and after working with Vince for several months concepting the car, Chevrolet decided to go ahead. Mr. Piggins informed Fred that there was one little problem. Chevrolet would have to build 50 of these cars for the public to qualify the car for competition. Fred said "No problem." I will take all 50!
Chevrolet estimated the cost of this bare bones-stripped car to be around $4,900.00. You can imagine Fred's shock when the cars showed up with a price tag of $7,269.00. If my math is correct, that is over $363,000.00 (list price) worth of race cars !
http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r185/185sport/ZL1-new.jpg?t=1227830829

Cool pic and story....thanks for sharing!

You're Welcome, found it here.................
http://fredgibb.com/gibb_history.html

Boy, GM was bare bones back then...delivering their car cars individually on tandem axle trailers towed by a Caprice wagon! :)

Fred Gibb deserves a lot of credit for making the deal with Chevy but the other guy in the picture was the one behind the design of the drag car. That is Dick Harrell who was a top drag racer and worked with Nickey Chevrolet and Bill Thomas in early 1967 on the 427 Camaro design and build, then worked with Yenko Chevrolet on his 427 Super Camaro design and build. In 1968-71 he worked with Fred Gibb on the COPO Chevy II and ZL1 and sold his own special built cars.

In 1967 Harrell's drag cars were sponsored by Nickey then Yenko

In 1968 Harrell's drag cars were sponsored by Fred Gibb

{QUOTE} (In 1967 Harrell's drag cars were sponsored by Nickey then Yenko

In 1968 Harrell's drag cars were sponsored by Fred Gibb )


Joe the FC's were sponsered by COURTESY in 67-68.Here is a pic of ZL1 #2 that was at my show this year it's been tucked away for almost 26 years.

http://www.detroithorsepower.com/forum/index.php?topic=3944.0

Bill Porterfield,Connie Gibb,Valerie Harrell and the owners.

Tim, The 1967 Harrell Camaro FC and ChevyII streemliner FC both had Yenko Sponsorship

Was the no. 2 ZL1 raced ?

Awesome pic! I wonder if the driver's window is rolled down to prevent scratching/smacking the door with the trailer fender?

I wonder if the driver's window is rolled down to prevent scratching/smacking the door with the trailer fender?
I'm not so sure they didn't push/pull the car onto the trailer? I know they had to pull it off of the Chevrolet transport (with a tow truck I believe?) because it was so friggin' cold & without a choke on the 850 the car wouldn't start...Dennis Hartweg was there that day (his father worked for Fred Gibb), and he recalled the story before he passed away. Anyway, no taller than that trailer is, I'm guessing it would be pretty easy to roll up some ramps.

About the *chopped* Chevy II...there is an older guy here in town that has raced about anything on wheels, and used to live in St. Louis many moons ago as a machinist/fabricator. We were talking about radical car setups one day, and he starting talking about this topless Chevy II he had worked on while in St. Louis...I mean describing it in detail, folks involved with it, etc, etc...we thought he was nuts, but the more he talked, the more we realized he was talking about that Harrell Chevy II...he wasn't bragging, he was so nonchalant and matter of fact about it, just like it was some no-name's stockcar that he was working on at the time...small world!

Joe both the 67 (painted gold) and the 68 FC camaros were also sponsored by COURTESY.The 69 also ran under COURTESY and GIBB.The number #2 car was raced and was the other car besides the #1 car that recieved the new carb and tune.I believe it was raced at AZ. or Texas? The number #2 ZL1 is scheduled for a feature in the january edition of a major musclecar mag. PICS BELOW OF 67-68-69 FUNNYCARS

http://www.detroithorsepower.com/forum/index.php?topic=3945.0

I'm not so sure they didn't push/pull the car onto the trailer? I know they had to pull it off of the Chevrolet transport (with a tow truck I believe?) because it was so friggin' cold & without a choke on the 850 the car wouldn't start...Dennis Hartweg was there that day (his father worked for Fred Gibb), and he recalled the story before he passed away. Anyway, no taller than that trailer is, I'm guessing it would be pretty easy to roll up some ramps.

About the *chopped* Chevy II...there is an older guy here in town that has raced about anything on wheels, and used to live in St. Louis many moons ago as a machinist/fabricator. We were talking about radical car setups one day, and he starting talking about this topless Chevy II he had worked on while in St. Louis...I mean describing it in detail, folks involved with it, etc, etc...we thought he was nuts, but the more he talked, the more we realized he was talking about that Harrell Chevy II...he wasn't bragging, he was so nonchalant and matter of fact about it, just like it was some no-name's stockcar that he was working on at the time...small world!

Awesome Story:beers:

From what I remember about reading on this event, Chevrolet guaranteed him a ZL1 before January 1st, 1969. That car was delivered late on December 31st, 1968.l:)

The car in the picture looks like it's still in primer. Is that the way the cars were delivered?

No Camaro ever left the factory in primer. The first two ZL-1s were Dusk Blue.

Nice feature on #2 in the January 2009 Muscle Car Review.

Lol

I always wondered why the picture of Fred Gibb and Dick Harrell with ZL1 #1 was dated February of 1969. I thought the car was being raced before then. When was #1 converted to a Gibb/Harrell race car? That pic certainly was not taken upon delivery.

the date on the picture may be the date it was developed not date taken.

The story in the magazines was that it was delivered on Dec 30 1968 and made ready in 3 weeks for a AHRA race in Phoenix where it failed tech inspection for wrong Holley.

Chevy eng Paul Pryor hand delivered a correct 850 Holley at the Phoenix race.

There is a picture of Fred Gibb with Paul Pryor and ZL1 #1 said to be taken at this race.

Would be interesting to find the date of this 1969 AHRA race in Phoenix

I googled it and found the first outing of the 1969 season was the AHRA Winternationals at Bee Line Dragway, Phoenix, AZ. in Jan but no day listed

Very cool!:thumbsup:

here is the picture of Fred Gibb with Paul Pryor and ZL1 #1 said to be taken at it's first race.

This is a great picture because Chevrolet said they were "out of racing" but here you have a picture of Chevy Engineer Paul Pryor delivering a 850 DP Holley to a drag race.

So this picture is evidence of the Chevy Underground Racing Dept. "AKA" Product Promotion Group.

the date on the picture may be the date it was developed not date taken.



The date on the picture is in fact the date that the film was developed as the capability of inserting the date into a picture did not exist at that time.

David F.

Did some editing guys...
Lets not wreck a really cool historical discussion with details that should be quibbled about in "restoration".

The chopped Nova FC is cool. Was that a DH car? Sponsored by Yenko? Then the 67-68-69 Camaro DH FC's were sponsored by Courtesy?

Dick Harrell and Don Yenko had deal in 1967 where Yenko sponsored the Harrell Funny car, the streamliner Chevy II, and a 67 Camaro Super Stocker.

Also Dick Harrell's shop assembled some of the 1967 Yenko 427 Super Camaros


The streamliner Chevy II drag car was built by a shop that did Bonneville salt flat cars.
Don Garlits also had a streamliner Dart but I hear they were heavy and didn't work that well so the streamliner drag cars were a short lived experiment in the 60s

Harrell moved to a new larger Performence Center shop in 1968 and began working with Fred Gibb Chevrolet and was selling his own name badged cars.

Sorry Jim, I intended my comments as a joke. Didn't see Tim's response before it was deleted, but judging from the two posts within an hour of mine, and the quick delete, I must have struck a nerve. Sorry Tim, I didn't mean to start anything. Sometimes I think something is funny, but others don't.

It wasn't you I knew you were kidding.I read your post so you must be ok.

It wasn't you I knew you were kidding.
Can you pics of just the car ,it sounds sweet.I'm assuming it's the Dusk Blue car,I love those cars.:thumbsup:

http://www.detroithorsepower.com/forum/index.php?topic=3944.msg24338

Last pic in the link.

Thanks for the pics:thumbsup:,I really enjoyed that !!!!:D
Anything COPO or ZL1 gets my heart going.:yes:
http://www.detroithorsepower.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=dpohgqpkqo18aieer7h88bcqo7&action=dlattach;topic=3944.0;id=3906;image
http://www.detroithorsepower.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=dpohgqpkqo18aieer7h88bcqo7&action=dlattach;topic=3944.0;id=3905;image
The following pictures are either real or tributes,either way you have to love them.

#25 Of 69
http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r185/185sport/cars008-1.jpg?t=1231378055

Camaro Paradise...................Yenko yard
http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r185/185sport/GibbZL1Yard.jpg?t=1231378283

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r185/185sport/templa1.jpg?t=1231378435

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r185/185sport/Cb02.jpg?t=1231378476

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r185/185sport/0113_003_1873751_std.jpg?t=1231378507

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r185/185sport/82789072_1.jpg?t=1231378550

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r185/185sport/1969_Camaro_Copo_Cloner_front_side_.jpg?t=12313785 87

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r185/185sport/83057338_1.jpg?t=1231378631

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r185/185sport/69camarocopo_main.gif?t=1231378654

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r185/185sport/sucp_0703_02_z2006_pure_stock_drags.jpg?t=12313787 67

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r185/185sport/IMG014.jpg?t=1231378894
http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r185/185sport/IMG016.jpg?t=1231378934

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r185/185sport/hugger4.jpg?t=1231379122

Camaro Paradise....................Gibb ZL1 yard
http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r185/185sport/GibbZL1Yard.jpg?t=1231378283

That is actually the Yenko yard, not Gibb.

I stand corrected, got it off another site.Thanks Clill

And all the COPOs are 9561, not 9560 (ZL1)

There are lots of COPO's besides 9561. We just commonly call 9561 a COPO.

I was searching for info on the first ZL1 Camaro that Grumpy built from his 1969 L78.
It failed tech at it first race because he could not prove that the 50 minimum cars were built and sold to the public as per NHRA rules.

I found this interesting ZL1 story. It says Grumpy was there as a spectator then left early but I think this is the race where they would not let the ZL1 run.


"How Arlen Vanke Spoiled Grumpy’s Day"

"It was the summer of 1969 and we were having a ball racing my original ’63 Dodge 426 Max Wedge “Drag’n Wag’n.” My friend Arlen Vanke had originally built the engine and was involved in every step of preparing it, and from the onset, that Dodge was an outstanding race car, capable of running under the national record whenever and wherever it needed to.

Since we raced off of the national record, it was important then to be able to run quicker than it; there was no index. Meanwhile, Arlen was running rampant over the other NHRA Super Stock cars in Division 3 in his manually-shifted SS/B Hemi Barracuda; the car could clock 10.20s-10.30s on the 10.64 record, and he and Ronnie Sox were winning many of the national events.

Unfortunately, with the NHRA World Finals only a few months away in Amarillo, Texas, things were not going so great for the guys at Chrysler’s Performance Product Planning. What had happened was that Chevrolet had just succeeded in persuading NHRA to approve the new ZL1 Camaro for Super Stock C stick. These were lightweight Camaros with high-compression, mechanical-cammed 427 motors, decked out with aluminum parts. To be legal, they had to make 50 of them, but many people felt GM reached that number using mirrors. What really compounded the problem was that Bill “Grumpy” Jenkins and Dave Strickler quickly got the ZL1s dialed in to where they could run 10.90s on the soft SS/C 11.31 record. Now, you may not like the Grump because of his affiliation with the Bow Tie brand, but he was truly way ahead of everyone else when it came to Chevrolet engines, and was absolutely brilliant when it came to setting up a drag car. Strickler, with an uncanny sense on the tree, was recognized as a great driver; put him in a car with black Jenkins Competition arrows on the rear quarters, and he was awesome. Running off that soft class record, they would be a real problem to beat.

So Arlen got a call from Dick Maxwell at Chrysler Performance Product Planning. Can Arlen find a ’65 A990 car to build into an SS/C machine? Sure. Oh, and by the way, can you have it done in the next couple weeks to run at the NHRA points meet at National Trail Raceway? You see, at the time, you could only set a record during NHRA-authorized record runs at events, and that new record would be the subsequent class index. If you were more than a tenth of a second under your class record during eliminations, you automatically lost. The only time this rule was waived was if you went to the final round; in that case, you ran whatever you could, and that number could count as a new record if applicable. Arlen assured Dick that, yes, he could get this done and would be at National Trail Raceway (current site of the Mopar Nationals) to set the SS/C mark low enough that the ZL1 would not be a problem. Arlen told Maxwell, “Start shipping parts, I’ll find a car.”
With only a couple of weeks to do it, Arlen ended up getting the Golden Commandos old back-up car, an A990-code Plymouth. But since it had never been used as a race car, it needed extra preparation time for a tach, electric fuel pumps, and wheelwell reworking, among other things, plus the manual transmission. Time was the one thing Arlen didn’t have, but a lot of people, to a small extent myself included, got busy helping him make it happen, while he put together an engine, transmission, and rear end himself. As the event drew near, we knew we would get it done, but it was going to be close.

Saturday morning at the National Trail event featured tech, time trials, and record runs, with Sunday reserved for eliminations. Needless to say, Arlen got in late; that big fresh Hemi hadn’t even been fired yet. The car was unloaded, he set the timing and drove it for the first time ever, taking it to get teched in. It passed without problems, and since it was new, Arlen had a couple of friends drive it around in the pits to get some time on the engine and driveline.

Now, everyone at the track figured something was going on. “Akron Arlen” Vanke had one of the strongest Hemi Barracudas in the country, and he showed up at a major event like this with a ’65 car? The rumors were rampant, but, as we all eventually realized, there are no real secrets in drag racing. Somebody had let the cat out of the bag, and, lo and behold, who came through the gate as a spectator but none other than Bill “Grumpy” Jenkins himself! (Remember, I told you he was smart.)

So, with some pit time in on the engine, Arlen pulled into the staging lanes, but instead of making a time trial, he pulled into the lane for record runs. When he got to the front of the line, it seemed like everything at the track stopped. There was no water box then, so Arlen did a series of dry hops to warm the tires. The car sounded threatening; he would wing the motor, dump the clutch, and have it stopped in a couple of feet. Staged for the run, the five-count tree came down, Arlen matted the gas, and I swear you could hear that Super Stock Hemi five miles away. WHAM. At the flick of green, he let the clutch fly and the car began what would surely be one of the quickest runs ever for an A990 car. But it was not to be; moments later, the car wouldn’t shift into Second gear, the rpm fell, and Arlen coasted through the traps. I figured the worst had happened, that something must have broken. I knew Arlen would not be happy, and I knew that Grump would be smiling. However, an inspection revealed that the number 7 header pipe had interfered with the clutch linkage. As quickly as possible, Arlen got the header off, flattened that tube with a hammer, and prepared for another try at the number.

Once back in line for his second attempt, the whole place knew that C record was going down, and going down hard. Man, I knew it—I was grinning from ear to ear—the Grump was history. As the Belvedere came to the line, everyone was standing, and at the last yellow, Arlen’s foot came off the clutch pedal and the monster was loose. This time, a smooth shift to Second. This was it! He was on one! Then nothing; the front end dropped down, the car wouldn’t shift into Third, and it was over. By now, the day was late, and the opportunity was past. Something more serious had happened, and there would not be another chance to set the record. I didn’t even want to go to his pit; Arlen had to be hurting. What could I say? What could anybody say at that point? Arlen had told Maxwell that he could do this, made every human effort to make it happen, and had failed. The Grump, probably now wearing the grin I had had only moments earlier, left for Pennsylvania, knowing his record was intact. Or was it?

Sunday dawned a little overcast, but was a perfect fall race day. Overnight, Arlen had returned to his shop in Akron, pulled the transmission, and repaired the blocker ring that had caused the Third-gear problem. He worked most of the night, got very little sleep, and then returned to the track for the race. Record runs were over, but perhaps we could still salvage some round wins with the new car.

Up against a full field of Super Stock entries, I was able to see Arlen win the first round with an 11.50 on the 11.31 index. That monster Hemi growled on every run, caught up with its opponents and then inched ahead at the finish. But, as I watched, I noticed Arlen never extended the car, running just good enough to win without going under the record. By now, a lot of onlookers figured that Arlen had built a good 11.30–11.40 machine, nothing less and nothing more. Then, in the late afternoon, there were only two cars left in the Super Stock: Dewey Cook in a similar ’65 A990 Hemi car, and Arlen.

At that moment, everyone suddenly realized that if Vanke indeed had a record-setting car, he could do it right then. His failures yesterday had all been mechanical; this car had never been run flat out. So when they called the final for Super Stock, you could feel the excitement in the air. The two big Hemi cars were fired and ready, carefully staging for the money run. Arlen’s car had a sound all its own. At the final yellow, Arlen dumped the clutch, and, by the green, the monster jumped out of the gate. We were on our way! Bang! Second gear came quickly and the car was moving. Oh, man, let him get Third this time. Got it! Cook was dropping back—he must have been having problems. In Fourth gear, Vanke’s Hemi was roaring as it hit the traps. His win light came on and pandemonium broke loose. There were no scoreboards in this era, and we waited to hear announcer Clark Rader’s voice through the speakers.

“Arlen Vanke wins and resets the national record to10.64!”Seven tenths of a second! The record was hammered! Of course, at the time-card shack, NHRA officials were waiting as Arlen came down from the top end and he was escorted to the scales. No problem; the car was legal by a solid 20 pounds. Next came teardown to ensure that, indeed, no funny business was going on, and like Arlen’s other cars, it passed with flying colors.

I was with Arlen when he won Indy, and I had been there for some of his other wins, but this fall points race was the proudest day he ever had. While it was good to win the race and good to set the record, I will always believe that to Arlen, the most important thing was that he had done what he had promised Maxwell and lived up to his word. As for Grump, well, Sox would win the ’69 World Finals. That afternoon was one of the sport’s finest hours in my mind, and I am fortunate to say, “I was there.” "

—Dave Duell, longtime Mopar Sportsman drag racer, in a story done for this feature.

And all the COPOs are 9561, not 9560 (ZL1)
Both are COPO's

The white car in post #31 must be "O.J's" - it has Florida plates ...

The thread is about the ZL1, and someone posted a pic of the Yenko storage field and called it the Gibb ZL1 yard. Charlie corrected that noting that it was the Yenko yard.

I was simply trying to clarify that while the pic was indeed the Yenko yard, it was not a ZL1 yard, as all the COPOs at Yenko were COPO9561. None were ZL-1's (COPO9560).

I probably should have said, "all the COPOs in the pic were COPO9561; none in the pic were COPO9560 (ZL1)"

Not a good thread for you? (smiley face)

Yeah, Tim. I'm exhausted!! :)

I still love you Gary,LOL :D :thumbsup:.How's the weather up your way ?

Some of these pic's came from www.detroithorsepower.com
I want to thank them for sharing car history ,along with other sites .Thanks guys....alan

Now I understand Unreal..