Most General Motors fans know all about the Central Office Production Order options, or COPO, as they are often called. COPO was an order system originally used by GM dealers in the 1960s to generate specialty vehicle orders, mostly for fleet vehicles. COPO became associated with performance cars, however, as dealers began to use the system to create high-performance versions of GM vehicles that weren’t available as regular production models. A well-known COPO model is the 1969 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, which dealers ordered with the aluminum 427 cubic-inch V8—originally intended to be a racing motor only.
Not all COPO cars are as well-known as the 1969 Camaro ZL1, however. For example, take this 1975 Chevrolet El Camino that will be soon be auctioned off at Mecum’s Chicago sale. It features the front end from a Chevrolet Chevelle Laguna, which was only available on the El Camino through the COPO order books. GM didn’t advertise the slant-nose Laguna front end as an option on the El Camino and as such, not many buyers even knew it could be added onto it. The Chevelle Laguna front end bolts right onto an El Camino of this generation with no modification, so some owners could have added it on after the fact, but this car was ordered from the factory like this—making it rather rare. The COPO option code for the Laguna front end on the 1975 El Camino was 6H1.
This particular El Camino also features a Chevrolet 350 cubic-inch crate engine and American Racing wheels wrapped in BFGoodrich tires. It was also ordered with factory air conditioning and recently received a new A/C compressor, according to the auction listing.
It’s hard to say what this 1975 El Camino COPO Laguna is really worth, as these vehicles rarely come up for sale. It’s also not clear just how many El Caminos were ordered with the Laguna front end from the factory. Check out the listing at this link for some additional information and photos before the car crosses the auction block in Chicago this weekend.
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Comments
Why the long face?
Live to dream.. use a 2019 Chevrolet Blazer RS AWD as a starting point to build a new El Camino; stretch out the front doors a bit and then gut everything rear of the front seats.
the ads you;re running on here (trump end obama era program to aid in home payment reductions) completely untrue.
whats the sell to yourself to justify it? thats rhetorical fyi. enjoy that next look in the mirror
Interesting vehicle but I wonder why the owner didn’t clean the filthy interior before taking the photos. (See Mecum listing)
I work in the Arlington GM plant. Local lore has it that this combination came about as the result of a build sequencing error. A Laguna front end came to the installation operation mis-indexed – one job out of order. To keep the line running the Laguna front end was installed on the El Camino. It fit fine. Car guys being car guys it was noted that “hey, that looks kinda good”. The job was left as it was and the local folks tried to sell the look to the central office types. They – apparently – had a case of ‘it wasn’t invented here’ – so it couldn’t be any good. After much pressure they signed off on the option but their reluctance drove nearly zero marketing for it. That’s the story that I got. It is either gospel or hokum, but it was a neat tale regardless.
I got my first “real” job in 75, and the company I worked for sent me to Dallas for a few days to travel with our Dallas sales manager. While there I came across a dealer that had 3 or 4 new El Caminos with this Laguna nose installed. Being a fan of El Caminos (I had a 71 at the time), when I got back to Jersey I checked around with a few local dealers and they all told me basically the same thing, “not available, must be a local market special edition”. A couple days later I was told I was getting a company car, so I didn’t bother pursing it further. I ended up ordering a new El Camino in 77, and again asked about the possibility of ordering one with the S-3 Laguna nose, and was again told that it wasn’t possible.
6h1. Does Not appear on any information I have at all.
Where did U get that information?
I have researched this claim, seems to be false narrative . Please show us the information and where you found it for a Laguna nose on a el Camino .
Never built at the factory. It should have been a no brainer option because this is the best facia ever on a Camino. I like it better than my 1970 Camino..