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Fred Gibb

Dealer behind the COPO 9560 ZL1 order

Hugger Orange 1969 Camaro SS 396
1969 Camaro SS 396 Photo: Sicnag, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons Original photograph License

Fred Gibb was a small-town Illinois Chevrolet dealer, not originally a performance dealer at all, and he is the reason the most extreme factory Camaro ever built exists. In the summer of 1968 he went to Vince Piggins wanting a purpose-built NHRA drag car, and the result was COPO 9560, the all-aluminum ZL1 427.

The racing angle reportedly began by accident. One of Gibb's own employees bought a Z/28 and started winning locally, which is a long way from commissioning the rarest Camaro of the first generation.

Yellow 1969 Camaro Yenko/SC
1969 Camaro Yenko/SC (COPO) Photo: Sicnag, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; plates and faces blurred Original photograph License

What made the ZL1 possible was COPO, the Central Office Production Order. It was GM's mechanism for special fleet and dealer orders outside the normal catalog, and the route dealers used to get big-block power into a Camaro past GM's own internal displacement policy. Gibb brought a specific request, and Piggins found the paperwork to make it happen.

How the 69 ZL1s were first ordered
How the 69 ZL1s were first ordered Gibb: 50 cars; Other dealers: 19 cars; Total: 69 cars. These are initial orders, not final retail sales. Many of Gibb’s cars were redistributed to other dealers. Gibb 50 cars Other dealers 19 cars Total 69 cars
These are initial orders, not final retail sales. Many of Gibb’s cars were redistributed to other dealers. Original CamaroFacts diagram. Camaro Research Group reference.

Gibb's COPO dealings also fed Dick Harrell, who built competition automatic 427 Novas from a separate Gibb order, COPO 9738, and used them to establish NHRA's automatic class.

The full COPO story is in the rare and significant cars and the first generation.

Did you know

  • The ZL1 wasn't Gibb's first trick with COPO. In 1968 he had Chevrolet build 50 L78 Novas with special automatic transmissions for drag racing (order 9738), and some of them went to Harrell's Kansas City shop for 427 engines.
  • Gibb ordered his 50 ZL1s in October 1968 and the first two, both Dusk Blue automatics, arrived December 31, 1968. He sold only 13 of the 50, started returning the rest to Chevrolet in May 1969, and moved his last new 1969 ZL1 in 1972 with a $1,000 rebate from Chevrolet.
  • Gibb's pull inside Chevrolet was personal: his closest ally was Chevrolet general manager Pete Estes. He was already an AHRA drag racer as well as a dealer.
  • Fred Gibb Jr. was born June 4, 1919, in Media, Illinois, attended the University of Illinois and farmed before running Fred Gibb Chevrolet in La Harpe for 36 years. He died July 13, 1993, at 74. His dealership's motto, per one registry account, was "win on Sunday, sell on Monday."
Sources for these details

Key beats

  • Fred Gibb Chevrolet, La Harpe, Illinois, opened 1948
  • Dealer of record for the original COPO 9560 ZL1 order
  • 50 of the 69 ZL1 Camaros built went to Gibb