Factory Fast: Dave Bridgewater’s 2012 COPO Camaro

copoleadThough Dave Bridgewater already had three big block 1969 Camaros and an LS1 Swapped 1969 Firebird that he and his team maintain and race regularly at drag racing events around the country, he still wanted something more to add to his already awesome collection. That something more would most certainly be a Camaro of some sort, being that Bridgewater seems to have an undying love for the pony cars.

When the factory drag race COPO Camaro was first announced, “I signed up for it right away,” Bridgewater recalls. “But I got a call later on letting me know that they were all sold out.” After seeing videos on the internet of Dave Connelly testing the Cagnazzi COPO Camaro, he knew he needed to have one in his stable. With all of them being spoken for already, Bridgewater wasn’t going to let that get in the way of him owning a 2012 COPO Camaro.

Determination Is Key

While on the ClassRacer.com forum, Bridgewater posted an inquiry about purchasing process, which he wasn’t quite sure about, and that led him to the contact number for GM Performance’s Marketing Manager, Dr. Jamie Meyer. After numerous emails and phone calls, Dr. Meyer got in touch with Bridgewater and explained that all of the 2012 COPO’s have been sold.  Bridgewater mentioned the proposal he had submitted earlier in the year, and his case that GM needed a COPO Camaro on the West Coast.

In late October 2012, Bridgewater and Meyer met up at the SEMA show in Las Vegas at the GM Performance exhibit. During their meeting at SEMA, Meyer explained to Bridgewater how the buyers of the COPO’s were chosen, and how the rare factory race cars could not be purchased at just any local Chevy dealer. The respective buyer had to wait until the certificate was signed by GM Performance, then the buyer would be asked to choose a dealership for delivery.

Once those hurdles were crossed, the purchase process was pretty simple because the car was offered as a part number through the dealership’s parts department. After hearing that there was going to be another run of 69 COPO Camaros for 2013, Bridgewater submitted his application right then and there. 

The Call That Changed It All

It was December 18th, 2012, not even two months after SEMA, when Bridgewater got a call from Dr. Meyer at GM Performance. Meyer told him, “Christmas has come early here in Michigan. I have the last, and I mean very last available COPO Camaro for 2012. It’s number 67, a white 427! Do you want it?” Bridgewater responded with a simple “Hell, yes!” He then promptly placed the order over at Rotolo Chevrolet in Fontana with parts manager Tom Koppenhaver. 

December 26th, Bridgewater and his wife flew out to Detroit to finalize the deal on his 2012 COPO. Arriving at GM’s Oxford facility the next day, Bridgewater and his wife met with GM representative Cliff Cohen and Mike Lawrence, the build shop supervisor, and got a tour of the whole facility in which his COPO was built.

After thoroughly touring the facility, it was about time they unveiled the car to Bridgewater, and boy, was he ecstatic. Bridgewater claimed that he got the chills after seeing the car for the first time, and said that those chills intensified after sitting in it, which is totally understandable, us being car guys and all.

Precious Hardware

After the tour of the factory, Bridgewater was given a rundown of his COPO. He learned that the car was built to comply with the NHRA Stock and Super Stock classes right out of the box, with components sourced from both inside GM and from dozens of the top companies in the performance aftermarket.

For example, Holley supplies the intake manifold, Chevy Performance supplies the MEFI fuel injection system, ATI provides the harmonic balancer, transmission, and converter, and the 9-inch rear end, as well as suspension on all four corners is sourced from Strange Engineering. In the trunk, Bridgewater added an extra battery as well as a weight box weighing 100 pounds, in conjunction with the factory designed fuel cell and primary battery.  The COPO Camaro is a drag racer’s dream in that sense, because really, how often is it that you can buy a car with minimal stuff left to mod to make it into the mid 9’s?

The Bumpy Road Home

After taking care of business, a Reliable Automotive Transportation truck arrived to load up Bridgewater’s new baby and bring it back to California. There were some delays in the delivering process of the COPO, so Bridgewater made it his own business and drove out to Phoenix, Arizona to take it from there.

Once the COPO got to the shop, Paul Cannan, who is Bridgewater’s crew chief, engine builder, tuner, driver, promptly started working on the car. Installed by Cannan was a 2-step launch control, weight bars, and the weight box mentioned before, which was built by Phil Mandella at PMR Race Cars located in Rancho Cucamonga, California. After scaling the car, changing springs, and setting ride height, Bridgewater and his team were ready to take the car to Bakersfield for some testing before Winternationals.

Testing The Waters

Bridgewater’s first pass with the car in Bakersfield was 9.81 at 142 MPH – not too shabby straight off the trailer. The next pass he made was a 9.79, which was with no weight taken out; the third pass was without ballast, and the car easily ran 9.64, then down to 9.62. After seeing results like this with little to no modification, Bridgewater and his team felt that the car was ready for the Winternationals.

Bridgewater was really pleased with the car’s performance in competition. “This is looking to be the best year ever,” was Bridgewater’s first reaction. “The car is perfect – the driver just needs some work.” Despite the enthusiasm, a second round loss brought the fun to a halt in the COPO’s maiden event

Come time for the Division 7 race in Phoenix, Bridgewater and his team pulled out the 2-speed Powerglide and went with a Scott McClay Metric 3-speed, reducing his 60-foot time from 1.42 to 1.28. Bridgewater and his team then traveled to the SummitRacing.com Nationals in Las Vegas where they went 5 rounds in the eliminator and won the CC/SA trophy.

During his adventure in Las Vegas, Bridgewater took his COPO to Cody Chapman Racing to extract some more horsepower out of the factory 427. The car came with the very capable MEFI-5 fuel injection system; however, there are no data logging or wide band features built into the system, which makes it nearly impossible to see how the car was acting under power. With data logging as such an important tool in the tuner’s arsenal, the addition of a system was an imperative step in making the car quicker and more consistent.

0131cropSeeing Double

The COPO Camaro was definitely just what Bridgewater needed to expand his collection of highly sought-after muscle cars. His favorite part about the COPO is that it is a serial numbered, full-on track car that is capable of running 9.60’s right out of the box. “They put incredible power to the track,” states Bridgewater. And being that no car is perfect, his least favorite aspect about the car is that it comes with no data acquisition application of any type, but that can easily be sorted out.

Bridgewater is still loving his COPO to this day and it was quite a long road to obtain the car, but the madness didn’t stop there. Less than a month had passed after Bridgewater took delivery of his number 67 2012 COPO Camaro, when he received a call from Meyer asking if he had submitted an application to purchase a 2013 COPO. He did in fact place an order for the 2013 COPO, but that was before he knew that there was going to be a 2012 that he could purchase.

Knowing that Bridgewater had a newly acquired 2012 COPO, Meyer asked if he wanted to purchase a 2013. Bridgewater told him he wanted one, but only under one condition – it had to be the same production number “67” as his 2012 COPO. At the factory, negotiations were made and Bridgewater was promised the production number 67 2013 COPO Camaro; he purchased the car right then and there. On the 2013 COPO, Holley is supplying a new data acquisition system, which you can bet Bridgewater is really excited about. 

Living The Dream

Now a proud owner of not one, but two COPO Camaros, Bridgewater is still going to race his other three big block 1969 Camaros and 1969 Firebird with an LS1 swap on a regular basis. Bridgewater stated that he would most likely drive both COPO Camaros, possibly one in Stock class and the other in the Super Stock class. You can just imagine how busy Bridgewater and his team will be on race day! 

Having two COPO Camaros is not something you see or hear about every day. We are curious to see what Bridgewater has in store for both of his new Camaros, and we know he will be pushing them to their absolute limits. A team operation like Bridgewater’s takes a lot of time, money, and most importantly, dedication. While not all of us can own a team with multiple cars and travel around the country, we can live vicariously through stories like this. With that being said, keep up the awesome work – you’re living the dream, Dave!

About the author

Josh Kirsh

Born in Van Nuys, Raised in Murrieta, Joshua Kirsh is a SoCal Native. With a love for anything on wheels since the ripe young age of two, Joshua Managed to turn his love for automobiles into a career. As Power Automedia's newest writer, he plans to bring you some of the industry's hottest news topics while he's not out in the shop wrenching on some of our badass in-house project builds.
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