Watch Chevy's electric eCOPO Camaro pop a wheelie on its first time out
And it barely made a peep.
The Chevrolet COPO Camaro is a straight-from-the-dealer drag racer capable of pulling some crazy times on the strip. To give it a dash of 21st-century tech, Chevy went and built an electric COPO concept, and a new video proves the electrified apple doesn't fall far from the gas-guzzling tree.
On its first outing, the Chevrolet eCOPO Camaro concept proved it is still a COPO Camaro at heart by ripping a serious wheelie as it hustled silently down the drag strip. The person who shot the video claimed it was only running at 80 percent of its max power as it achieved a 10.142-second quarter-mile time at 130.85 miles per hour.
There's definitely time left on the table. With a pair of BorgWarner electric motors creating a net 700 horsepower and 600 pound-feet of torque, Chevrolet estimates that the eCOPO Camaro will be capable of passes in the 9-second range. It uses the same bell house mounting pattern and crankshaft flange as the standard COPO Camaro, so in theory, Chevy could one day offer this as a real product. For now, though, it's just a proof-of-concept kind of affair.
Things get even wilder in the regular COPO Camaro. Packing its most powerful supercharged 5.7-liter V8 and a host of safety mods to bring it up to NHRA regulatory snuff, the gas-guzzling COPO is capable of passes in the mid-8-second range with trap speeds approaching 160 mph. And before you ask, no, it's not street legal. Just 69 (nice) examples are built every year, and the program has been running since it was rebooted in 2012.
You'll never hear it coming. Or going. Or anything in-between, really.