Introducing our new All Chevy Performance project car: COPMARO. This 1992 B4C 1LE 3rd Gen Camaro is a rare, special service police pursuit vehicle. A little over 500 of these B4C Camaro’s were built in 1992 by Chevy to replace Foxbody Mustangs, which were no longer being built by Ford for the special service purpose.
So what exactly is a B4C 1LE? This Camaro is basically the 1LE race package with air conditioning. This means it came with the best Chevy offered on 1992 Camaro’s in each category: 350 L98 TPI engine, corvette brakes, beefed up suspension, power locks & windows and much more. The RS badge designated on the B4C 1LE’s made this car a sleeper.
COPMARO was actually the first 3rd Gen B4C 1LE that was delivered to the California Highway Patrol in 1992, and if you look hard enough you’ll find extra holes in the car from when CHP was using COPMARO to figure out where to place the shotgun mount. This car spent it’s time working for the Auburn CHP before it was decommissioned at 95,000 miles and was sold to Casey Cronin in a silent auction.
Casey worked as a CHP Driving Instructor and in the early 90’s was commissioned the last 1992 B4C 1LE Camaro that was delivered to the CHP (number 21). Casey’s time behind the wheel made him think, “how cool would it be to Autocross this car?” And that’s exactly what Casey did with COPMARO after he purchased it.
The first thing Casey did to the car was take it down for a cheap paint job to make the car all black. During the time Casey had the car, he made a number of upgrades to the car including stroking the engine to a 383, putting a 700R4 behind it, changing out the gearing, adding a posi, installing adjustable Konig shocks in the front and RideTech Fox shocks in the rear, changed the spring rates, had TPI tuning chips burned and more.
Casey raced COPMARO at his local SCCA chapter and ended up winning some regional championships. As time progressed and the LS1 was introduced, the 3rd Gen TPI engines became less competitive in Autocross. Casey felt it was time to sell COPMARO and buy a 1972 corvette to become more competitive. That choice has led him to win numerous autocross events with ‘RIF RAFT.’
COPMARO changed hands a couple times before George Reiss of Reiss Racing & Restoration out of Escondido, CA purchased the car with a plan to teach his stepdaughter how to drive Autocross. Racing is definitely in George’s blood. He has raced professionally on dirt bikes for Team Honda and in a Pro 4 truck for Maxxis. That love for racing eventually led him into Autocross, where he not only drives but also builds championship level muscle cars. Reiss Racing & Restorations philosophy is ‘Daily Driven, Show Cars, Track Cars.’
George is actually the one who named the car. When he started racing this 3rd Gen, him and his buddy also had another 3rd Gen Camaro in the mix, which they named SLOWMARO. So there was COPMARO & SLOWMARO. George is a very talented body & paint guy and one of things he mixed up ‘Electric Blue’ to make COPMARO really pop. He also used his talents to stretch out the fender wells that gave him the ability to run 305’s on all 4 corners and he added the 19 inch XXR wheels.
George fulfilled his dream of getting his stepdaughter out to some autocross events and teaching her to drive hard on a closed course. The COPMARO also ended up becoming a backup vehicle and instructional vehicle at Autocross events. George says that this car has taken more autocross laps than any other car he has seen, and that the car is tough. In fact, when we bought this a project car he said it was good to drive to Vegas and back without a worry.
So what’s next for COPMARO? We would like to use this Camaro as a test bed for new 3rd Gen parts being introduced to the market. We would like to see how much more performance and driveability we can get out of the 383 stroker with FiTech’s new TPI system that upgrades to modern EFI Technology. At some point the A/C was deleted so we are looking at Vintage Air’s new 3rd Gen A/C Kit. The gauges in the car aren’t reading accurately so we are eyeing a set of Dakota Digital gauges. Classic Industries carries a lot of interior pieces, badges and replacement parts for these cars so we’ll definitely be going through their catalog. TMI is in the process of launching ‘custom interior in a box’ kits for the 3rd Gen’s, which would be a nice upgrade from the 30-year-old original interior.
Along the way, we also would like to use COPMARO as a camera car to produce content for this channel and our other KZfaq Channels: Modern Rodding and Classic Truck Performance.
Our goal is to continue the story of COPMARO and show the world what 3rd Gen Camaro’s can do. If you’d like to watch this next chapter in COPMARO’s story, be sure to subscribe to All Chevy Performance’s KZfaq Channel. Also check out our print and digital All Chevy Performance Magazine.
www.allchevyperformance.com
music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio