The COPO’s Mean Business: ATI Super Stocker Goes 8.23

It certainly didn’t happen overnight, but it’s safe to say Chevrolet’s vaunted COPO Camaro has a thing or two to say about the Mustang Cobra Jet dominance these days. Just two weeks ago, Stock Eliminator competitor Clay Arnett stole the all-time class elapsed time standard away from the Ford brigade with his stout 8.46-second blast, following up an impressive performance put on by fellow COPO runner JC Beattie Jr. in Pennsylvania just a couple of weeks prior to that in the Super Stock eliminator.

jcAt the Maple Grove NHRA national event in early October, Beattie Jr., of ATI Performance Products, clicked off a pair of stout 8.2-second passes while running in the SS/AAA category with his supercharged COPO. What made this runs all the more impressive is that Beattie Jr. was running at 3,470 lbs. — a full 290 lbs. overweight for the class — having shifted from his SS/BBA that he’s been running in to AAA for the weekend. Beattie Jr.’s weekend resume included pases of 8.28, 8.28, 8.33, and 8.35, with a sixty of 1.25 on the rear wheels.

But Beattie Jr. wasn’t done there. During a pre-planned test session at the Maryland International Raceway not far from the home base of ATI Performance Products, he drove the Camaro, featuring power from a Virginia Speed-built 327 cubic inch mill with a 4.0L Whipple blower, to an 8.23 at 165 mph.

That run, albeit .019-seconds off the existing national record for AAA, comes with roughly the weight of an entire barrel of oil being carried inside the car versus the record-holding Cobra Jet. According to Beattie Jr., with the limitations of the NHRA regulations, the car is at light as it can be.

The ATI COPO runs on 12.2 x 31.25 Mickey Thompson radials, and features a full Aeromotive fuel system, Jesel valvetrain, PAC springs, Cometic gaskets, Kooks headers, JE Pistons, a Bullet cam, Moroso wet sump oiling system, an AEM Infinity computer system, Mark Williams rearend, and runs on Billet Specialties wheels.

About the author

Andrew Wolf

Andrew has been involved in motorsports from a very young age. Over the years, he has photographed several major auto racing events, sports, news journalism, portraiture, and everything in between. After working with the Power Automedia staff for some time on a freelance basis, Andrew joined the team in 2010.
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