For all you Camaro lovers out there...

shack

ND13 wrote:

Chevy made a very select few 302 Z-28s also, but it was 67-69.

Very rare car and it was designed to race against Boss 302 Stangs in SCCA/Trans Am races.

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/30002-1969-chevy-camaro-z28.htm

http://www.holisticpage.com/camaro/camaros/z28.htm

Actually ALL first generation Z28s (67,68,69 early 70) had 302s. While it is realatively rare, there were 603 made in '67, 7,199 in '68 and 19,014 in '69/70 for around 27,000 total. As with any car at the time there were special orders, so it is possible the 302 was put in a few special order non-Z28 cars. Now that combo is rare.

audiobliss

I don't know either, but the only kind of Yenko I've heard of basically had a BB (427, right?) stuffed under the hood and had special striping. Wasn't that the whole deal with the Yenko?

I saw something about on TV and learned something interesting. The Yenko was done at only one dealership (originally), and the owner's daughter and her friends put the striping on the Camaros. Didn't GM later 'endorse' the Yenko badge and let other dealerships do it?

I think this is something else I may need to look up.

Dennis Gardner

Don Yenko was the dealer's name. In the '67 he pulled out the 350s and dropped in 427s himself. GM still had the "no engine over 400 CI" rule in mid size car in effect, so he had to work around that to get Chevy to deliver them for '68, and they still debate whether any of them were factory 427s due to the rule.

ND13

shack wrote:

Actually ALL first generation Z28s (67,68,69 early 70) had 302s. While it is realatively rare, there were 603 made in '67, 7,199 in '68 and 19,014 in '69/70 for around 27,000 total. As with any car at the time there were special orders, so it is possible the 302 was put in a few special order non-Z28 cars. Now that combo is rare.

What I should have said, but didn't want to offend anyone, is that due to them being rust buckets, only a handful of the true 302 Z-28s are still around

Dennis Gardner

Rust, Racing, and Rollovers took its toll on all the muscle cars.

sucks2beme

I fear that the kids now days don't get much of a choice on what to hot rod.
Most of the current crop/last crop of performance cars out of Detroit are priced out of range for them. Only us old geezers can afford them. That's why they have turned to hopping up Hondas. Cheap, and easy to find.
Many of these special cars we are talking about here were too expensive for
us when we were young, and still are today!
Should never of sold my 69 Camaro, but the tickets and gas prices were killing me. Seems the local cops were concerned about my safety. I had a police escort when ever I took the car out for a drive. Sold the car for about
$1000 in 1979.

audiobliss

What did it have under the hood?

sucks2beme

audiobliss wrote:

What did it have under the hood?

Nothing special. Just a 327. I bought it in a hurry to replace a 71 Mach One
that i made into a big "U" (slide it between two trees on a rainy night!).
Turned out, I liked the car much better than the Mustang. Drove it about a year. The 69 had a great look. Only the early 70's Cudas had a better look.
This was the last real car I ever owned. I have driven nothing but family cars and trucks since then. #1 son has owned a 79 Trans Am, 90 Camaro, and now a 02 Trans Am. Maybe after son #2 moves out, I'll go buy my second childhood car!!

shack

audiobliss wrote:

I don't know either, but the only kind of Yenko I've heard of basically had a BB (427, right?) stuffed under the hood and had special striping. Wasn't that the whole deal with the Yenko?

I saw something about on TV and learned something interesting. The Yenko was done at only one dealership (originally), and the owner's daughter and her friends put the striping on the Camaros. Didn't GM later 'endorse' the Yenko badge and let other dealerships do it?

I think this is something else I may need to look up.

Yenko actually started with Corvairs but ended up modding Camaros, Chevelles and Novas...

During 1965, Don Yenko was having his share of problems. His Corvette was being outclassed by the lighter, Ford powered Shelby products. He needed Chevrolet to build a more competitive car. But after many discussions with the Corporate office, nothing was forthcoming. Don then decided, if Carol Shelby could produce his own race car, so could he!

Don chose to build his race car using the rear-engine Corvair, which had undergone a suspension upgrade in 1965. He approached the SCCA with the idea, but they said sorry, the Corvair is a sedan, not a sports car. Undaunted, Don suggested that by removing the back seat, and making improvements in the engine, brakes and suspension, he would "re-manufacture" the Corvairs into Sports Cars and call them Stingers.

SCCA tentatively agreed to Don's request, but indicated in manufacturing this sports car, there needed to be 100 cars produced. One hundred was SCCA's minimum production requirement. And further, if Yenko was to compete in the 1966 season, these cars had to be completed before the 1966 race season started!

It was toward the end of November, 1965 when Don got the approval from SCCA. He had only one month to purchase and modify 100 cars. However, he was so determined to have a winning season, 100 Ermine White Chevy Corvair Corsa's ended up in his back lot in mid December with Yenko Serial Numbers on them!

Yenko ordered these Corsa's through the Central office, with the following options:

1966

3900CC- Ermine White exterior paint
(white was designated by SCCA to signify a US production car - white with blue stripes)
3F41AA Special Suspension Equipment
3G81AA Positraction rear Axle

3M20BB Four-speed Transmission
3N44AA Special Steering Equipment
3758DA Black Vinyl Trim
9513A 3:89 Positraction Differential++
9861E Independent Brake Unit


** Only 50 cars were ordered with this COPO Option. The remaining 50 had 3.55's.

COPO'S

The COPO 3.89 positraction differential was not available for any other Corvair in 1966, but it could be purchased over the counter at Chevrolet.

66-69 Corvair (exc. P. G.)....3896660 1 (3.89 to 1 ratio) (Yenko) Source 9-71 Chevrolet Parts Book

These 100 Corvairs were one of the first Chevrolets to have a factory dual master Cylinder.

STINGER TREATMENT

Yenko's plan for the 1966 Stinger was to add fiberglass landau panels and a deck lid with an integral spoiler. Then he would have all Corsa and Chevrolet emblems removed, filling the holes in with plastic filler. These areas and parts were then painted Ermine white. To complete the exterior, a set of tri-stripes in blue would be added, along with 3 Stinger decals. There appears to be a variation in the color of blue paint used in production, from medium blue to a darker blue.

On the inside, the back seat would be removed, replaced with a plywood board and a mat. The interior emblems remained. He would add gauges only if the customer desired them. Sometimes, the Stinger decal would replace the Corsa emblem on the glove compartment lid.

To dress up the engine compartment, headers were added, as well as a deeper aluminum oil pan. This was finished off with new individual chrome air cleaners.

A number of the 100 COPO's never went through the entire conversion process. Jack Brenner, the original owner of YS-065, ordered his Stinger as a Stage II, but chose to add only the rear deck lid to his car. YS-022 received no exterior treatment, but the owner put his money toward a Stage II engine. YS-028 was received without the Tri-Stripes or Landau Panels, but had the Stage II engine.

We know Don shipped 6 Corvairs to Dick Harrell performance. We believe Dick Harrell did the conversions on these cars.

SCCA

A SCCA representative actually came out to Yenko's dealership to look at the cars. After he left, Don had to wait 9 days before getting confirmation that the cars were accepted.

But the Yenko team was not overjoyed upon receiving the news. Evidently, SCCA decided that the Stingers should be placed in Class D, which was dominated four years in a row by a Triumph TR-4A. It would be nearly impossible to win in that class with a Stinger.

However, Don went to work on a Stage III 220 horsepower version, while at the same time, put out a substantial effort to sell the remaining Stingers. One thing Don had going for him was the fact that SCCA would only allow serial numbered Stingers to compete in their events. In other words, they had to buy Don's cars if they wanted to race.

Yenko was the driver for the first race of the season at Marlboro in January, 1966, and the Stinger came within one second of the current pacesetter, a TR4.

After this race, Jerry Thompson of Clawson, Michigan was hired to compete for Yenko with the new Stinger, and managed to win the Central Division Championship that year. In the Northeast Division, Dick Thompson of Arlington Virginia took top honors with his first Championship in a Stinger. Jim Spencer of Racine Wisconsin took first place in the Central Division in DSR, while Dino Milani, Chicago, IL took second place. Quite a first year!

Jerry placed 5th in the 1966 Nationals. However, by 1967, Thompson had what it took to pull off the Class D National Championship, which was sealed at the Daytona ARRC.

Don Yenko started with a distributor network of 9 Chevrolet dealers throughout the country to sell the Stinger. In Competition Press & Autoweek (April 16, 1966) there appears a trailer full of Stingers heading to Kansas. Don had two Dealers in Kansas, Don Hattan Chevrolet and Yingling Chevrolet in Wichita, Kansas. More dealers were added throughout the year.

One of Don's new Canadian dealers wanted to purchase a Stinger, but the tax to bring the car into the country was prohibitive. Yenko allowed City Chevrolet-Oldsmobile Ltd. of Hamilton, Ontario to order the Corvair in Canada. Then it was shipped to Pennsylvania for the conversion.

This Yenko, YS-104 had a brilliant racing career.



1967

Don sold a few Stinger kits in 1966 to owners, before placing another order for COPO 1967 cars late in 1966. This new batch, built in February, 1967, had an added feature: they came in Marina Blue or Bolero Red! It appears that SCCA eliminated the mandatory white color for US cars starting in 1967

Since the Corsa had been discontinued at the end of the 1966 model year, these new cars were ordered as Monzas.

There was also an additional problem. Chevrolet had discontinued the 140 HP option for 1967. Yenko was extremely upset, as he needed this optional engine to be competitive. Well, by the time these Stingers were built, they did have factory 140 engines built using COPO 9551.

3900FF Marina Blue (3900RR Bolero Red)
3F41AA Special Suspension Equipment
3M20BC Four-speed Transmission
3N44AA Special Steering Equipment
3758AA Black Vinyl Trim
9513A 3:89 Positraction Differential
9551B Engine (140 special performance engine)
9981A Wheel Cover Deletion

The new, simplified Monza dash lacked the Corsa tachometer and gauges, so Don ordered Stewart-Warner 970 tachometers and had them installed in the new cars. He also added oil pressure and temperature gauges and an ammeter gauge for an additional $79.00. It appears that some cars also were retrofitted with Corsa dashes, at the customer's request. Dual master cylinders became a standard option for Corvairs in 1967.

Per Dave Newell, a Corvair historian, Chevrolet eventually sold 279 of these 140HP engines for the 1967 model year: 232 engines equipped for manual transmissions, and 47 equipped for Powerglide transmissions. It is believed that only fourteen 4-speed cars with this option were purchased by Yenko and turned into Stingers.

At least 3 additional Dana Corvairs were built under these COPO's.

One of Yenko's West Coast Distributors, Dana Chevrolet, placed an order for three Yenko Stinger-type Corvairs, with Don Yenko's permission, directly from the factory. They were also ordered with COPO 9570A - K19 AIR Injector. This resulted in an engine suffix of QF. There were only 6 engines built with this suffix under this COPO. The cars were built in Willow Springs, Michigan, since the Los Angeles plant was closed at the end of the 1966 model year.

shack

The Yenko Camaro

As soon as the Camaros began arriving at his dealership, Don already had a plan. The "Yenko Super Camaro". A Camaro which had its 350cid pulled out and the Corvettes L-72 427 engine dropped in, along with other heavy-duty hardware and performance upgrades. Thus, the birth of the Yenko Super Camaro.

In addition to the 427 Corvette engine, customers could pick from a long list of other hi-performance parts to be installed by Yenko's own in-house race mechanics, all of whom were part of Don¹s racing team. The majority of these special built cars received a Yenko ID plate and Yenko badges, 427 emblems and a special fiberglass hood, patterned after the Corvette "Stinger" hood. As with the Corvair, Don employed a network of other dealers, including the likes of drag racing guru Dick Harrell in St. Louis, who was listed as Yenko's Mid-West distributor, and Fred Gibb (of ZL-1 fame) in LaHarpe, IL.

You could have purchased a spartan equipped Yenko Super Camaro back in 1967 for about $ 3,800.00. Not bad for all that big block horsepower shoved into the Camaro package. The exact number of 1967 Yenko Camaro's is unknown. The figure of 54 had been accepted for several years, but some collectors believe that that number may be closer to 100 cars.

With the success of the 1967 Yenko Camaro, Don had bigger and better plans for the 1968. It was clear that Yenko couldn't keep up with the demand for 427 Camaro's, so he approached Chevrolet about the possibility of getting factory equipped 427 Camaro's. Chevy was hesitant about this, but the management team in the "Special Projects Division" were eager to give it a shot. The General still had rules about no engines larger than 400cid in any intermediate or compact models. Supposedly, Don Yenko agreed to keep the program quiet, and it was thought that all 68 of the 1968 Yenko Camaro¹s had dealer installed engines, just like the 67's, but some collectors say the engines were actually factory installed. Others believe that only one 1968 car was built with a factory installed 427. The dispute will probably go on forever. However it went down, these discussions with the factory team eventually led to the birth of two special options for 1969, COPO 9561 and COPO 9737 (we will talk about them later).

With the success of the '67 Camaro, the first thing Don did was convince Chevrolet to add a few special features to the 1968 Camaro's before they arrived in Canonsburg, so that all Yenko had to do was replace the now factory 396cid/375hp V8 (RPO L-78). The 396/375 was a monster engine. A '68 Camaro equipped with the L-78 easily ran thirteens at the dragstrip and could run with anything on the street.

For 1968, Don Yenko started with the L-78 equipped cars from the factory so that all the components were already heavy duty, then merely dropped the L-72 motor onto the original motor mounts. Everything was dimensionally identical. He was retrofitting Camaro's with the direct-swap Chevy L-72 427 motor factory-rated at 435 horsepower and selling them at his and other dealerships as a "Yenko 427 Camaro".

Like the 1967 Yenko's, the number of 68 for 1968 Yenkos built is thought to be higher. As with the 1967 cars, most 1968 cars received a Yenko ID plate, Yenko badges, 427 emblems and a twin ducted fiberglass "Stinger" hood. Other special features included a 140 mph speedometer, larger front sway bar and 15 inch Rallye II wheels from the Pontiac Division.

For the 1969 model year, Chevrolet "worked" the Camaro's shape into something that auto enthusiasts saw right away as a classic. With the raised accents coming off of the fender lips front and rear, and the fake louvers just fore of the rear wheel well, this was one of the most beautiful production cars any American factory ever produced. Remember COPO? The Central Office Production Order (COPO) was to be the back door around Chevrolet's performance limits. And the key to Don Yenko's hot, new 1969 Camaro's. These new Camaro¹s could be ordered through Yenko's showroom and about 25 other high-performance Chevy dealers as COPO 9561 and 9737 cars.

In 1969 the Yenko "sYc" could be ordered with either the M22 4-speed or the Turbohydramatic transmission for $ 4,245.00, which was a bargain for all that performance! These Yenko Camaro¹s were available in 6 colors -- LeMans Blue, Hugger Orange, Olympic Gold, Daytona Yellow, Rallye Green and Fathom Green. Several of the cars received vinyl tops (on a muscle car?). The Camaro¹s came with few other options, mainly to keep the price down, as sticker price was already over $4,000.00.

Originally, Chevrolet had agreed to build only 50 cars, but dealers clamored for the car and that ran the total up

shack

My favorite...the Yenko Nova and Yenko Deuce....

The Yenko big-block Nova was Produced in 1969 and the small-block-inspired Deuce debuted in 1970. The first-year Yenko's numbered 37, of which 28 had a 427 installed by Yenko's crew and 9 left the lot with the factory-installed 375-horse 396 powerplant. According to Yenko, the L72 427-powered Novas were the wildest cars he ever built. They were 396 cars with no SS emblems - and with the right tires and suspension setup, the finished machine was capable of reaching 60 mph in less than four seconds.

The 1970 Yenko Deuce was built, as Yenko put it, "as an insurance beater." Since legislation and the insurance industry were clamping down hard on overpowered street cars, Yenko decided to install a Corvette LT1 with 370 houses, solid-lifter cam, 12-bolt rear with 4.10:1 Positraction, F-41 suspension and a choice of manual or automatic transmission. 176 versions of the Deuce were built under COPO 9010 and offered in one of eight unique colors. Each car came stock with standard-grade black interior and a front bench seat.

audiobliss

Wow. I had no Idea Yenko worked on anything besides the Camaro. That's really interesting. And 0-60 in less than 4 seconds in the 60's!!! Man, that's insane!! That's up there with the Shelby Cobra! :eek:

Thanks for the info!!