The Supercar Registry - Where is 69 Yenko Camaro 124379N663539

Well, lets go back to the fall of 1969.

I was in Fort Lee, finishing my Adavanced Individual Training, which was just outside of Petersburg, Virginia, and for the last few weeks of me being there I had the Yenko with me. I had a lot more free time and also freedom at the end of the days, so I would cruise a lot of the local hang outs with the Yenko. The folks there really did not know what it was, but the 427 emblem on the hood and the sound it projected deemed respect as a Bad Ass street car. I really did not street race all that much because I had a lot of problems with the original HURST shifter in the car. On multiple occasions, the shifter would lock in second gear when the shift rods going to the shift arms on the transmission would entangle themselves and no matter how hard you tried to move the shifter (inside the car) out of second gear, the transmission would not respond. The first time it happened I found a local gas station that allowed me to put the car up on the lift and untangle the rods and it shifted perfectly for a while. I just did not know when it was going to happen, so after it happened more regularly, and a friendly gas station was not around, I found a way where I could slide under the car while it was still on the ground and untangle those shift rods with a long screw driver. After I got home, I think I mentioned in an earlier post that the original shifter was one of the first things to go and got a competition model Hurst shifter that had the reinforced shift arms with a piece of thicker material welded over, so they were impossible to bend and entangle themselves. I still had a lot of fun with the car for those couple of weeks before returning home.

After returning home and getting back to work and hooking up with my friends, I was pleasantly surprised that while I was gone one of my childhood buddies had bought a used 1968 Z28. He told me the previous owner had put an aftermarket cam in it, not only did it sound good, it was proven that it was one of the fastest Z28's on the street. It was that medium brown or bronze, whatever they called it and it had black stripes on the hood and deck lid with black interior (not that any of this makes any difference, just thought it was good for the story) and it also had an M22 which you could hear coming for blocks, it was a really cool car. When we would line up from a standing start, he would kick my butt every time, since he was really good at driving and he could get his Z off the line with barely any tire spin and be gone. The Yenko and I on the other hand which had Goodyear White Letter E70x15 tires on 7" rally wheels which really looked good, but wouldn't hook worth a hoot and I would just smoke em. In 1969, they were building Interstate 80 across Ohio and Pennsylvania and would open small sections as they completed them maybe 5 to 10 miles at a time, but not necessarily all connected, at the same time. We had a section of about 5 miles, because the other two sides were not finished, this was just a small portion, and only two access points at the beginning and the end, but eventually, it would be all connected. My buddy and I would take advantage of this stretch of highway because there was very limited traffic and also very limited Ohio State Highway patrolling.

Ok, here is where the story starts, one night we decided to go up on the Interstate and do a 50 MPH roll and run em out. We both had 4.10 rear gears, so we were both in second gear when we took off, now the speedometer in the Yenko went to 140 MPH at approximately the 5:00 position. Well, that particular evening, when we went Hammer Down and I went to 3rd gear I jumped by about a car length and 4th gear about an additional half car length. As the speedometer cleared 140 we were about a car and a half apart and it stayed that way when the speedo started coming back around towards zero. I have no idea how fast we were going, but we were HAULIN!!! Both cars were very stable, so it was not scary at all, well, I didn't think so, but then again I just loved the SPEED. Back to the story, I could see in the distance, some taillights in front of me, which we were coming up on quickly (I assume he was going 70, cause that was the speed limit) and since that car was in my lane, I decided to ease up a little on the throttle, my buddy went by me and I went right in behind him probably two feet off of his bumper and we went by that car like he was standing still. After clearing him, I looked in the mirror and he had pulled off to the side, I don't know if he thought his car stalled or we scared the HELL out of him. Anyway, the exit was coming up in the next mile, I got a hand signal from my buddy and we started slowing down. After we exited, we were going into a little burg that my buddy frequented quite often, in fact his parents had just moved there, so we went to his favorite watering hole "The Castaways" and parked around back and went in for a liquid refreshment.

There is definitely more to the story..... Since it was already after midnight, we did not stay long and since he lived not to far from there, we decided to go through town. As you entered this town, there were two sets of railroad tracks. As usual, my friend was in front of me and the tracks were not all that far from the Castaway, so he went rather slowly in first gear across the first set of tracks, I was right behind him and since both sets were very uneven, it was a slow first gear movement. As he cleared the second set of tracks I knew what was coming and he did not disappoint, cause he took off hard and as I was just clearing the tracks, I was getting ready to close the distance, but before I could hit the gas pedal, I heard this "BOOOOWHAAAA" sound and a silver fender slowly going past my driver's window. Well, I figure you all know what this means, the local Barney Fife was going after the Brown Z and about that time the lights and siren (Yes, Edith lights and siren), so I just shifted to second gear and followed them very slowly. My buddy had already gone down a side street with the police cruiser in hot pursuit, well as hot as a 1968 Ford could go (no offense meant to the FORD fans). Much to my surprise when I made the turn, my buddy had pulled over and the cruiser was pulling up behind him. I just pulled over, quite a ways back, turned out my lights and watched from a distance. To make a long story short, my buddy was told to follow the police cruiser to the police station, so I followed also, but again, from a considerable distance. By the time I got to the station, they had already gone inside, so I decided to wait. It wasn't long before my buddy came out of the station and walked over to me to tell me the 'rest of the story'. As it turned out, he knew the officer and the officer would have probably let him go when he pulled him over initially, but as it turned out he had a trainee with him, so he had to take him to the station and read him the riot act, the good news, no ticket.

Well, most of you would think the story ends here, but nope, not to be.

Since it was probably after two am, my buddy went one way and I went the other towards the interstate since I could get home a lot quicker that way. As I got up on the interstate, naturally, I decided to let the Yenko stretch its legs a little bit, since there was ZERO traffic. As I was running it up through the gears, the alternator light came on. Now this was not an unusual occurrence, since it happened all the time when I would run the car at high RPM, the belt would come off the pulleys, but usually the belt would just land behind the water pump. I always carried a wrench with me (after the first time experience), so I could loosen the alternator, put the belt back on the pulleys, use my "SHIFTER" screw driver, tension the alternator and re-tighten the alternator. Now since I am telling all of you this and I have told you how prepared I am for this situation, I assume you have figured out that this is not the way it would go. Ding, Ding, Ding, you would be correct, guess what, the belt is GONE, did I mention it is after 2:00 AM on a deserted couple of miles of Interstate and the belt that drives the water pump is GONE!!! Well, this is an "AW SHIT" moment. I decide I am not going to take the chance of overheating and screwing up the engine without a moving water pump. As I am sitting there with the four way flashers on thinking about what to do, and the good ole Ohio State Highway Patrol makes an appearance. I walk back to him and tell him about the belt falling off and gone, so he offers to get dispatch to get a tow truck to help me out. I said, well rather than have dispatch call a wrecker, could you have them call my Dad and he will come and get me. The trooper looks at me and says you really want to call your Dad at this hour of the night, I said Yup, he will come. The trooper calls dispatch and makes the request, the dispatcher replies that Dad has said he will be on his way. The trooper leaves, and I guess it was probably ten to fifteen minutes, I see a set of headlights on the other side of the interstate and as they get closer, the headlights start flashing and the horn gives a couple toots and there is my DAD in the 64 Suburban coming to get me. Within, a couple minutes, he has gotten off the interstate and got back on coming towards me and pulls up in front of me. He gets out and with a smile on his face, he says, the chain is in the back, hook it up and lets go. I think I mentioned before how much I LOVED that guy........

I have another couple stories, stay tuned..............