Re: Where is 69 Yenko Camaro 124379N663539
 

I can't believe the girl didn't love playing second fiddle to a loud, stinky, car:-)

Ryan

Re: Where is 69 Yenko Camaro 124379N663539
 

To All, I am glad you are all enjoying this thread. I have spent a lifetime drag racing NHRA events all over the eastern part of the country. This thread does not really touch NHRA yet, but Chapter 6 will. Sorry Crush, no girls in this chapter........

On to Chapter 5 and this will be my favorite because it will be about my Dad. I would guess that most of you have figured out I LOVED that guy, cause he was something special.

Chapter 5

When we left off, the Yenko is becoming more of a race car and less of a street car. I should mention that not only did I break the L/S axle, I also broke the spider gears in the positraction unit. When someone talks about "C" clip eliminators, that idea was born from the problems of broken axles and coming out of the car, I just happened to be lucky that I was at a slow speed when it happened to me.

At this point, I decided to make the Yenko a full time race car, no more street driving, so a good set of 2-1/8" Hooker Headers went on the car and all of the exhaust system rearward was removed. I also put on a dual electric fuel pump set-up (if you look at the earlier picture, you can see the fuel pressure gauge that was mounted on the windshield wiper cowl, directly in my view. I also decided that it was time for a really good racing clutch and get rid of the street/strip model. At this point I was pretty much on my own, no help from anyone, I was learning on the fly, but that was a good thing, but sometimes costly since I still made mistakes during this learning curve.

I will explain about the new clutch installation and if memory recalls this was also the same time I went to Michigan and bought a Doug Nash prepared Super T10, with all the good internals, it was time to retire the Muncie M21. The clutch, ----- believe it or not, I had an alignment tool to locate the disc prior to tightening the pressure plate (the spline on the disc, was the same as the input as on the Muncie and the T10) and checked the alignment quite a few times before I put the Lakewood bell housing back on. Time for transmission install and this is where the problems began, I had had the Muncie in and out many times by this point in time (I am guessing this is probably 1972 or early 1973), so I had a system to take out and reinstall the transmission and I was no rookie. Well, I had probably tried for two hours to get this trans back in and it just would not go and I was wore out. I should mention this was on a Saturday, so my Dad was home and walked by several times, but never said anything. I should mention that my Dad was in his early 50's at this point of his life, but he was a very physical guy, even at this age he had muscles on top of muscles, just from doing his everyday job. I guess he couldn't take it anymore, so he walked over and said you want some help with that, I said, "Yes Sir, I don't think I can lift it up anymore." He crawled under the car which was on jack stands (a story all in itself), while, laying on his back, he grabbed the trans with one hand, put it on his chest, grabbed it with two hands, lifted it up and forward in one motion and seated it squarely on the bell housing with a clunk as the trans hit the steel bell housing. He crawled out, which was probably less than a minute, looked at me and said, "You need any more help or can you handle from here?" I told him, "No, I was good and Thank You." I guess it probably took me about an hour to put the transmission cross member back in, put the shifter on, adjust the shift linkage, check the free play on the throw out bearing and install the drive shaft. I started the car up, open headers in a residential neighborhood and ran it through the gears (yes, it had gear lube in the trans), and it shifted fine. I put the car on the ground and put all the tools away. Dad just happened to be walking by again and I asked him if he wanted to go for a little test drive. He said, where are you going? (I should say that at this point, there was no license plate, and as I said, open headers and race slicks on the back and the car looks like the picture above at the drag strip). We lived on a circle that had one way in and the same way out and it is on a pretty big hill. I told Dad I was just going to go around the circle (but I really had other plans). He said OK, he jumped in the passenger seat and buckled up. I started the car and backed out of the drive and started going down the hill, when I got to the bottom of the hill at the stop sign, I turned left instead of going right, which would have taken us back around the circle to the house. He looks at me and yells (open headers ya know, kind of loud), "Where are you going?" I yelled back, "just down the street, I want to check all the gears." He looks at me like, what are you doing????? I get to the next stop sign and he yells, "When are you turning around?" I yell back, "I haven't put it in high gear yet" I made a slight right, and I go through all the gears, everything is working great. By this time, we are probably about a 1/2 mile from the house. I am heading towards a busy 4 lane highway and he finally looks at me and yells, "Turn this thing around and get it home before you get a ticket." I yell back, "OK Pop", I pull in a driveway and start backing out and he Yells, "You better get going, traffic is coming" That was all he had to say. I take the trans out of reverse and put the car in first gear, straighten it up, come to a complete stop, I look over at him and say "HOLD ON".............. I revved it up to 6000, drop the clutch, surprisingly, it hooked really well, took it to 7500, slammed 2nd gear, revved it to 7500, slammed 3rd gear, revved it to 7500 and slammed high gear, I am thinking, this clutch and transmission work really well!!!!!!!!!!! I would guess we had to be going well over a 100 MPH. The car still had the power front disc brakes, I start pumping them, slow it down to make the slight left, keep pumping the brakes, down the hill, make the left on to our street and go up the hill and coast into the driveway and shut it off. I look over and POPS has this smile on his face that I will never, ever FORGET. He was shaking as he got out of the car and that smile was enough to last me for a life time. It took a short while for him to quit shaking and start talking again. All he could say was DAMN!!!!! That was it, DAMN!!!!! Fortunately, the neighbors did not call the cops on me "that" day.

I have to tell you folks another short story about my DAD. Remember the jack stands, well this is the story about how I received them. Dad did not have a lot of car tools and the only jack he had was a scissors jack. One evening (this was not too long after I bought the Yenko, probably in 1969), I decided to change the oil and the filter on the 427. I have the car on the scissors jack, I have drained the oil, and I am trying to get the oil filter off, (at this point my tools are few, so I do not have an oil filter cup wrench). I am trying to grab the filter with my hands and just twist it off. I am not strong enough to do it, so I ask Dad if he would come out and do it. He said sure, he crawls under the car and I went in the house for something (don't remember why), but a few seconds later, I hear him hollering. I run out the door, and the scissors jack is laying on its side and the Yenko is on top of him. I back up to the left front fender and lift the car up high enough for him to crawl out, fortunately, the left front tire is still on, but he was definitely trapped under the car laying on his side. After he crawls out, I ask him if he is OK, he says, yeah, this thing is heavy, he kind of stretches and moves his arms back and forth and says he is fine. I ask him what happened and he tells me, I grabbed a hold of that oil filter and when I twisted it, I moved the car and the jack fell over. He is still stretching, trying to work it out and he says, "Well, I guess I should have told you sooner, but your Mother and I bought you a floor jack and some jack stands. I still use those jack stands and jack today, they were Hein-Werner 5 ton jack stands and a 1-1/4 ton Hein-Werner floor jack. They probably had to take out payments to pay for that stuff.

Whenever I look at those jack stands, I always think of him. He was my HERO and still is even though he has been gone over 12 years. What a GUY!!!!!!

Re: Where is 69 Yenko Camaro 124379N663539
 

Thanks for the continued posts regarding your times with your Yenko Camaro (cool) but more importantly, the times with your dad (priceless)! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/headbang.gif[/img]

Re: Where is 69 Yenko Camaro 124379N663539
 

Wow, great stories Gary thanks for sharing with us, the cars are great but people like you make it even better! Hopefully we'll find out what happened to the car one of these days? I had a similar relationship with father and still miss him terribly 24 years after he passed away. The Yenko story he always told me had a big role in me being a car guy since I was a kid in middle school back in the mid 80's. I never got tired of hearing his stories about the muscle car era and enjoy yours just as much. The story about your dad watching you make mistakes working on the car makes me smile too cause my pop did the exact same thing to me. Thanks for making my week and bring back memories of the greatest man I ever knew, I miss you Dad.

Re: Where is 69 Yenko Camaro 124379N663539
 

These stories make me have flashbacks to me and my dad working on cars over the years.. He has been gone for 10 years and I still think of him every day.. Thank you for your memories.. I cant get enough.

Re: Where is 69 Yenko Camaro 124379N663539
 

Just keeps getting better and better........ [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/beers.gif[/img]

Re: Where is 69 Yenko Camaro 124379N663539
 

I am fully invested in this tale... I love it and thank you

Re: Where is 69 Yenko Camaro 124379N663539
 

Love it..........love it............love it!

Re: Where is 69 Yenko Camaro 124379N663539
 

When the axle came out was there any damage to the rear quarter panel? Love the stories and keep 'em coming. Russ

Re: Where is 69 Yenko Camaro 124379N663539
 

This is such a amazing story, What wonderful memories, that's what makes these cars so special.
Doug and the rest of you guys, put your detective hats on. This car most be found...And I want to
restore it!!!

Kenny

Re: Where is 69 Yenko Camaro 124379N663539
 

Well,the election is over. I truly hope everyone voted, no matter who you voted for, voting is the most precious right we, the American people have. Just think about this, since the revolutionary war up until current times today, many, many brave Americans have fought and died to preserve this right and I am so extremely proud of this country and what it stands for. Several of you have Thanked me for my service and I appreciate the sentiment, however, I really do not deserve it, there are so many that have served so proudly and made the ultimate sacrifice, what I did was nothing compared to them and all of the wonderful men and women that continue to serve today.

Ok, Editorial Done, on to more CAR stuff.

Rooster, yup, no damage, I was moving so slow, it just came out gently and fell to the ground....

Chapter 6

Previously, I had introduced you to my friend that I worked with that was the HUGE fan of Grumpy Jenkins, (I must admit I did not know who Grumpy was at that time), and my friend was a huge fan of NHRA and that was my introduction through National Dragster and what NHRA was about and the races around the country. He convinced me that racing at the local track was nice, but I really needed to go to an NHRA divisional event and see how the Yenko stacked up against some really good and smart racers (I must admit, I was neither).

I will tell you about the first NHRA divisional event I went to at National Trail Raceway, just to the east of Columbus, Ohio. Before I do that, I have to tell you about the tow vehicle I used at that time. Since I worked at GM, I had the opportunity to buy (almost new) manufacturer's cars. I struck up a deal with the on-site Chevrolet Resident Engineer to order a 1972 Monte Carlo (this was in 1972), just the way I wanted it, he would drive it for approximately 3000 miles and then it would be taken out of service, sent to a dealer of my choice and then I bought it as a used car. After I got the car, I put air shocks on it and my Dad (what a guy), lined up one of his friends to put a trailer hitch on the frame of the Monte. I could not afford a trailer at this time, but my engine building friend and his brother had one. I have to tell you that this trailer was so heavy, it took three of us to lift it to get it on the ball of the hitch. This thing was so heavy, it could have hauled a small bull dozer (did I mention this trailer was heavy?) You are probably wondering why I bring this up, naturally, there is a towing story mixed in here somewhere.

National Trails at that time was about 3 to 4 hours away, so we got up and got going very early on a Saturday morning so we could be there by 8:00 AM for technical inspection. A little while ago I said I was not a smart racer, and this trip proved it. At 22 years of age, I knew nothing about the rules or what was expected of me and the car, I had a car and a helmet, &quot;What else would I need?&quot; Well, I found out real quick. We waited in line for hours and I am looking at all of these cars that were really cool cars and although the Yenko was cool, there were a lot of cars there and it was just a LeMans Blue 69 Camaro, no-one really cared.

As memory serves me, after we got the tech card (I had never seen one before, all the local tracks around home, you just pulled in, gave them your money,put your name on a post card and they said &quot;That's a car and you can race..&quot;). This was quite different, there were a couple tech guys and they went over your car with a fine, tooth comb. I was very unfortunate to draw the &quot;Division 3 Tech Director - Marty Barret&quot;. For those of you that did not know Marty, he was a living, breathing encyclopedia of muscle cars, he knew if you had a wrong part number screw in the wrong place. When he started looking at the car, he started shaking his head and writing on the tech card, and writing on the tech card, and writing on the tech card. After about 10 items, he looked at us and said, &quot;You boys need to go home and go to work, cause you are not racing this car on MY racetrack until you fix this stuff and you are definitely not fixing it here.&quot; Some of the things that I recall that were on the list, we had removed the radio, to take out weight and left the open hole, he said that have to have either a radio or a radio delete plate, we had taken the driver's door mirror off (remember the one where I saw the axle come out-LOL) and after removal, we did not fill the mounting holes. I really cannot remember all the stuff under the hood, but there was a bunch and as Marty said, too much to fix there. I was in SHOCK, I asked my buddy (who was also in SHOCK), &quot;Is He telling us, we drove all this way and we cannot go down the track?&quot; He said, &quot;Yup, we are done before we started&quot;

We loaded the car back on the trailer, wrapped the chains around the front and back and used the binders to hold it to the trailer (no ratchet straps back then, just big ole chains that you could tie down a bull dozer). Well, I would guess you folks have figured out that this is where the towing story starts.

You would be correct. At 22 years old, I did not know much about anything, especially, tongue weight and its affect on the tow vehicle, I mean I put air shocks on the Monte, what else do I need??????? We were about to find out, when we loaded the Yenko on the trailer we put it as far forward as we could get it (not a good thing), but neither one of us had a clue. That ride home was the longest of my life. I did not drive very far and I was done, I was too tired and could not keep my eyes open. My buddy said, he felt fine and he would drive, so I got in the back seat layed down to take a snooze. Not very far into the trip, I am asleep and we are just cruising down the interstate and I am awakened by my head bouncing back and forth off of the quarter panel trim, the Monte is swaying violently from lane to lane and obviously, the trailer and the Yenko were going in the opposite direction at getting worse with every whip. When I finally get my wits about me and try to pull myself up off of the seat, I realize we are going down a hill. Did I mention that the bull dozer trailer did not have any brakes? My buddy was trying his best to control this thing, but I am thinking that this is not going to end well for all of us. As we near the bottom of the hill, still whipping violently, my buddy puts the Monte to the floor, kind of like a pilot in an airplane, where he is trying to get control of a plane in a steep dive and pulls back on the stick as hard as he can and goes full throttle. Well, since I am typing this I guess you have figured out that when he started going up the other side of the hill under full throttle, the pilot saved us from doom. I will say that this happened a couple more times on the way home, but not near as bad as the first time (he slowed down a lot). Like I said, I was not very smart, so not knowing how to position a car on a trailer was a real learning curve and when I get to the next chapter, we will have a different tow vehicle and a much needed different trailer.

Re: Where is 69 Yenko Camaro 124379N663539
 

I am like a kid around a campfire listening to these stories.. Awesome..

Re: Where is 69 Yenko Camaro 124379N663539
 

Seriously, brilliant stories Sir, and thank you for your service. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/flag.gif[/img]

Re: Where is 69 Yenko Camaro 124379N663539
 

Incredible

Re: Where is 69 Yenko Camaro 124379N663539
 

Chapter 7

This saga is drawing to a close, maybe one more chapter after this.

Since the last chapter was such a disaster, I will try and make this one a little better. I mentioned that it was time for an upgrade to a different tow vehicle and a different trailer, again my Dad stepped in and found me a 1964 Chevrolet Suburban with a 283 and a three speed manual transmission, which was geared a lot better and had a lot more stability than the Monte Carlo for towing a trailer with a race car on it. There was also a local racer that in his spare time use to build low cost trailers in his garage. When I say they were low cost, I mean low cost. They were built out of 3x3 thin wall box tubing, with bolt on hubs (another story for another time), wooden 2x10 planks for where the car sat and the front axle had a surge brake set-up on the front hubs, but at least it had brakes. I used this set-up for a while and it worked a lot better, in fact I used this very same trailer to tow all over the eastern part of the country up until 1981 when I moved up to a fifth wheel enclosed set up.

The second NHRA points meet I took the Yenko to was in Saginaw, Michigan in 1973. I made it through Technical inspection without a problem, but believe me I was sweating it through the whole process. Fortunately, I did not have Marty Barrett to pick the car apart as he did the first time in Columbus and in all fairness to Marty, he was doing his job as he always did and pointing out to a novice how things had to be done, if they wanted to race on &quot;HIS&quot; race track. A different friend of mine went with me to this race, actually a neighbor of my parents. The time trials went fine, nothing special other than my neighbor kept telling me I was not leaving at a high enough RPM from the starting line and the car would be quicker if I did raise it. You have to remember that at this time, you did not run off of Class Indexes made by NHRA, your dial-in was the current National Record for your class. At that time, I believe the National Record for SS/D was a 10.93, so when we went into class eliminations, that 10.93 was my dial in and I had not even been within two tenths of that mark ever. I think we had 3 time trials that day and we kept getting progressively faster, but not anywhere near the National Record.

When they called for first round of Super Stock, it was getting to be early evening and the sun was setting. As we were pushing up through the staging lanes, it was pretty much dark (I mention this for the next chapter). My friend and I are pushing up through the lanes two by two and I try to start counting the cars back to see who I am going to line up with for first round. After doing it a couple times, (there were some delays), it kept coming up the same. There was a white 1969 Camaro convertible SS/NA and as I am walking by there are all kinds of decals and lettering and some of the lettering that was really important to me was the fact that on the front fender, it said &quot;NATIONAL RECORD HOLDER&quot;, if that wasn't bad enough, it was also lettered with the name &quot;John Lingenfelter&quot;. I am thinking, Holy Crap, I have to run John Lingenfelter, are you kidding me??????? For some of you OLD guys on this sight, you might remember a car magazine called &quot;SUPER STOCK&quot;, well I had a flash back to one of their covers on one of their recent editions that showed none other than John Lingenfelter doing a hellacious (if that is a word) smokey burnout with this same Camaro convertible and he had this huge grin on his face as he was doing this burnout and I am thinking, YUP, this is the guy, this is the MAN.......... As I mentioned before, it is now dark and everyone has their parking lights on (again, important for next chapter). I think as I am coming out of the water burnout, just do the best you can, REV it up and hit every gear. So we are all staged and his lights start to come down and I am concentrating on my side of the tree as my lights begin. Well, instead of looking at the tach and holding it at a certain point, I thought the hell with it and just put it to the floor just before I let go of the clutch. WOW, the Yenko left like it never had before, front wheels in the air and getting it. I pull second gear and he is way down track, hit third gear and I am gaining on him quickly, pull my BABY into high and I think, DAMN, I am going to catch him. I blow by him at about 1200 feet and ran the fastest I had ever gone to that point in my young racing career, as memory serves me, I could be wrong, but I think it was an 11.03, which was just a tenth off of the record. I cannot believe what just happened and I am thinking, &quot;What just happened?&quot; I get back to my trailer and my buddy is just as happy as I am and he kept telling me, &quot;I told you if you revved it up, it would leave like jack da bear!!&quot; He was right, so we started cooling the Yenko for the second round. Back then, there were no ladders, you just pulled up to whoever you pulled up to and that is who you ran, unlike today where every competition round is run off of qualifying.

We didn't change anything and took the car to the rear of the staging lanes. Just like the first round, there were a bunch of cars ahead of us and I did what I did first round, I walked to the head of the lanes and started pairing cars up as to how it looked like who we would run. As I counted them back and I did it several times, it came out the same. I would have to run a yellow Dodge, now this was not just any yellow Dodge, it was a Super Stock Hemi and it belonged to Ron Mancini from the Detroit area. Now for those of you who do not know Ron Mancini, he was not Ronnie Sox or Herb McCandless, but in the Mopar circles, he was pretty dog gone close, and definitely a legend at a young age in Michigan. I thought, oh well, just do what I did the first round, drive the same way and the Yenko can do what it does and we can move on to third round. Everything went well, the burnout was good, staged shallow just like the first round, revved it up to the moon, just like the first round, the car left with the wheels in the air and I hit every gear just like I wanted. There was only one problem, that big ole nasty HEMI, passed me about the same place that I had passed JL in the first round. My day was over, but I was really proud of how the Yenko ran and as you have just read, I am still telling the story.

In the next and last chapter, I will tell you how I met John Lingenfelter in Pomona, California about a year and a half later and our discussion about that race. Oh yeah, he remembered!!!!!!

Re: Where is 69 Yenko Camaro 124379N663539
 

Way neat stuff! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/headbang.gif[/img]

Re: Where is 69 Yenko Camaro 124379N663539
 

I so hope this car pops up, the stories are awesome!!!

Ryan

Re: Where is 69 Yenko Camaro 124379N663539
 

Amazing to hear this from you as a original owner of a Yenko. :-)

Re: Where is 69 Yenko Camaro 124379N663539
 

Great stuff Gary. I grew up a tad south of Austintown in Canfield. Love your story. Keep it coming! THANKS!!!!

Re: Where is 69 Yenko Camaro 124379N663539
 

WOW .... [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/headbang.gif[/img]

Re: Where is 69 Yenko Camaro 124379N663539
 

Thank you Gary

[img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/flag.gif[/img] [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/flag.gif[/img] [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/flag.gif[/img]

Re: Where is 69 Yenko Camaro 124379N663539
 

Thank you for your posts about your early Yenko ownership.

Re: Where is 69 Yenko Camaro 124379N663539
 

love the story on changing the transmission. putting it on your chest and lifting it up and in. Been there done it.

Re: Where is 69 Yenko Camaro 124379N663539
 

Me too. I remember barely lifting an M21 back in the day when I was a 145 lb teenaged punk.

That stopped permanently when I got into Mopars with their A833 cast iron case tranmissions! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/grin.gif[/img]

Re: Where is 69 Yenko Camaro 124379N663539
 

Back in the day, did you ever see the Ed Hedrick 1969 Yenko Camaro drag car who was tied in with Jenkins Competition or the Preston and Lawrence Yenko drag car?
Both were Daytona Yellow 1969 Yenko Camaros

Re: Where is 69 Yenko Camaro 124379N663539
 

Thanks to all that have expressed their kind words regarding my first experiences as a Yenko car owner and getting started in my life long pursuit of drag racing. Pretty much the last 50 years of my life have revolved around cars, including 40 years at General Motors in all types of positions, which without that, none of my racing exploits could have been possible. I always like to say I have been a very lucky, lucky man, because almost all of my life I have been in the right place at the right time and have gotten a lot of good breaks, not only personally, but professionally. I would be remiss if I did not mention my wife and my family. Due to my racing and basically having a &quot;GOOD&quot; time, I did not think about getting married until I was 38 years old. Again, being in the right place at the right time, I met my future wife on a blind date through a relative, the second date could be a chapter all by itself, but I won't bore you with that. Before I got married, although we were engaged, my future wife had gone to several races with me so she knew what she was getting into. The interesting thing she told me before we got married, and these are basically her words, &quot;I know how much you love racing and your cars, so I will never ask you to quit racing and I don't care how fast you decide to go, because I know that you will be in a safe car, but what I will ask you is Please, never bring a motorcycle home.&quot; Well, we are coming up on 30 years together and she has never asked me to quit and I never brought a motorcycle home. We have two wonderful kids that I am extremely proud of and their accomplishments, my son graduated from the University of Cincinnati a year and a half ago as an Industrial Designer and he works for an aeronautical engineering company and my daughter will also be graduating from the University of Cincinnati this coming spring also as an Industrial Designer and she has major plans, and their is no doubt in my mind she will be successful as well.

Sam, made a lot of trips through Canfield to get to Quaker City dragstrip in Salem, Ohio, which is south of Canfield (for those of you that don't know).

Chapter 8

This is the last chapter of, &quot;My Yenko Saga&quot;, and I will begin with why I decided to sell it and where that took me. Back in the those days, the late 60's and very early 70's, a car was just a car (that was my thinking back then) and who knew what would happen that would make these cars so special 50 years later, I sure did not have a clue, but it is definitely a reality now. Maybe because back in the day and I am talking about 1970, and the 7 years prior, around 1964 and the beginning of the GTO in 1964, all we had seen was performance cars getting better and better, not to mention a whole lot faster, but alas, that would take a significant turn in 1971, due to insurance regulations and the new founded EPA.

In 1973, a friend of mine introduced me to a co-worker of his (at GM of course), that was building a a race car. This was just not any race car, but a state of the art door car modeled after the current (at that time) Pro Stock cars. Naturally, at my young age of 23, I always wanted to be involved with something faster and something close to Pro Stock, and that was certainly a dream of mine and maybe I would get to drive it. The car was a 1973 Dodge Dart, (took me a while to get over a Mopar, but not too long), and this guy needed some financial help to do it the way he wanted to do it. The only way I could get involved in this was to sell the YENKO, and like I said at that time, it was just another car that could be replaced at any time, so I sold it.

I am going to tell you a little bit about this car so I can close out this saga and have it all make sense. When I first saw the car, prior to selling the Yenko and to get a feel where this deal was going to go, the car, actually I should say the body shell had just returned from the acid dipping process. The whole body had been dipped in acid to lighten it (that is how it was done back in the day). The HEMI engine was being built by Francis Crider with help from Dave Koffel of Chrysler, the bodywork and paint was then completed by Greg (can't remember his last name) in Akron, Ohio and it was painted just like Don Carlton's Pro Stock car of that era, the car and chassis work was completed by Arlen Vanke. It was going to run in the B/Gas category in NHRA. The HEMI was a 16 spark plug, dual dominators, and it had an experimental Chrysler electronic ignition on it. The front end was removeable fiber glass and everything on the car was either, magnesium, aluminum, or titanium, including a titanium bell housing from Trick Titanium, it had a Liberty Hemi four speed transmission with a RAM clutch and the rear end was a Dana 60 four link and coil over shocks with Summers Brothers spool and axles. It also had Hurst Airehart disc brakes and Cragar Super Tricks all the way around. Too say the car was a work of art would probably be a disservice, it was one &quot;Trickest&quot; cars around, especially in this area. In fact, the guy that owned it was called &quot;Tricky Ricky&quot;, and I would guess that was long before the infamous &quot;Tricky Ricky Smith&quot;, but I guess that could be debated.

I am not going to go into the success of this car, but what I am going to do is write about what happened in January of 1975, because it relates back to the Yenko. During the fall and early winter of 1974, the owner of this car decided he was going to have Dave Koffel of the Chrysler Race Group freshen up the 16 plug HEMI. He also decided that he wanted to race at the 1975 Winternationals in Pomona, California, yup, California. I had just been laid off at GM, so heading to California was not a problem for me. I should probably mention the tow vehicle that was purchased in 1974. This really doesn't have to do with anything, I just thought I would mention it, NO towing accidents in this chapter. It was a new, 1974 Dodge 2-1/2 ton cab and chassis that went to Olenyik body company to have an enclosed, racing box built on the rear of the chassis, just like the Pro's had back then. One of the ways the Chrysler organization would do for their racers back in the day is that they would rent a near by drag strip a week before an NHRA National Event, so that anyone that had a Chrysler race car could test and tune prior to the national race. If memory serves me, I believe Orange County was the site of this test session and we were there for it. Unfortunately, the testing did not go well, the first pass was just a warm-up, no high RPM, just a cruise down the track, on the second pass down, about half track, there was a whole bunch of smoke and no more sweet noise from the HEMI. When we got it back to the pit spot and got the front end off, I looked where the oil was coming from and looking from the passenger side of the engine, I could see the left tire. To say the engine was &quot;BLOWED UP&quot; was an understatement, it was junk, so we decided to stay and watch the races the following week, we figured we were there and Tricky Ricky was such a BSer, he was going to take the time to try and get some sponsorship or money. He was a true John Force of his time, always hyping the deal..

OK, back to how the YENKO ends this story.

We were staying at a motel and back in those days, no-one left their cars at the track, they took them back to the motels where they were staying and worked on them. After the first or second day of the Winternationals, we were back at the motel and I noticed these guys working on a dark green 1973 Super Stock Corvette in the parking lot. Even though the Dodge was cool, my heart was still with Chevrolet. Since I didn't have anything else to do, I decided to go and talk to these guys working on the vette. There was three guys working on it, two on the engine, one in the rear. The car did not have any lettering on it, just an NHRA number and class designation, so I had no clue as to who owned the car. I just watched for a while and then I asked the guy in the back if they had any problems getting through tech, (never forgot about Marty Barrett), he told me, &quot;No, the tech guys all know us, we never have any problem.&quot; So I asked, &quot;Who owns the car?&quot; He looked at me and said &quot;John Lingenfelter&quot; I said, &quot;Really&quot;, and asked if he was working on the engine, he told me, &quot;Yeah, but don't bother him til he is done, he does not like being interrupted.&quot; So I walked up and waited for a while, not saying anything. John finally looked up at me and smiled, &quot;How ya doing?&quot; I said &quot;Great&quot; After some small talk about his car and how it was running (which I believe he was #1 qualifier), I figured it was time to ask &quot;THE&quot; question. I said, &quot;Do you remember a points meet in Saginaw, Michigan about a year and a half ago?&quot; The answer, &quot;Yeah, I remember it, I lost first round!!!!&quot; So I said, &quot;I was the guy in the other lane....&quot; He got that BIG smile on his face and said, &quot;Are you kidding me?&quot; I said, &quot;Nope, that was me.&quot; I went on to tell him, that I knew I did not deserve to win that round and what happened? He told me, that it seemed like almost everyone at that race was running a 1969 Camaro and since it was night, all the cars looked alike. He said he was watching me do a burnout and I didn't really do much of one and he thought I was playing possum and was broke and trying to steal a round. I told him, I did a great burnout and he came back with &quot;I realized that at about half track, when I looked in the mirror, saw you coming fast, then I heard you, and then you blew by me. He said, &quot;at that point (about mid track), I realized that I had been looking at the wrong car in the burnout box.&quot; He said he had taken a leisurely light and that was why I caught him when I did.

That chance meeting led to a friendship that lasted a lot of years and he even had me drive one of his winningest dragsters for a stint in 1999. I dynoed at his shop many, many times and we lost a great racer when he passed on Christmas Eve in 2003.

Well, this has been fun, I hope you all enjoyed it. It was fun for me reliving some of my memories, especially about my DAD........

Re: Where is 69 Yenko Camaro 124379N663539
 

JoeC,

Currently, I have a picture of the yellow Ed Hedrick car hanging in my garage. The picture is it as a SS/E leaving the starting line, with a slight haze coming off of the slicks. I can't say I remember the Preston and Lawrence car.

GM

Re: Where is 69 Yenko Camaro 124379N663539
 

Thanks again for the trip down your memory lane [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/headbang.gif[/img] !

Re: Where is 69 Yenko Camaro 124379N663539
 

http://www.sherv.net/cm/emo/happy/ch...y-emoticon.gif http://www.sherv.net/cm/emo/happy/ch...y-emoticon.gif http://www.sherv.net/cm/emo/happy/ch...y-emoticon.gif http://www.sherv.net/cm/emo/happy/ch...y-emoticon.gif

Re: Where is 69 Yenko Camaro 124379N663539
 

In the late 70's, I saw Arlen build a couple '76 Feather Dusters. He would switch out the k frame and other front end parts and drop in a 440, or a Hemi. An original F-Duster weighed in just under 3000 lbs, and they were granny, low mile cars. Friend still has his, and was always very competitive. Greg you mentioned, was the good painter from the Akron area that painted Knafel Pontiac cars, I think.
Great story, Thanks!

Re: Where is 69 Yenko Camaro 124379N663539
 

OOOOOO... you left us hanging on the edge of our seats for MORE !!!!! AWESOME stories. THANKS !!!!

Re: Where is 69 Yenko Camaro 124379N663539
 

I met up with Gary and his friend Joe yesterday and had a great time sharing stories. I suggested he share his other passion of drag racing and his car he still races. He was not sure you guys would be interested. I suggested he post on the Supercar reunion link.

Re: Where is 69 Yenko Camaro 124379N663539
 

More stories, please, about almost anything from back in the day and remotely car related. We're all ears and reading intently. Cheers sir.

Re: Where is 69 Yenko Camaro 124379N663539
 

Outstanding story! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/worship.gif[/img]

Re: Where is 69 Yenko Camaro 124379N663539
 

Need popcorn emoji here as well....

Re: Where is 69 Yenko Camaro 124379N663539
 

There must be more chapters....... edge of my seat.

For example where did the car go? (did I miss that part?)

Ryan

Re: Where is 69 Yenko Camaro 124379N663539
 

Hi Ryan,

There was not much excitement in selling the car. I sold it as a roller, the engine and transmission went one way and the car went another. It was a local guy from Youngstown, Ohio that bought the chassis and I heard he had sold it to another guy. Probably about 10 years ago I heard that somewhere along the line, the owner at that time, (I don't have a clue who that would have been) took all the Yenko badging off of the car, repainted it and put Z28 emblems on it. Since I never saw the car again, I really have no idea if that was true or not.

Thanks,
Gary

Where is 69 Yenko Camaro 124379N663539
 

'

Could be a different car but wasn't there a thread here w/ a '69 Copo found badged as a Z28 within the last couple years...maybe an eBay find w/ State reissue Vin tag or that one could be yet another car?[img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/hmmm.gif[/img]
Enjoying all your posts Gary, you so belong here![img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/headbang.gif[/img]
[img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/beers.gif[/img]
~ Pete

Re: Where is 69 Yenko Camaro 124379N663539
 

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: PeteLeathersac</div><div class="ubbcode-body">'

Could be a different car but wasn't there a thread here w/ a '69 Copo found badged as a Z28 within the last couple years...maybe an eBay find w/ State reissue Vin tag or that one could be yet another car?[img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/hmmm.gif[/img]
Enjoying all your posts Gary, you so belong here![img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/headbang.gif[/img]
[img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/beers.gif[/img]
~ Pete


</div></div>


This one???...that was Lemans Blue?

Re: Where is 69 Yenko Camaro 124379N663539
 

Not Jamies, that's a LB with an a/t sold from Colonial...