I also saw those holes on the rear tail panel, the location of the Holley fuel pressure regulator, the location of the line lock on the left inner fender and there are several other unique things I did to that car which may still be there. I had heard years ago about the green paint and that the car was a rusted out pile of junk, but I never gave a thought about it.

Now I am up at 3:30 in the morning thinking, Could this really be my old Yenko? I sure would like to go find out.

GM

There was a 427 emblem here to the right of that bow-tie, that I'm sure of. But that bow tie has never been off the car. Where's the popcorn emoji? :)

Yenko tail - no bowtie of course

Not all 1969 Yenko Camaros had the emblem configuration posted above. At least one had just a bowtie and several early on had the Yenko emblem to the right of the bowtie.

Yup, ya never know.

If nothing else why doesn't Whitetop drive back over to the car and take pictures and document the car VIN#. Then we can determine if it is on the 69 Yenko Camaro list (If the car was Gm 427 racers old car) or if nothing else document the VIN# as a Copo for future reference if the car ever gets sold and tried to be rebodied.

In a perfect world Gary and whitetop should go over and check it out to see if it's his old car and convince the owner to restore it or sell it or at least get it inside so it doesn't decay even more or get stolen. If it is Gary's old Yenko I'm guessing we won't hear about it again until the car has been bought or moved though for obvious reason$.

Just got back from south eastern Ohio. Well, no cigar today. It was not my old car, appeared to be just manual shift car with a twelve bolt, but nothing special, only had a 120 MPH speedo and no factory tachometer.

The search will continue.

Thanks to Whitetop for giving me directions.

GM

So not a copo then? If an SS 396 why the bowties and the BB heater core and the cowl hood ??

What’s the X-code on the trim tag? How about the 12-bolt stamp?

According to the COPO list I have, the field car is not on it nor is it on the Yenko Registry List.

GM

Still sounds like a good road trip Gary, kudos to you and whitetop for trying. I really hope you find your old Yenko someday or at least find out what happened to it.

trimtag looks like x44 dco

X44D80... it sure does look like a COPO.

D80 - spoilers

I just spoke with a guy who is familiar with this car and he was certain it was 427 car originally. Said a friend helped pull the 427 years ago and it is in a garage a few houses down.

Someone posted upstream they saw a cowl hood switch on the cowl. Why would this car have this??

Well whitetop u had it listed as a copo so would it still be on the Yenko list!

I was told it was a copo by numerous people and just spoke with a guy and said the 120 mph speedo and no tach does not mean anything and the vin not on the list does not mean anything either that the copo list is of known cars


I have zero interest in this car was just curious if it is an original copo or not.

Please correct me if I’m wrong here but a Yenko should have a 140 mph speedo due to being double copo 9561 & 9737. This car looks to be a 9561 which would have the 120 mph speedo.

All 69 Yenkos are COPOs, but not all COPOs are Yenkos! All 69 Yenkos were Double COPOs. We all know that, but more to the point, Very few Non-Yenko COPOs are Double COPOs, so 120 Speedo would be the norm for COPOs.

!2 Bolt, B/B heater Core, X44D80 on the tag, Bowtie emblem, someone who knows the car says it was a 427, etc, etc........I'm betting COPO.

Maybe the $30K offer was from someone who knew the 12 bolt is a BE, or knew where the motor is, or both! Still probably cost more that it's worth to restore, even if the car was purchased for $1.

I am no expert, I do know what my car looked like and this is not my car and more importantly, actually based on the VIN, this is not my car. Is it a 427 car? Maybe it could have been, but I was not going to get a jack to see if it is a BE 12 bolt. Looking at the car objectively, maybe the rear end is the only thing that is worth anything and that might be a crapshoot. If the engine is down the street, then I guess the car would be worth more, if the engine could be purchased but this project would take a whole pile of cash, I mean piles and piles of dead presidents (Ben Franklins).

The VIN as I read it on the dash is 124379N664592. So, if there are some experts (and I know there are quite a lot on this site), maybe they have some lists that are better than mine and they can verify something based on this VIN. I was going to pull the cowl panel, to look at the hidden VIN, but once I confirmed it was not my car, did not see the point of it.

GM

There is no COPO VIN list. There is a Yenko Camaro VIN list.

Just curious, how is the owner of the car? Most guys I’ve met with cars like this on their property don’t want to be bothered with anyone.

Exactly, the only complete COPO VIN list that exists is for the 9560 ZL1.

This thread caught my interest. Being from Cincinnati originally I was (still am) friends with several that own COPO's in the area. Mike being one of them, we were very familiar with a car just like this, sitting exactly in this condition for many years in the Williamsburg area off 132 in the guys front yard.

As the story goes, Mike was friends with this fella back in the 70's. Mike bought his COPO in the early 70's (still has it) and used to cruise around town with his friend that had a COPO. At some point the engine was pulled, sold to a guy a few doors down for a boat (matches Whitetops story), and a small block was put in place. Shortly after, the car was parked in the yard where it sat throughout the 80's and 90's and sunk into the ground. I tried to buy the car numerous times in the late 80's and early 90's but the owner wouldn't sell. Last time I looked at the car in the early 90's, it was so far gone I got disinterested, had small trees growing up through the floor boards, trunk was gone, even the heater box was rusted through. The car however at that time was largely intact albeit with a SBC under the ZL2 hood last time I saw it.

When I saw the pictures in this thread I was floored. By the 1990's this COPO was sunk into the ground just like this and rotting away and I thought for a minute it might be the same car. But since these pics are recent and the car is still there, I figure it must be a different one because the one I'm familiar with was finally sold and pulled out of the yard sometime in the late 90's. Friend of mine rumored to have bought the car, and attempted to buy the original engine down the street. Not sure if the engine purchase came through or not. Last I knew he was going to attempt a restoration. Lost touch with that friend and the car, don't know what happened to it.

Surreal how this COPO sounds so similar and appears to be in nearly identical condition, and in Ohio to boot. I was talking to Mike the other day about this car, and he said the one we were familiar with that I referred to never resurfaced again, wasn't sure what happened to it. I have no contact for our mutual friend that was rumored to buy it so I can't confirm. Would be a small world if this was in fact the same car, and it just so happens it didn't sell. But I see the SBC is no longer under the hood.

This car was definitely a COPO and was purchased new at Bob's Chevrolet Barnesville ohio. Local guys are sending me the history. The guy who owns it blew up the 427 years ago but it is sitting in a garage 3 houses down. Owner later replaced it with a small block.

The guy who owns it now is the original owner. Another guy tried to buy it from Bob's Chevrolet but could not come up with the money and the current owner then bought it.

The grandson of the owner has reached out to several restoration shops recently to inquire about restoring the car.

It is not for sale.

I'd bet it's the same car then. Too much of the story is the same.

If you want history I can try to put you in touch with Mike. He ran with the car back when it had the 427 in it, and the small block. Was friends with one of the previous owners right up until it was parked. I heard all the stories about it back in the 80's when I wanted to purchase it.

After talking with Mike and seeing these pics, I've become fairly certain our mutual friend never did buy the car. Which makes sense because it never resurfaced. About that same time it was moved from the front yard in plain view. I'm guessing the owner was tired of people knocking on the door since 132 is a highly traveled road. Everyone in Hamilton, Clermont, and Brown county knew of the car, lol. By the 90's it was already a pile, even by Ohio's standards, and we were used to pretty rusty cars. People were talking about buying it and rebodying the car even back then, that's how bad off it was then. I can imagine it's only gotten worse.

If it is the same car (and I now believe it is) It's a real COPO, BE rear was in it when I first looked at it....before it was sunk into the ground. But now with the hood missing the motor/trans pulled, decades have passed, hard to say what may be left. I agree with GM Racer, the rear may be the only thing of value, and I was already thinking that by the mid 1990's. Sad to see the car still sits this way.

Not the same car. This car has been in eastern Ohio it's entire life and is still owned by the original owner.

What are the chances? Wow, with the original engine just houses down from the car? Used to have a small block in it? Parallel universe?? :grin:

Same scenario is going on in South Western Ohio then.

I asked Mike if he could confirm the colors for me. That was the only part of the car that I just can't remember.

No offence to anyone but how many times have you heard of a BB Camaro and the guy blows it up and puts a SB in it and it ends up in his yard back yard rotting away?Just saying.

Evidently, TWO, that are confirmed..... LOL

No offence to anyone but how many times have you heard of a BB Camaro and the guy blows it up and puts a SB in it and it ends up in his yard back yard rotting away?Just saying.

Evidently, TWO, that are confirmed.... LOL

GM

Ya gotta kiss a lotta frogs if you hope to find your Prince Charming! Just saying.

After reading this story I am always brought back to a time many years ago when I kept driving by a old trailer home with a 66 SS gold chevelle sitting in the front yard. After a couple of weeks I noticed that the grass wasn't being mowed and was just growing all around the car. Well I finally pulled in looked at the car and knocked on the door and a old woman answered the door. I asked very politely if the car was for sale. She said no and just slammed the door. I thought many times how she wouldn't even talk about it when I would have given her more than her home was worth. You never know what or why people do these things.

2 Copos were for sale at Bob's. The lemans blue one in the photo and a burnished brown Copo.

J.A. the owner of the copo above actually wanted the burnished brown car but on the day of purchase it would not start so he purchased the blue car instead. A local gent's brother worked for Bob's at the time and has been supplying the info.

I've never really been able to wrap my head around the thought process. I think some people just like to be able to say they own something, even if it's rotting away in the back yard. Others maybe a sentimental attachment. Sadly most cases end up for sale after the owner passes, by then it's a pile of rust and the family is left to deal with it.

I was looking at some land "out in the country ish" for development into mini farms and the old guy that lives in the middle of the property has a bad reputation so we steered clear of him. Other family members were trying to sell the land and kick him out. Ended up that a family member in New York bought the land and is planning to sit on it.

A couple of months later my business partner and I were out looking at some other land and we decided to drop in on the old dude just to introduce ourselves and hopefully take a look at all his stuff(maybe 50"+ cars/truck/boats/junk).

I drove back into the middle of the 100 acres +/- property and pulled up to the guys house.
I approached the house and he popped up from behind a tree and scared the crap out of me.

I introduced myself and told him that I had been out there a while back when the land was for sale and just wanted to shoot the breeze. After a few minutes talking about this and that I asked about all his stuff. He started telling me about it and I asked him if it was cool if we took a look see at his stuff. He said no problem and we all three walked around and talked about all his stuff.

There was an awesome old Allis road grader that I wanted but he said he may need it sometime(the dude is in his 80's). There was an early 70's COE Freightliner with integral sleeper that he wouldn't turns loose of. A '68 Firebird that was his wife's car. It was about to be laying frame on the ground. There was a '68 Camaro that was his. It had some speed equipment on it and he stated he was a street racer back in the 60's/70's. He was going to hold onto that car.

After a couple hours and a lot of cool stories and good junk we hit the road. Next time I go back I'm gonna ask to take some pictures and see if he wants to let go of anything.

That's hilarious!!

Dang! Looks like the original BB 2 piece throttle rod, BB clutch bellcrank, BB heater core cover, and all of the original disc brake parts intact.

Wasnt this car in Super Chevy Magazine back in the late 70's, maybe early 80's? I remember a car with paint very similar to this and the wheels too, if not the same car.