[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

Hi Alan;
Yes, it has been a while since we last corresponded!

As for the Hurst shifter installed in the Yenko Novas, it took us a a while to figure out what it was. After comparing shifters among original cars, and speaking with George Campbell in Chalfont, Pa, we eliminated the possibility that over-the-counter shifters were utilized. So, we assumed that Hurst had come up with a special shifter just for this application, although that sounded expensive. After looking at countless shifters at swap meets, we realized that our Competition Plus shifters had the identical offset as the '69 Camaro Z28's. This was good news, but what about the arm? Well, we got lucky (as opposed to smart!), and Neal Robbins found a strange looking shifter with what appeared to be a Yenko Deuce arm, at Carlisle. The vendor was a Pontiac only guy, and informed us how rare this unit was; yada, yada, - because it was for a '69-'70 GTO with bench seat! Once we thought about it, it started to make sense, even though I'd had never seen a bench seat GTO with a 4 speed in those years. We later found out that the same arm was used on the Tempest cars, possibly even with 3speed shifter mechanisms. After asking several Pontiac people about the arm, and all of them concurring, we feel that the arm is indeed from a bench seat GTO.

I have purchased two additional arms that were being sold as GTO bench seat shifters, and the number stamped into the arm's insert matches mine/others original shifters; #4177. We have not been able to find someone with Hurst literature that can confirm this for us though. A local vendor, Dennis Kirban, was not real helpful to me, although he claims to have cleaned out the Warminster plant when it closed. If you have some concrete paperwork which shows this # as an application for the Novas, we would like to have a copy!

The automatic cars' shifter was a little easier. We knew that they were delivered with the shifter on the column, and that Yenko simply knocked the pin out and tossed the lever. Yenko then installed one of two shifters on the floor. For some reason, a few of the a/t cars had the shifter installation instructions placed in the glove box, and two cars still had them after changing hands. J&W Nova had one such car, and informed us that it was 'just a regular Power Stick shifter'. This was actually the Autostick we believe. After photographing it, and comparing it to the advertisements from the Hurst giveaway Nova, we knew what it was.

The dual gate shifter is still a little bit of a mystery. We assumed that it should have come with a the hard plastic console with wood grain top plate like the '69 a/t Yenkos. Obviously, the Nova's bench seat would prohibit the installation of the console, but we are not sure if Yenko used the console type of dual gate shifter, with a generic boot, for the Novas, or if there was a non-console dual gate shifter. There are only about 5-7 a/t cars found with the optional shifter, and other than the arm, we don't really see why they are any different than the Autostick. We are still looking into this.

Finally, one car is rumored to have come with the Autostick shifter in the trunk. We believe that Yenko did not have time to install it before it was shipped to Johnny Londoff Chev. in Florissant, MO. I don't believe Londoff installed the shifter either, but apparently the first owner did. The car was totalled approximately two years later when it was rolled into a ditch one night.
M