X-11 Yenkos

[sixtiesmuscle]

Those of you interested in Nickey's road racing efforts will be pleased to know that Tom Stephani, whose dad John, with his brother Ed owned Nickey back in the day, will be bringing his collection of Nickey memorabilia to the reunion. Much of this "stuff" is related to their road racing in the late 50s & early 60s. It is terrific!

[JoeC]

I think the Purple People Eater was named after a song from the 1950's?
I have been hearing a lot about the up coming Monterey Corvette event and it sounds like it will be a great show.

[TimG]

I ran into Tom at Road America two summers ago. He had a Nickey hat on and it caught my attention. He said his family owned the dealership and gave me his business card to order a hat.

[68TopStock]

Rat-Pack,

Which car are you referring to as the "black car" in the above post? I am trying to piece together all of the Harrell or Harrell sponsored cars. I know the '64 Chevelle was black, and I am not sure if another car was between the Chevelle and "Retributution II". Does anyone out there have a comprehensive list of the Harrell cars, starting with his '62 409? I have so far counted 14 cars, not including cars like the Garfinkle driven or Gene Rains driven '67 stockers.

JoeC

You are right on regarding Bill Thomas, Hot Rod magazines '67 "TestCar" had a Thomas built big block as a demonstrator, beat Bill Jenkins first time out (maybe he redlighted his Chevy II out of fear), this was the fall of '66.

I went back to my archives after my above post, and found this in the December 9, 1966 DragWorld:

"The Nickey Camaro made it's debut at Lions Drag Strip and was as impressive as the Green Bay Packers' offense. The car displayed an awesome amount of raw horsepower with more to be tapped out of the powerful 427-cubic inch powereplant.

Bill Hielscher, of "Mr. Bardahl" fame and most recently honored as AHRA Driver of the Year, guided the almost all stock Camaro to a fine 11.37 and 126.40 mph. What's more is that the smooth shifting "Mr. Bardahl" thinks the car is a potential 10.50 and 130 mph car-of course that's with a good dose of Barhahl in the engine."

On the same page is an announcement:

"Nickey Chevrolet in Chicago will have Dick Harrell flying their colors on a funny Camaro, but they will also have Don Kriby's (Kirby?) blown 1967 Corvette funny car. The 427 cubic-inch car will be built at Nickey's western representative, Bill Thomas Race Cars."

The Nickey funnycar I have referred to above is all fiberglass, and was located in Anaheim, CA. Maybe Thomas farmed the work out to a local builder for Nickey, and built the drivetrain? I wonder were it ended up? I think Harrell left Nickey in the early spring of 1967, probably February-March, as the Pop HotRodding article in April shows Dick (sure looks like him) in the lead color shot of the article,with a Bill Thomas jacket on, but no name is mentioned. His last name is referred to in a small photo caption regarding traction bars in the article (an edit error if they were deleting his name). Maybe the folks at Nickey didn't want it known he left during the busy pre-season period. I think the lead time for mag articles back then was only 4-6 weeks. (interesting, the Red Nickey Camaro in this article sure looks alot like the Hot Rod "test car"????) Anyone care to comment? The Feb. '67 CarCraft article shows the Nickey facility with Dick named throughout the article.

Maybe this post has gotten off the beaten path, and a new one should be started? On the other hand, how many X-11 Harrell cars are known?

[Stefano]

TimG,
Can you post price and address for the hat?

JoeC,
Yes, to your question regarding, "did Jack Douglass keep records". He kept a traditional Deal Jacket with copies of all info pertinant to the deal, just as any dealer probably would have.

These Jackets/files were stored in filing cabinets and over time were moved to a near by storage facility. The files accumulated and Survived the Dealership, but did not survive a subsequent fire.

I would agree that the listed Yenkos as well as other listed Super Cars were very easy to chase based on just their vin numbers.(This has also made them very easy to rebody).

Many were found this way. See Ed Cuneen's COPO Connection Web site regarding vins for the found Douglass Yenkos.

I was told a story recently, of a title searched, by vin, ZL1, which was driven to the purchasers home by the seller because he was so eager to get his $3,000.00 selling price.
(read: the Buyer was to lazy to go pick it up.)

The Body of knowledge has been maintained mostly by hard core enthusiasts ,over the years. COPO Connection has the most comprehensive accumulation of Douglass info.

Ed, has been formally recording and gathering this info since the early 1980's. Local COPO archeologists (such as initials, M.B.) have been also following these and other special COPOs, for just as long.

Even the enthusiasts at CRG (Camaro Research Group) have been recording and maintaining info on the Douglass Yenkos.

We still get the local stories at criuse nights about yeah me and my buddy went and Bought one of those Yenko 427 Camaros right off the Dealers lot back in late 1969. The Camaros and Chevelles were lined up in front of the dealership, ready for sale.

A few other key components such as the the COPOs themselves are important. These alone tell most of the story. NICB reports, title histories, old pictures .ect .ect.

The best aspect is that Jack Douglass, his then General Manager ,Tom Dumass as well as many other Dealer employees are still with us today. Even Jack's son John is a wealth of information.

Jack even laid out his old Yenko Demo ride route for me. It is a bit more conjested today however, than back in 1969.

He recalls his sales people envoking rolling 1/4 mile blasts as a tool to help close the sale.

It was the efforts of Jack Douglass and his dealership team ,as an established "Mean ones" Yenko Sports Car distributor, which allowed most all the local Chicago Land Yenko Legends to be perpetuated.

It has been no doubt a difficult task to find and Document his COPOs, but it has been very worth while. I can't even find one of his documented L78 cars ,which I desire to own.

The difficulty though, is one aspect which makes these COPOs cherished if not nationally, then certainly locally.

With only 22-25 ever produced and sold, I feel fortunate to have one.

[TimG]

Stefano,

I was worried someone would ask me that. I had his card for a quite a while, I just do not know where it is any longer. If I uncover this I would be more that happy to post the information. Tom and I were watching the super V event at the vintage races. I think that either he had a super V or he had one as a partner with a friend. He really got into these VW powered open wheel cars. Struck me as unusual for a guy that had access to so many big cube cars. He said the super V cars were very fast and drafting was the best part. They run down the track like they are all stuck together.

[Rat_Pack]

68TopStock, I have not gotten the full story behind the black 65 Chevy II. All I know is that when the 62 was destroyed in a wreck Dick was supposed to be out of a ride. Sometime before Bill Thomas built him the 66 car he ran this stock wheelbase Chevy II and it was painted black with a red and white interior. I will try and dig the only picture I have of it and email it to you. To keep this post short I will get with you by email sometime tomorrow or the next day....................RatPack.................... .....