1969 Yenko Camaro

[Belair62]

How did you find your old car Tom ?

[Mr70]

Wonderful news Tom.CONGRATS
Glad to hear it is coming back to you.
The Following is from an article from Kenny Ross himself in January 1970,through the Chevrolet Central magazine:

Kenny Ross,from Kenny Ross Chevrolet,is Performance minded,but not a specilaist.He has been keeping a close watch on the Youth market for some time."marketing for all sorts of products has been aimed at the under 25's-and that includes cars."
Even though the Dealership is not located in a Performance area,he believes that getting into the performance market is the way to reach young buyers.Today,close to 25% of thier new car business is in peformance cars.
"The kids are looking for identification,........individualty,they're looking for a Car with Flare....speed...color-something different.
For this reason we do a lot of custom painting.
The Kenny Ross Dealership has three specialists on the sales staff,and a seperate showroom for High performance parts.
The most Important thing a dealer needs,Ross Believes,Is a Service Dept. equipped to handle performance car business.When it comes to ordering,most of the Kids Know as much about the cars as anyone on our staff.But if you don't have good service,you lose the business.This is especially true in make-ready,so we can make an extra special effort preparing performance cars for Delivery".(Outstanding equipment in thier service department includes a Dynamometer-not usually found outside specialized speed shops.)

[Mr. T]

Tom,

What a great way to end 2003, to actually buy back your 68 Camaro SS396 that you originally purchased in 68. Can't believe it only has 5,000 miles. WOW! You don't hear of stories like this everyday. Do you know if the car was shipped from the factory to Don Yenko and then to Kenny Ross? Can't wait for more info on your car. Congradulations!!

[T Billigen]

I just drag raced the car mainly. I really never drove it much. I sold it to a friend in 1971 and it sat in storage for the next 30 years. He sold it in November of 2002. I talked to the fellow that bought it a couple of weeks ago and asked if he wanted to sell it. He said he would think about it. I explained to him that I was the original owner and would sure like to get it back. Finally he said OK! I had him check a few numbers and I made sure that the 140 speedo was untouched and it was. In 68 I never paid much attention to the speedo, I thought all 375 HPs came with it. It does have the deluxe wheel, standard black interior,Big sway bar and correct writing on vin tag It was a very late car: 07E is the build date.

[Supercar_Kid]

"Even though the Dealership is not located in a Performance area..." Ouch, I'm hurt. Shows how often the writers of Chevrolet Central visited the Pittsburgh area. The 'Burgh was a hotbed for performance oriented buyers in the late 60's. There was Kenny Ross selling plenty of L-78 cars and the sort, not to mention Don Allen, Tom Henry, Schrieber, Bud Donahue, and I'm sure several others that would sell you any high perf car in Chevy's lineup short of a COPO, which could had easily enough by heading on out to a little dealership in Washington county by the name of Yenko Chevrolet. Let's also not forget that Grabiak Chevrolet in nearby New Alexandria sold nearly as many Corvettes as Yenko did, and remains a tri-state Corvette volume sales leader still today. Sure...maybe the Pittsburgh area wasn't as performance oriented as say the Woodward cruising crew that bought from Berger or the Long Island Baldwin/Motion crowd, but it sure wasn't lacking in performance seeking customers or dealers that could provide what they were looking for. to all the "back easties" out there.

[hvychev]

Tom did you keep any paperwork or old photos of your car when you sold it?

Supercarkid....The Chicago area market was the hottest hi-performance market of the time!

[camarojoe]

Tom, do you have any pics of your 68 as it looks today? I feel pretty confident your car was an unconverted COPO 396/375 car originally ordered and delivered to Yenko Chevrolet and later dealer traded or sold to Kenny Ross. Not sure if you'll be able to turn up any paperwork to prove that, but with the 140 speedo and being sold just a few miles down the road from Yenko, I would bet my last Berger wisk broom that it was originally delivered to Yenko and was one of the cars that never got converted from a 396 to a 427.

[T Billigen]

The fellow I originally sold the car to in 1971 still has some paper work and alot of pics when we were racing at Keystone. He still has the original engine but getting it off him may be difficult. He is a packrat and does not like to sell anything. You should see the rare items he has hidden away. The engine in it now is the L-88 that I bought at Yenko in 1969. I am very confident that this is an unconverted car also.

[Unreal]

Tom, if you've been friends with the guy since 1971, why would he not sellit to you...or even trade for the L88 motor? It's not my business, but just curious.

[T Billigen]

Without going into details...."Friend" is not exactly what I would refer to him as. The trade is a good idea however.