Fathers Lost Yenko Chevelle #358034 Butternut

[Charley Lillard]

Current owner had law enforcement and his insurance co look into it. It has never been reported stolen and the statute for reporting it stolen in either state is long past. If there was forgery involved in signatures it still should have been reported stolen but it wasn't. Law enforcement is aware of this thread. Any additional history on the car will be a welcome addition to the cars documentation.

[markinnaples]

Thanks for the update Mr. Lillard.

Oh, and I saw you on TV not too long ago; pretty cool.

[parmstrong]

OMG Chris WOW OMG, how are you doing. we need to talk. i grew up with your dad when we were teens. myself, gear,zero,fred,pork.(i will use the nick names we used in the day) i remember when your dad and mom got married. iwas taiking to zero and he said that you found your dads car, WOW what are the odds after all these years. there are hundreds of stories. i will tell you one quick one. after reading this post i am trying to understand it all. maybe i can help, it is true that your dad did own a real yenko chevelle. we all had muscle cars that was all we could afford, nobody wanted these anymore,gas at .50 cents a gallon,high insurance,and so forth. those were different times between all of us we could not rub 2 nickles together. he bought the car from rick, who i thought bought the car from his brother dave, who was the second owner. i think that is how it went .i think the original owner on the post is correct. anyway here is a little story. as usall no matter what we were going to drive we had to fix it first, with whatever means we had. this night we were going to take the yenko, carl had a race with a nice ss 396 nova and this guy had money (big tires, mag wheels, and all 4 matched lol)well we went to the quater mile we had painted(i can take you there to the spot) as we had no money the yenko had snow tires on it lmao it was funny, i let the air down on the snows(as that chevell did not leave the line without melting the tires) they lined up that d___ nova took off first and i mean it left,but your dad ran it down and memory serves correct put about 5 cars on it. did we laugh. if i can help you with this i will do all i can.there seems to be a lot of discussion on if it is or if it is not. this what i know about it. your uncles nor your gramma, nor i think your mom would have never let that car go on purpose. i can explain when we talk. i was with your dad for a while in co. and the yenko was with him this is true. the problem was when your dad passed. due to issues that i am sure you know about,there was alot of discussion about it. the car got put in storage thru gear. anything after that you have done a lot of leg work and i will help. what i will say is if you could let me look at the restoration pic's i can tell if it might be your dads car or if it is not your dads car. send me a note would luv to get with you. wow i still cannot beleive it, what a trip down memory lane. the best of luck to you. tell your mom and aunt sue i said hi and hope they are well, i really hope that this is it every body should know all they can about your dad. he was a great friend,

[russgt]

Charley, if Chris was to acknowledge that the car is currently legally owned, would the current owner be open to allowing him to personally see the car?

In my opinion, since I am in a somewhat similar situation with my dad's LS6, is that what is important is that Chris gets a chance to see the car and accepts that it is in good hands.

[Cworkman2]

Hello parmstrong,
I would welcome any information you have regarding the history of the car. I had to ask my mom about a few of the "nicknames" to make sure I could put a face with a name. My fathers cousin Andy was known as Gear and his friend Charlie was known as Zero...The others I was never familiar with and would welcome a conversation about them. I am currently trying to contact his friend Mike G. who is in Tennessee also. As you can tell by the length of this thread that there has been alot of information discovered about the car and it's restoration. I still cannot find any information on it from 78 until 84 when Leroy Funk had possession of it, I've tried to contact his widow to no avail, and I respect her choice if she chooses not to. Ive been lucky enough to talk with Clarence about the car and he has shared what he knows about the car up until his brother sold it to one of the Kibbe brothers. I've heard from other friends that the car that's posted as George Lyons restoration is not "exactly" what it looked like when my father owned it. I'm sure the image his car, the way it was, is burned into your memories like it was yesterday. I know by talks with "Zero" the he says he can still remember the way the car smelled and what pink floyd 8-track my dad used to play in it. The pictures of I have speak a million words to me and I leave it to his friends to make them into stories. I know it sounds like a hallmark card...but it's the truth.
I would really like to talk to you if you are willing.. my # is 989-600-6881. I would welcome a conversation and answer any questions you may have if they haven't been answered on here. You can also PM me if you wish. I check this site every few days. And thank-you to the person who emailed me about this post. I wouldnt of see it til Tuesday if you wouldnt of got ahold of me.
Best regards and I look forward to hearing from you.
Chris

[Vortecpro]

A Yenko Chevelle was in Ellicott Colorado out side of the springs, in the 70s and early 80s, the car showed back up in Colorado Springs in the 80s, I can't remember the owners name but it will come to me, the last owner some time ago sold to some one out of state for big money. NOW I REMEMBER LEROY FUNK. Leroy had Mike Geddes rebuild the original L72 in the 80s, the car rans 12.60s on slicks with steel rally rims at Pueblo Colorado 4800 feet, the car was also drove all over the streets of Colorado Springs in the early 80s, but I don't remember it being raced on the streets, Leroy was conservative, and theres no way he didn't have a title for that car.

[Craig_Maiorana]

Has there been any further progress on this? .. I know this is a touchy subject, but I was just curious as to what more came to light about that whole situation

[Charley Lillard]

Not a touchy subject on the owners end. He has legal ownership of the car. If someone wants to make a claim of ownership they will have to file suit. The owner is not worried.