'68 Yenko, Transplant vs. COPO

[Chevy454]

Jim:

Thanks for stopping by! It will be good to see what you have to say, and maybe you can help shed some light on the COPO paperwork, and explain what moves were made to make a thing like a COPO car happen.

JoeC:

Could "Excalibur” possibly have been a name that Yenko came up with? Kind of like "Stormer" & "Stinger"? Maybe he was considering this name, and GM used it just to kind of keep track of the combo? Who knows...just thinking out loud...although it might not be very loud!

[Rowdy Rat]

I've been trying to purchase the engine that Brian mentioned for about five years now. It is definitely a standard bore 396, casting number 3916323. The casting date is B 15 8 and the assembly date/broadcast code is T0223MV. The VIN derivative is 18N412### which appears to be for a mid-April 1968 car. The NICB records as well as information given to the current owner of the block indicate that the car it was installed in was originally delivered to Yenko Chevrolet. It is the real deal; there is nothing about this block that makes me believe it was restamped or altered in any way. I hadn't realized that there were other "MV" 396s out there until Kurt spoke up about the ones he he has found as well as Brian's recent finds. This leads me to believe that "MV" code 396s were being installed in Camaros as late as April 1968. Whatever theory you may have for 427 engines in 1968 has to account for these 396s.

Jim, good to see you here. A couple of questions that I have that perhaps you can comment on as you were involved in the project and with the people. First, federal emissions compliance went into effect for all 50 states for the 1968 model year (hence the emissions testing data that Kevin was kind enough to provide and Marlin to post). Would Cole or Estes jeopardize their professional careers (and pensions/retirement plans - they were both getting close to retirement, right?) by selling cars in the U.S. without emissions compliance. Doing so would certainly risk a run in with the federal government. If not, then the earliest possible date for production would have been 6/21/68 according to Kevin's documents. That's assuming that the tests were satisfactory and GM was ready to immediately start building cars at that point (I doubt that GM moved that quickly). Second, if the purpose of the "MV" code was to identify the engines for warranty issues, then you've created a real problem by using "MV" for both 396s and 427s in the same platform. Which is which?

Joe, I appreciate you digging out that 1967 L-88 carburetor. It adds some support to what I had discovered so far.

Regards,

Stan

[SuperCars]

This is getting interesting. Thanks for your posts Jim M. It is great to hear from someone like you who was involved with these processes. I was especially keen to hear about your personal contact with Don Yenko and the part about Don Yenko, Ed Cole, and Pete Estes agreeing together for production of the 427 Camaro in 1968. It sounds as if this took place in the middle of the 68 Production year. I always wondered how Yenko could afford to do the 427 transplant conversions and warantee them on his own.

I have heard of this MV 396 block also, and is evidence for 68's having been transplants. But, we also see here as Jim states; that later in 1968 Chevrolet committed to 68 427 Camaro production under COPO 9737. I believe at least one 427 Camaro was built, such as my 68 Yenko with Chevy tag: "special order drag car".

I am repeating again from GM documents under COPO 9737/Yenko/, April 68 is the first appearance of the RPO V78 "Less Certificate of Compliance/Export/". This is what would cover Chevrolet (Cole and Estes) from the Emissions regulations and thus put the matter on Yenko's shoulders to resolve. Now that Yenko was successful in getting Chevrolet to commit to build 427 Camaros, his next challenge was to keep Federal Emissions guys from contacting him, if he were selling non-compliance cars. Technically at this point a factory production 68 427 Camaro could only be sold as a race car or exported. This most likely resulted in Yenko's request for the Chevrolet Engineering Test Order for the L72 Camaro smog test (with the code name "Excaliber) which as dated May 20, 1968, with 6-21-68 as completion date. I believe this Smog Test request is the fall-out after a 427 Camaro with V78 non-compliance was built and Yenko realizing he had to deal with Federal Emissions as well.

I have a last side note here. Just for the heck of it, as I didn't think the answer would be yes; two days ago I asked Vince the question: were any 68 Yenkos exported? He said no they weren't, and actually most of them went to one state. He told me the state, and was a complete surprise to me; what state that was.

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

Kevin;
I will take a stab at your question! Florida??
M

[SuperCars]

Marlin,
You got me grinning here. Is that just a stab, or is there some basis for that guess?

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

Kevin;
With all honesty, that is a guess. Although, it is based on the fact there has seemed to be a strange amount of '68 Yenko Camaros being sold out of Florida within the last few years. I'm assuming that they all weren't brought there after being sold new.

I know that one of the Island Teal cars was sold by the Camaro Club, which is/was in Florida. I believe one of the red, RS cars was sold in Hemmings a couple of years ago - from Florida (?). I know that a member of this board has YS-8030 - in Florida. The car on the screensaver has a Florida license plate. BeaumontBill just purchased the Corvette Bronze '68 Yenko that I know was sold new in Florida. I believe there are others. I checked my dealer listing that I have been assembling over the years, and found that Florida had at least 4 dealers in the Yenko network.

So, that is my guess!! Is it correct??????
M

[Edited by YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY (05-03-2001 at 02:10 PM).]

[SuperCars]

Marlin,
You are correct. What I couldn't understand is what prompted this region of the country to get these? It must have been all in the marketing and sales. Which ever Dealership promoted them best, got the sales and sold cars.



[Edited by SuperCars (05-03-2001 at 02:46 PM).]