Nickey -Yenkos

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

Stefano;
Are you vouching for Don's credibility in his '87 interview?? Remember, he also said he sold 500 Yenko Camaros in '69, 500 Yenko Deuces in '70, the list goes on.
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[JoeC]

There are a lot of unanswered questions and we can only guess at what went on but it seems that some dealers did not use the COPOs. I don't think Motion used them at all and since he was installing headers and scatter shields etc. I don't think that starting with a COPO Camaro would have made much difference for him. If he began with a L78 he would only have to purchase a L72 block and probably could sell the L78 block for close to what he paid for the L72 block. A lot of Super Stock guys were racing the L78s. To install the headers and scatter shield he had to do some disassembly and if the customer ordered blueprinting or cam change he had to open the motor anyway. Another problem with the COPO may have been availability. The COPOs were not readily available at all times. As far as I can tell, Yenko, Gibb, and Berger block ordered them with a prearrangement with Chevy but I have heard stories where people would order them from other dealers and had a long wait or could not get them at all. Even Fred Gibb did some L72 427 conversions according to his interview and he certainly knew about the COPO program. I have not heard of any COPO cars related to Nickey. As I said - a lot of this is guessing.

[sixtiesmuscle]

I think you're probably all right to one degree or another. I do think that Nickey led the way on the conversion concept when the Camaro was introduced. They already had a very active high performance cars & parts department, so, it was a natural, and, they were equiped to do it.

I also think the Nickey and Motion cars tended to be more expensive becuase they sold the customer on the "extras", and, the ability to build a car that couldn't be bought elsewhere, and, just to the customer's specs.

[Stefano]

Marlin,
I have enough trouble vouching for myself much less any of the interview or anyone else for that matter. I am merely speculating and having some fun with what may/could have been.

I don't recall the number of Deuces or any of the other Super Cars as grossly misstated.

Reread the quote. He was very emphatic that Nickey sold sYcs. I still can't see him making a material mistake regarding Nickey as a sYc retailer.

I could certainly see why Nickey wouldn't advertise the cars as Yenkos since the factory was actually producing and providing warranties for them.

Nickey may have even allowed the public to believe that the 1969 Copos were Conversions. This would only add to the overall mystique and marketability of the Super Cars.

I do agree that the Yenko and Motion stripes served to help identify the cars as something special and in turn save some from obscurity.

Motion / Joel Rosen was in a different situation. He was the converter and thus paid for his labor and expertise to convert the cars. I wouldn't think Baldwin would have paid Motion much, if any of their profit margin. He would not have shared the same philosophy as the "New Car Dealers". It could have actually worked against him ,had Baldwin Chevrolet COPO ordered their own Super Cars.

Joels was also pushing the performance envelope as this was his main line of businesss. Super Cars were only a small fraction of a New Car dealers potential overall book of business.

It sure would be nice to get Joel Rosen's take on this.

Don didn't foresee that the insurance companies and regulators would eventually squash the muscle car movement. I believe he would have done anything in his power and authority to get Vince Piggens the 500 Copos which he promissed to sell.

[JoeC]

Both Jim M. and Don Y. remember the number of COPOs as 500. This 500 may be a real number that Chevy declared as a minimum needed to cover the added engineering and warrantee costs of the COPOs. Don may have intended to order the 500 but as the year transpired he realized the difficulties of moving the full 500 order. As it turned out Burger ordered 50 and other dealers (USA and Canada) began to ordered them as word leaked out so Chevy did not have to hold Don to ordering the 500. Chevy wanted to build at least 50 to make them legal for NHRA anyway. They did this with the TH400 L78 Nova and the ZL1 that Fred Gibb requested but was probably not too worried about warrantee problems on Fred's cars since most would be race cars and the volume was kept low. They knew Don was going to sell his as street cars so Chevy required the 500 minimum to help cover warrantee costs. They did have some problems with warrantees as some of the original owners have said. This is my opinion.

[Stefano]

Since Don Yenko was responsible for getting GM to proceed with the L-72 COPO program he inturn actually did accomplish his ultimate goal, of at least 500 1969 L-72 COPO Camaros sold.

They just all were not sYcs, as well!

[sYc]

To get Chevrolet to build the COPO, and to be elgible for NHRA Stock classes, Don and Frank had to agree to buy 500. Of course, ordering/delivery would be spread out over the entire model year. But, accoring to Jim Mattison, once Yenko was unable to move the cars, they was able to convince Chevy to cancel a portion of the order. Jim said that this was the only time he knew of that this was ever allowed.

But, Don had to stick to his story of 500 built, or other wise NHRA would have moved the cars up a classification to Super Stock, which only required 50 produced (Gibb's ZL-1s). Don did this number thing with the SCCA on the Stinger and also on the Yenko Deuce (for it to run in the stock NHRA classes).

I have read the article in question many times. And, until I acquired much of the Yenko paperwork, assumed that most of the numbers being thrown out there were correct. But, after spending many hours going over the paperwork, I can honestly say that Don was off on several counts in the article. Including numbers built for the '67, '68 and '69 Camaros. Was it on purpose? I think in some cases yes, othesr no. You have to remember that it had been 16 years and Don had been involved in many other projects. Tom

[Stefano]

Tom,
Thanks for sharing some of the unique Yenko information you have compiled.
Have you decided the format to disseminate some of the Yenko Estate documents, as well as other information which you have aquired?


(I meant Payton Cramer in my prior posted reference to Dana Chevrolet.)

[tom406]

In my collection of Hi Performance CARS magazines, there's a feature on installing a Hone-O-Drive overdrive in a '69 427 Camaro. It's described as a Phase III car, but is devoid of graphics or any sort of SS trim cues - I'd bet money its a Motion Prepped Baldwin COPO. The article said the owner was picking it up and driving across country to take it home. Definately a buyer tuned into the Motion Mystique and likely unaware of the shadowy COPO cars....I know this is a Nickey thread, but I thought I better respond to the Baldwin-Motion references.

[Stefano]

Cool find,which magazine is that article in? What is the date of the article to help place production of the COPO?

Silver or black grill?