68 Yenko Camaro

[JoeC]

I don't believe Yenko was just making up the numbers in the MCR interview. He was trying to answer the questions as best that he could remember but was crossing up the facts which is understandable since the events were many years previous. When Don said 500 COPO Camaros this was a number agreed on with Chevy and is the number that Jim M also remembered. He didn't remember that the original plans changed and Yenko ended up with only around 200. I believe Vinnce E said his paperwork shows the 54 and 64 totals for 67 and 68 but I will have to re-check this with Vinnce. The numbers that Yenko did get very creative with was in his correspondence with NHRA. He wrote Wally Parks a letter requesting NHRA Super Stock class certification for the 1967 427 Super Camaro. In this letter he provided NHRA with 107 vin numbers for 1967 Camaros he sold with 427 engines. I believe this was an exaggeration that Yenko made with encouragement from Chevy to get the car approved. In 1968 Yenko wrote another letter to NHRA stating he had plans to build 600 1968 427 Camaros and he would tag and serial number them. All through the history of racing there are examples where car production numbers were exaggerated to satisfy the sanctioning body rule book.
I have been doing research on the 67 Yenko Camaro and the ones I found so far that are on the list of 54 have the 375 hp codes on the trim tag. I have a theory that Yenko began recording the info when his 67 program got going with the 375 conversions but had some 350 conversions done by him or by others such as Dana. Warren told me he remembers pulling out the 350 engines on some 67 Camaros and there is the ad from 1966 where Dana and Yenko had some type of arrangement to sell 427 Camaros. There is also paperwork from Dick Harrell showing he did some of the 67 Camaro conversions and charged Yenko just for the labor. The 67 Yenko history is not very clear but I'm still working on it and have a few more leads to follow up on. Any info that can help would be greatly appreciated.

[Mike]

Tom,

Can you elaborate on this new Nova info. What is it?

Mike

[sYc]

Mike; A former Yenko employee has revealed that he has information on several Yenko built/sold cars. The information is contained in folders, a folder for each car. Many '67s, a few '68s and '69s, and a handfull of '69 Novas. Several members of this site have been able to purchase the folder pertaining to their Yenko. This is where most of the information on Brian's Nova came from, which was available for viewing at the Supercar reunion. Are there other "Brian's car" in the paperwork? I can not say, I have not seen the paperwork. Tom

[Mike]

Thanks Tom.