Never give up searching !

[MotownMadman]

George,
You consider buying any lottery tickets recently? Play the six digit VIN any way you can. I have a friend in SE Michigan who remembers racing a orange 69 Yenko Chevelle against his HEMI DART (which he still has)at Milan Michigan dragway in the early to mid seventies. Says he will box hunt for a possible photo. Anyone know how many Orange 69 Y Chevelles that were within a 500 mile radius of Milan back then? For the Mopar or dart guys, you may know Knorbert K. What a great find, no doubt a lot of hours of research and dedication. Nice to see those who throw more at the hobby then money. How many years knowing of it before finding it? Dont touch the originality any more then you have to. This is the kind of car that you have no need of defending or arguing it's heritige or history, no concerns about questionable documentation with this one, the car screams original! Very few found anymore in what I call "Time Capsule" condition. Did the previous owner tell you how many people have tried to buy it over the years? I cant imagine anyone even knowing of it or laying eyes on it in the last quarter century without that knowledge leaking out to the point of someone already bringing back into the daylight! Then again, this is one of those cars that if it were seen and described to anyone else as even existing, it becomes a "Ya right, sure you saw it, uh-huh". I can tell you, that happens a lot. People may have seen this car over the years and never even bothered with telling anyone about it as they were tired of the skeptics of the world believing it not possible for a find like this to be out there, let alone discovered. Congrats!
Motown

[GeorgeLyons]

Well Motown, you certainly have my interest. Milan would have been a likely drag strip for this car to have run. As for Orange Yenkos, it looks like Minneman in Youngstown actually sold 2 twin cars and no others in the area show up but remember, we are only talking about 100 or so miles from Canonsburg so anything is possible. As to your questions about the cars hibernation, in extensive conversation with the 26 year owner it seems the car was just never out anywhere, he was out of the hobby, lived off the beaten path and never tried to do anthing with the car for over two decades. As I said previously, a buddy of his goes to GM Carlisle and supposedly tried asking around but it seems I am the only one that smelled blood when I heard the cars description and "just north of Pittsburgh" mathched up to this long ago dead-end lead I had. Once I found the guy by phone and he learned why I was calling, he gave me the cars VIN in about the first minute of our conversation. One of the nicest, honest, genuine gentleman I ever dealt with. In the first ten minute phone call I established 1. VIN was a hit. 2. Cars description matched registry. 3. "of course you can see it, come down anytime" 4. "Ya, I'd probably sell it" From there it sorta went like this: Did you ever see the Sienfeld where Jerry calls Kramer to see if he wants in on the Chinese food order and he doesn't even have the phone hung up and Kramer is sliding in the door ? I think I was at this guys house about that fast. From there it was easy, looked over the car, established a relationship, and worked thru a very friendly price negotiation. Total elapsed time from first phone call to title tranfer.....3 weeks. Total nights of sleep over those 3 weeks-none. It was great......where's the next cold case to chase?

[chads454Ls6]

This story is just unreal! It is amazing that a guy owns a car like that and you were able to buy the car that fast. usually people have the car tied to there youth and they will never sell! Congrats again george.

[Mr70]

George
Can You share some more detailed pictures with us?
Possibly Engine-Interior-Trunk-Undercarriage
At your convenience...

[Belair62]

[ QUOTE ]
Total nights of sleep over those 3 weeks-none.

[/ QUOTE ] Total words spoken to anyone else about the car ZERO !!

[GeorgeLyons]

Pretty close, needed some therapy to get me thru the 21 days so I confided in my one buddy (coincidently the guy I bought my first Yenko from) in Kentucky who I knew would help me thru and he did. If I didn't get the car bought, I was thinking of giving out the location on this site and just sit back in that little town and watch the traffic jamb. The poor guy would have needed police protection.

[Belair62]

[MotownMadman]

George,
It sounds like this guys buddy was looked at by collectors as telling the story of "The old lady who has the no miles Corvette in her barn that belonged to her son who was killed in Viet-Nam and she wants $200 for the car...." The buddy no doubt knows car guys if he was at Carlisle, a national event which is very close to ground zero Yenko, so in 26 years you were the first to actually listen to his "Lost Yenko tale"? I am surprised this "Urban Legend" was even told to you. After how ever many years the buddy knew of the car, certainly you were unlikely to be the first he told, and with as easy as the negotiations were with the owner to purchase the car it is amazing the buddy did not give up at even telling the story, without a doubt over how ever many years and miles their friendship took them it would be a betting fact that others were told of the lost hidden original Yenko that could be bought, only to recieve the "Ya, uh huh, sure pal" sneer of the skeptics. Considering that, at what point would the buddy give up at being looked at as the attention starved person standing on a corner handing out maps to the "Lost Dutchmans" gold mine. What knocks me off my square about this one is the fact that it could be bought. If it were not for sale no matter what, then sitting all that time would re-classify it from lost/missing to known about but may as well be lost because money cant touch it, much like the Wisconson Yenko Camaro. A very similar yet different situation was the 68 Trans Am #2 Shelby Mustang I aquired not long ago, bought in 69 from Ford by a Team Shelby employee. I pried that car from a dark corner in a warehouse that was it's home since 69, over 30 years of a one of three car in which both owner and car were known of to the point of both being listed in the Shelby Registry, yet over the years both owner and car had become lost/missing. It was just NOT FOR SALE at any price. The owner would not even admit to still having, let alone discussing the sale of the car. Over the years many had gone to great lengths trying to seperate the car from the owner with no success to the point that many believed the car to no longer exist. That type of "Time Capsule" situation would account for a extremely desirable car to sit for 26 or more years, but for a car such as the Yenko to be announced for sale in the first phone encounter is absolutely incredible! I would venture the statement that a whole lot of people were asleep at the wheel on this one, which most likely stems from the too easy, too good to be true overconfidence we all suffer from on occasion. What I sometimes refer to as a "Momentary Lapse Of Reason". I am surprised that the friend did not try to or buy the car himself. At any rate George, I will follow up on a possible Milan photograph, that could possibly prove as or more elusive as the car itself. Considering the way the Yenko cars launch from the hole, if a front shot can be located from the car leaving the lights I am sure many here would agree that the front would be high enough in the air to possibly identify the chrome sway bar. Once aqain, congrats on a unbelievable find, I am sure it was enough to wake up many of the hunters from the lazy mode!
Motown