Yenko Interview

[camarojoe]

There are MANY details about the 69 cars, how they were built, differences, exceptions, etc. that one post, thread, or interview can't possibly cover everything... heck, you could write a book on it. The interview with Don is an entertaining and informative read, but there are a few head scratcher points in it, most notably the ones you referred to about production numbers. I don't have the article in hand to go over it with a fine tooth comb, but I believe there are several things in it that have been the topic of debate over the years. If you want to learn about 69 Yenko cars, your best bet is to just sift through the nearly 10 years worth of archives and old topics, threads, and discussions here... at one time there were some really informative and useful discussions about stuff like this, (and there still are once in awhile. ) It's impossible to learn all there is to know in a day, or in a single article... heck, some of us have been researching and reviewing this stuff for 10-20 years and still have lots to learn. -Joe

[PeteLeathersac]

In case anyone's missed it previously, here's a link to the Yenko interview being discussed..

https://www.yenko.net/photos/showgall...mp;ppuser=2303

Don't forget to click the second time to enlarge each page!.

~ Pete

[Big Chief]

Thanks for the information everyone. I have seen the https://www.yenko.net/dealers/yenko.htm months ago, which added to my questioning of the interview. I guess my fear of asking questions over the internet is being further misled with erroneous information. Some questions in particular are...
1. Were any of the automatic cars console cars or were they all column shift?
2. If there were any console cars (4 speed or auto) did any of them come with the gauge package?

Thanks

[camarojoe]

None of the 4 speed cars came with a console. There is a hugger orange X11 auto car out there that reportedly came with a console originally, but i can't verify that to be true. I've seen the car, and it indeed has a console in it now, but was unable to see underneath to verify if the console was added later on or indeed factory equipped. If memory serves correctly, this console equipped auto did not have console gauges. The car may even belong to a member here, as I recall seeing it at one of the early Supercar Reunions years ago. In any case, with the possible exception of that car, the automatics were delivered to Yenko as a column shift TH400 and were converted to a floor shift using a Hurst Dual Gate setup. All of the cars were equipped with the standard interior, black only. When speaking of Yenko cars, its good to always use the phrase "most of the time" rather than "always", as there are a few oddball cars out there that may fall outside of the norm, with details that may vary a bit from the Yenko standard practice for conversions. Most of these "oddball" cars were cars sold directly off the yenko lot in Canonsburg PA vs. ones that were built to be shipped to the various dealers within the nationwide Yenko network. It seems as though Yenko would geneally do (or not do) basically anything the customer wanted in order to sell the car, and while "most" were built similarly, there are a couple notable exceptions.

[Big Chief]

Thanks for the thourough reply. It answers several of my questions ahead of time. Some oddball cars would make perfect sense considering the special order nature of the cars and dealer. Since Yenko offered options such as blow proof bell housings, headers, etc, I knew there would be some differences between cars, but I felt the base COPO cars were all the same and there were no "factory" cosmetic options.
New question - Can you tell me if the COPO cars came with a unique cross member for the 4 speed cars? These cross members had an indention near the transmission mount, I assume to clear the shifter linkage. It also appears the transmission mounting holes are offset towards the driver indicating the engine may have been offset in frame as well. Also, why did the factory feel the need for a specific shifter mount for the round bar shifter on the big block cars as indicated in Rick's 1st Gen Camaro catalog?

[camarojoe]

As far as I know, the 4 speed crossmember used on COPO cars is the same one used on all BB 4 speed cars, same goes for the shifter.

[camarojoe]

...as for shifter offset(if I read the question correctly) I believe it is to put the shifter closer to the center of the transmission tunnel. Once again, this is not COPO specific, as all big block 69 Camaros used the same round stick Hurst 4 speed shifter.