Still my favorite 69 Camaro picture of all time!

[Supercar_Kid]

That pic was taken at the Strabane Street holding lot in Canonsburg, not far from the W. Pike Street dealership. I've been told that the radioactivity levels there weren't particularly safe even back in '69. I think Don got a heck of a deal on renting the property and deemed it safe enough for the storage of his fleet of COPO cars awaiting transformation into the famed sYc cars. Don always was a bargain hunter. I've also been told that due to a problem with night time thieves, Don would have his crew park the cars door handle to door handle, as closely together as possible, making only the end cars accessible, and therefore adding just a bit of difficulty for any vandals who may have had ideas of making off with some goodies. Not a bad idea, but I doubt it did much for protecting valuable engine parts, like cylinder heads, carburetors, etc., but I guess that's what the armed guard was for. My bro "Camarojoe" has a whole series of similar photos of the holding lot, taken by Don himself back in '69. A few of the photos show a handful of '69 COPO Chevelles awaiting conversion as well. The pic posted above was originally lent by Don Yenko himself, to be published in Muscle Car Review back in '87, in conjunction with his interview about the sYc cars. While it's certainly an impressive sight, IMO it's some of the pics Don didn't lend for publication that'll really knock your socks off, so if I haven't said it enough times already, make that another reason to attend the SCR7 where you'll get a chance to see some things you haven't seen a dozen times already.

[Mr Yenko]

It has been mentioned that the 5th car in the row HUGGER ORANGE X11 car could possibly be my car.What type of percautions should I take if there is any RADIO ACTIVITY.Will I grow a third arm or something...LOL

[camarojoe]

I think its interesting to note that of all the cars that can be seen, (and that includes the other shots I have of this group of cars from different angles) i only see one endura bumper car. Are there any records as to how many car originally came with this option? Couldn't have been too many.

[Supercar_Kid]

Also interesting to note, all of the cars in the pic seem to have their GM issued window stickers still intact. While taking into consideration that this was a fenced in holding lot where the general public was not supposed to be allowed, it still seems Don may have not been as protective as he could have been about letting his COPO connection out of the bag.

[KENNY_PASCOE]

YOU MUST HAVE GROWN A THIRD ARM MAYOR IF YOU HAVE BEEN WORKING ON THAT YENKO AS MUCH AS YOU HAVE!!! KP

[JChlupsa]

I would say the endura D/Yellow was LV's old Yenko

[JoeC]

found this in my notes from the last time this came up...

The Canonsburg site was operated as a radium extraction plant by Standard Chemical from 1911 to 1922. Later, Vitro Corporation of America acquired the property and processed ore to extract radium and uranium salts. From 1942 until 1957 Vitro was under contract to the federal government to recover uranium from ore and scrap. For the next nine years, the site
was used only for storage under an Atomic energy Commission contract. In 1967, the property was purchased by the Canon Development Company and was leased to tenant companies for light industrial use.

[DjD]

So anyone owning a copo that's had cancer has a shot at the govt...

[GaryH]

The next time I'm down that way I'll check out the signs. When did they condemn those properties? Are there any reports of health problems in the area? I was good friends with Don's lead Corvette tech back then and he died of cancer a few years back. I doubt that had anything to do with it though...

[ QUOTE ]
Gary,
Take a ride down there and you'll see the whole area fenced off with radioactive signs all over - the industrial park made the stuff for the atomic bombs or something!

[/ QUOTE ]