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YENKO CAMARO
History
First Generation
1967-1969
As soon as the Camaro¹s began arriving at his dealership, Don already had a plan. The "Yenko Super Camaro". A Camaro which had its 350cid pulled out and the Corvettes L-72 427 engine dropped in, along with other heavy-duty hardware and performance upgrades. Thus, the birth of the Yenko Super Camaro.
1967
Comments: Yenko ordered L-78 equipped SS Camaros and swapped in the Chevrolet Corvette's L-72 427 in³ (7.0 L) engine. The cars came with a 4.10 rear end and heavy-duty suspension. The exact number of cars produced is not known; most estimates are around 50. Yenko also installed a fiberglass replacement hood similar to the "Stinger" hood featured on 1967 big-block Corvettes.
As soon as the Camaro¹s began arriving at his dealership, Don already had a plan. The "Yenko Super Camaro". A Camaro which had its 350cid pulled out and the Corvettes L-72 427 engine dropped in, along with other heavy-duty hardware and performance upgrades. Thus, the birth of the Yenko Super Camaro.
In addition to the 427 Corvette engine, customers could pick from a long list of other hi-performance parts to be installed by Yenko's own in-house race mechanics, all of whom were part of Don¹s racing team. The majority of these special built cars received a Yenko ID plate and Yenko badges, 427 emblems and a special fiberglass hood, patterned after the Corvette "Stinger" hood. As with the Corvair, Don employed a network of other dealers, including the likes of drag racing guru Dick Harrell in St. Louis, who was listed as Yenko's Mid-West distributor, and Fred Gibb (of ZL-1 fame) in LaHarpe, IL.
You could have purchased a spartan equipped Yenko Super Camaro back in 1967 for about $ 3,800.00. Not bad for all that big block horsepower shoved into the Camaro package. The exact number of 1967 Yenko Camaro's is unknown. The figure of 54 had been accepted for several years, but some collectors believe that that number may be closer to 100 cars.
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1968 Yenko Camaro
Comments:With the success of the 1967 Yenko Camaro, Don had bigger and better plans for the 1968. It was clear that Yenko couldn't keep up with the demand for 427 Camaro's, so he approached Chevrolet about the possibility of getting factory equipped 427 Camaro's. Chevy was hesitant about this, but the management team in the "Special Projects Division" were eager to give it a shot. The General still had rules about no engines larger than 400cid in any intermediate or compact models. Supposedly, Don Yenko agreed to keep the program quiet, and it was thought that all 68 of the 1968 Yenko Camaro¹s had dealer installed engines, just like the 67's, but some collectors say the engines were actually factory installed. Others believe that only one 1968 car was built with a factory installed 427. The dispute will probably go on forever. However it went down, these discussions with the factory team eventually led to the birth of two special options for 1969, COPO 9561 and COPO 9737 (we will talk about them later).
With the success of the '67 Camaro, the first thing Don did was convince Chevrolet to add a few special features to the 1968 Camaro's before they arrived in Canonsburg, so that all Yenko had to do was replace the now factory 396cid/375hp V8 (RPO L-78). The 396/375 was a monster engine. A '68 Camaro equipped with the L-78 easily ran thirteens at the dragstrip and could run with anything on the street.
For 1968, Don Yenko started with the L-78 equipped cars from the factory so that all the components were already heavy duty, then merely dropped the L-72 motor onto the original motor mounts. Everything was dimensionally identical. He was retrofitting Camaro's with the direct-swap Chevy L-72 427 motor factory-rated at 435 horsepower and selling them at his and other dealerships as a "Yenko 427 Camaro".
Like the 1967 Yenko's, the number of 68 for 1968 Yenkos built is thought to be higher. As with the 1967 cars, most 1968 cars received a Yenko ID plate, Yenko badges, 427 emblems and a twin ducted fiberglass "Stinger" hood. Other special features included a 140 mph speedometer, larger front sway bar and 15 inch Rallye II wheels from the Pontiac Division.
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1969 Yenko Camaro
Comments: For the 1969 model year, Chevrolet "worked" the Camaro¹s shape into something that auto enthusiasts saw right away as a classic. With the raised accents coming off of the fender lips front and rear, and the fake louvers just fore of the rear wheel well, this was one of the most beautiful production cars any American factory ever produced. Remember COPO? The Central Office Production Order (COPO) was to be the back door around Chevrolet's performance limits. And the key to Don Yenko¹s hot, new 1969 Camaro's. These new Camaro¹s could be ordered through Yenko's showroom and about 25 other high-performance Chevy dealers as COPO 9561 and 9737 cars.
In 1969 the Yenko "sYc" could be ordered with either the M22 4-speed or the Turbohydramatic transmission for $ 4,245.00, which was a bargain for all that performance! These Yenko Camaro¹s were available in 6 colors -- LeMans Blue, Hugger Orange, Olympic Gold, Daytona Yellow, Rallye Green and Fathom Green. Several of the cars received vinyl tops (on a muscle car?). The Camaro¹s came with few other options, mainly to keep the price down, as sticker price was already over $4,000.00.
Originally, Chevrolet had agreed to build only 50 cars, but dealers clamored for the car and that ran the total up to 69 of these monsters. These cars were the ultimate factory Camaro, and are very much sought after today. It is ironic that Fred Gibb, who was the brainchild of this project, ended up shipping most of his 50 cars back to the factory to be redistributed to other dealers because he couldn't sell them at the asking price. Some of the cars sat on the lot for over 2 years before they were finally sold. The ZL-1 had a rating ridiculously low at 430 horsepower. Actual output was something like 565hp. Alas, the $ 7,200.00 price tag had killed the car, not the fact that no one really needed 565 or so horsepower.
It is not known exactly how many Yenko Camaro's were made in 1969. The best figure is either 199 or 201, depending on the source, and probably 201. Some people believe that the number of Yenko's could be as high as 350 units (since there is a picture in existence of Don in front of a transporter holding a handwritten sign that reads "Our 350th Camaro"). But if you add all of the 54 cars from 1967 and the 68 cars from 1968 and that disputed number of 1969 cars, it still only equals 322 cars. Perhaps the total number of COPO cars ordered was 350, but the later ones were never converted to true "Yenko¹s" and just delivered the way they were or sent to Nickey Chevrolet or others for their application.
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| Identifying marks: |
| Most of the '69 Yenko Camaros were fitted with stripes and emblems, although there were some cars ordered stripe and/or emblem delete. Yenko also offered aftermarket gauges, headers, shifters, and Atlas wheels as extra cost options. |
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Thanks to all my heroes out there protecting and defending our country.
Thank you to all who enter the Canteen doors to honor them.
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