Yenko's plans for '71

[sYc]

We "ran across" this recently in some of our Yenko papers.

http://www.yenko.net/ubb/NEW-1.gif

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

Tom;
Neat piece, I have heard of this paper but have not gotten a copy of it yet. Until hearing about this, I did not know about the Yenko Ace Novas, or of Don's plans for the '71 Yenko Deuce Novas. It doesn't surprise me that they probably weren't built, the participating dealers had a hard time selling their orders of '70 Yenko Deuce Novas. Many dealers still had them on the lots at EOY '70, and some at EOY '71!
Thanks for the post,
Marlin

[sYc]

Glad you liked the Yenko letter. I will try and post some more letters, photos, etc from Don's stuff. Tom

[JoeC]

Thanks Tom - that's an interesting Yenko document. I have some comments/questions on it.
Looks like Yenko had big plans for the Vega with a '500 sets' order of Yenko Stinger 2 tires. There was a reference in a Yenko parts catalog that 200 Vegas were already built at the time the catalog was published. Where are all these Vegas? Maybe all the Vegas are gone since they started rusting-out on the showroom floor. I hope not.
400 sets of tires for the "Yenko ACE " for a 15x7 Nova wheel? That's odd since the SS Nova wheels were all 14 inch. Could this be a typo mistake and could the Yenko Ace have been the stillborn 400 cu.in. 1971 Yenko Camaro which would have 15x7 wheels?

The last paragraph is asking for three 9.75 x 13 inch wide tires and three 12.50 x 13 inch wide tires for the Jerry Thompson "works team" for experimental Stinger purposes. Would this be the Stinger Corvair or the Stinger 2 Vega? Was Jerry still racing the Corvairs in 1970? I know other people were still racing it.

The letter sounds like it was written by Donna Mae with the reference to "some new jazzy tire" then that part was edited out by Don. Just a guess on my part.

I wonder if GoodYear would have any more Yenko letters in their old files somewhere.

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

JoeC:
Here's a Stinger Vega for you!!

http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=378134&a=2797405&p=28910756&Sequence=0&res=high

http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=378134&a=2797405&p=28910758&Sequence=0&res=high

[bkhpah]

Did you know that Yenko raced the Citation X's in the late 80's. He had his own special tricks for those cars in SCCA comp. I think it was called X-ponents. A Yenko preped Citation X. Anyone seen this car out there?
BKH

[bkhpah]

I seems that Stocker Chevrolet sold a great deal of Yenko Stinger Vega's to college kids in the State College PA area. Stocker I believe only sold 3 Yenko Deuces and the rest Vega's. They got into the Yenko program late. State College may be a hot bed for the Vega crowd.
BKH

[JoeC]

Nice Stinger 2 pics Brian. Not exactly a car for the " Meet the Mean Ones" ad but Don Yenko was ahead of the times trying to build the turbo 4 bangers. There was a road test of a Turbo Stinger 2 Vega in SUPER STREET CARs Magazine and it states that the Yenko Vega was done as a COPO with special HD pistons and some other parts done at the factory. I think it was COPO 9011 OR 9711.

[bkhpah]

I talked to the Service Manager at Yenko about the time the first Yenko Vegas arrived . He got a call that a load of Vegas would be arriving and that he needed to check them in. Little did he know that about 4 truck loads arrived that night with more to come later. He told me that they had to deal with more Vegas at once than he had ever seen. Also he told me that the Vega Turbo's that they built using BORT {balls out race team} turbo systems would out run the local Hemi cars until fouth gear! Not bad, reliability on the Turbo versions were not good. They had lots of sealing problems. Still a very inovative machine for the times when gas was hard to get and the true big block muscle car was dying a cruel death. I would like to hear from some owners of these little rockets. Are they all gone? I wonder what the build count one these cars were.
BKH

[bkhpah]

Marlin was the one that posted the pictures, not me, Thanks anyway.
BKH

[JoeC]

opps Thanks for the pics Marlin! The Turbo Vega road test in Super Street Cars April 1972 states the car ran 15.2 but Yenko told them it can get into the 14's. This car came through Hory Chevrolet in Larchmont N.Y. They said you have to get the turbo installed after you purchase the car from the dealer because of "spoiled sports like Sen. Muskie and Ralph Nader". I wonder what Don Yenko thought of Ralph?

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

Brian;
What kind of shape was that turbo stinger in after Don put it through that 50,000 mile endurance test as featured in the Car & Driver magazine? Did they throw it away?
M