Span Inc.

[Stefano]

There is a copy of Span Inc's. 1967 Yenko Sports Cars Brochure in 'The 1969 Camaro Reference Book' by John R. Hooper, copywritten in 1991, on page 264.

The Brochure has the caption "Yenko Super Camaro" under the picture of the'67 with Corvette side exhaust and Corvette 427 emblems on the fenders under the Camaro emblem.

The picture also has the Caption "Engineered by Dick Harrell" and the Special Options Available section states (designed by Don Yenko and Dick Harrell).

A few pages ahead (p268) there is a Copy of a similar Fred Gibb stamped document which lists lower prices for the same cars, but no mention of Span Inc. The lower prices would tend to indicate that this was either an earlier document or that Gibb/Harrell had a special deal.

Did Fred Gibb sell any '67 or '68 Yenko Sports Cars(Stingers,Stormers or Camaros)?

Page 249 also mentions that "At least two of Nickey's former employees went on to make a name for themselves-Jim O'Connor, former Nickey Parts Department employee who went on to run the successful Berger Chevrolet High Performance Parts Department, and the one and only "Mr.Excitement" or "Mr. Chevrolet,Dick Harrell."

[sYc]

Yes, Fred Gibb Chevrolet was part of the Yenko network. Both a former employee and Mrs. Helen Gibb, Fred's wife, confirmed this. They remembered a couple of the cars and who bought them, including a red, 1968 Camaro. I guess this would be a double supercar, Yenko/Gibb! Gibb may have been involved with the Stingers as well, as one of Fred's daughters gave me a Stinger t-shirt, which was given to Fred by Don Yenko. Tom

[Stefano]

Tom,
It would have to be considered a Quadruple Super Car,I would think,a Y.N.H.G Super Car. The pioneer of stuffing the 427 into the Camaro would have to be Dick Harrell ,while employed at Nickey Chevrolet.

He did this prior to even GM/Chevrolet trying it.

He obviously subcontracted his services to Don Yenko(based on "Super Cars" information) and passed along the technology/engineering part of the project.

Harrell would have been most likely the one to sell Gibb on the Yenko Car Dealer Network concept.

Gibb states a few very interesting items, in his Hooper interview. First, he never met Don Yenko in person. Next that he was converting approx. two Camaros per week in his own shop. Finally ,that he also sold non ZL1 1969 COPO Camaros.

Nickey,Dana and Yenko all have Road Racing as a common link. Even Jack Douglass says that he met Don Yenko in 1968 while running his Can Am race car.

I have never seen any info.regarding Gibb and Road Racing, but much has written about his affection toward Drag Racing. Gibb's direct link to Drag Racings upper echelons was obviously Dick Harrell.

Could the Cars which Gibb converted either prior or after the sale have been marketed as Yenkos and included in Don Yenkos count, but not inventory sheets?

It certainly would not make sense for Gibb to purchase a Camaro converted by Harrell and pay to have it shipped from PA to IL.

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

Stefano;
Gibb sold at least one '67 Yenko Camaro, Stock #YS-749, 4speed, shipped from Yenko on 8/7/67.
/ubbthreads/images/icons/shocked.gif

[68TopStock]

Stefano,

Thanks for starting this post. Herb Fox told me about the first time he met Dick Harrell, during the summer of 1967. He was in East St. Louis, (Collinsville?) and drove by Dick's shop. He stopped in and met Dick, he was lost, trying to find a ballpark. He introduced Dick to Fred soon afterward, and Fred bought two cars from Dick, a red one, and a black one. From the information I have, the black car was destroyed in 1973. Both are thought to be 427 converted RS cars.

YDR, what are the details about the YS749 car? I will try and post some other information from the fall of 1967 regarding Dick and Fred's first activities.

[Stefano]

68TopStock,
To clearify are you saying that Gibb purchased two Conversion Yenkos from Harrell?

Or would that be two Nickey Camaros converted by Harrell? /ubbthreads/images/icons/confused.gif

[68TopStock]

Stefano,

This very early information is not quite clear to me yet. Going on the information I have so far, I must conclude that the two cars mentioned are Yenko conversions. I base this on information mentioned above by Yenko Deuce Registry, and another conversation I had with a customer of Fred's. I will try and research this more and help obtain a clear answer. I am tending to lean on them being Yenko's due to the timing of the parties meeting in the latter part of the summer of 1967. The customer I am referring to mentioned how he "remembered when the Yenko's" arrived at the dealership.

Fred was introduced to drag racing by Herb Fox, however, when Herb was first hired, and arrived with a '56 Chevy drag car Fred stated that it was a waste of a fine vehicle. It did not take long for Herb to convince him otherwise. They did not participate in road racing, and were heavily involved in drag racing from the summer of 1967 until the fall of 1971 when Fred quit sponsoring racing. When Herb drove "Little Hoss" at last years Reunion at the St. Louis track, it was one of his first times back in a drag car since 1971.

[JoeC]

It appears that many people had their hands in building the 1967 427 Camaros. Because the Camaro model was new in 1966 and so was the 350 cu in engine, it seems Chevy was pushing the SS 350 Camaro but some people began transplanting 427s as soon as they got their hands on a new Camaro. Bill Thomas probably did some of the first ones since he had a complete fabrication shop and had worked with Chevy on building the early Nova V8 kits. Dana Chevrolet did some in '66 and had an arrangement with Yenko and Span. Attached is a copy of a full page ad from National Dragster 1966 claiming "Coast to Coast" sales of 427 Camaros and Yenko Stingers. It shows the Span contact person as Sandy Enos at suite 5316 Marina Towers 300 N. State Street Chicago Ill. Jim Spencer also worked for Span as some type of traveling salesman who went around building the dealer network to sell the Stingers. Jim is mentioned in the Stinger tech manual. It says he was from Wisconsin and he won a division title racing his Stinger. In the same Dec '66 National Dragster paper is a full page ad for Nickey 427 Camaros with Dick Harrell and Bill Thomas named in the ad. So we know that Nickey, Bill Thomas, Dana, and Yenko ran ads as early as Dec. '66 for 427 Camaros. Yenko had a dealer network built up from selling the Stinger and it appears from this ad that they began selling 427 Camaros built by Dana. The cars may not have been badged as Danas or as Yenkos. At some point Yenko began building his own 427 Camaros with help from Dick Harrell and the crew that was building the Stingers. It appears that Yenko did not start using his YS7xx number system until later in the year since the early YS numbered Yenko Camaros have vin numbers around N227xx. This would be about a May build date. That may be late enough to be a 375hp car. There were Yenko Camaros preceding this but they may have been built by Dana. If the car was built by Dana and sold by Span and the Yenko network, I am not sure what the end customer was told. They may not know who built it and it may not have had a Yenko or Dana badge on it. All they knew was they had a 427 Camaro. The info on the 1967 Yenkos is not clear so this is mostly guess work at this point.

[Stefano]

Keep the info comming, very cool.

How do I enlarge the adv. so I can read it better?

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

I think JoeC is right on the money with that explanation. Some of the Yenko records for '67 appear to have been kept for the purpose of paying commissions to SPAN Inc., and not for the purpose of keeping track of production. This is one of the reasons why we feel there were more '67 Yenko Camaros built than the currently accepted figure.
/ubbthreads/images/icons/ooo.gif

[Chevy454]

Interesting... /ubbthreads/images/icons/smirk.gif

[Mr70]

As in Enron,Worldcom,Xerox,and now Span Inc.?
Et Tu Don Yenko. /ubbthreads/images/icons/frown.gif

[menmyfcs]

WOW. Lots of Dick Harrell talk these days. Dick Indeed worked for Bill Thomas.He later wanted to be more toward the midwest for the racing part of things. The timming was pretty good as the muscle car era was about at its peak.Dick not only being a very likeable person he also was very good at building a car that would perform as it should.
Don Yenko not being one to pass up a chance to have the best
choose Dick Harrell. Dicks love for fuel racing made him want more than to just build cars for others but to have a fleet of his own.The move to KC was for racing and his ties with Jim Tice at AHRA. I am speculating but also going on pretty good knowledge. Fred Gibb wanted a to build a muscle car program the ZL1 and who better than Dick Harrell. I have no doubt that even knowing any top people at GM that you were going to sell them on an idea with out a top name to put it together.As with all good projects it takes more than just one person to make it happen and you arent going to use Joe Dokes out in the back of your GM store.As time went on they made a great team and Dick got his dream.Dick Harrell Performance center.If you ever went to an AHRA race in the late 60s to early 70s you saw one hell of a lot of Fred Gibb and Dick Harrell cars.I am not sure Dick had the time to appreciate all of what he had built. I am sure of one thing. He would be proud of what it has become.
There is a story on how he ended up at Nickey etc.I just have to find it. Take Care all MenMyFcs

[Stefano]

Thanks for the info. When did Dick Harrell work "for" Bill Thomas? I would think that would have had to come prior to his days at Nickey Chevrolet. There are still quite a few people who do not believe Dick was employed by Nickey as no paper work, like an employment contract, or the Dead sea Scrolls has surfaced.

Did he ever work with Jim Spencer and perform Conversions for Span Inc./Yenko as has been told by urban legend.

Could Bill Thomas have been Dick's direct link to Nickey Chevrolet?

[hvychev]

WOW! great picture of Dick. Thanks for posting it MenMyFcs.

[menmyfcs]

I will have to do some reading and dig through what I have here.There is a story of times and places I just have to find it. Back then there were many aggrements just made on a hand shake. Give you an idea what kind of a guy he was.
They were at a match race in Pheonix Az. one nite.All the cars were in line to run. Dicks car was there but not Dick.
He was helping some kid with a stocker rebuild his trans and under it putting it in. They had to find him. He would help anyone.I am getting busy right now. Later I will post a few letters from people back then. I think the Nickey and Bill Thomas times worked hand in hand.I have read an article that made mention of that but I want more than just 1 artcile to be sure. Have a good day. MenMyFcs

[JoeC]

I believe Dick was working with/for Bill T in late 66 or early 67. Dick's daughter remembers living in CA. and riding horses there but was not sure of exact date. Joel Rosen told me he had been in CA and stopped in to the Bill T shop and met Bill and Dick there. Joel recalls it to be early 67 and he was very interested to see what they were up to.

[68TopStock]

menmyfcs,

That is one of the best pics of Dick I have ever seen. Here is a pic that may tie in to Dick's early days with Bill. I think this car is the "Bad Bascomb" Chevy II, but I may be wrong. I have discussed this elsewhere on this site, just can't remember when.

[Rat_Pack]

That black Chevy II is not Bad Bascomb. I had talked with Mr.Thomas about that car and he said that Dick never had a black one, it was always red. Then I showed him that exact same picture and he said that car must have been something that Dick had built after he wrecked Bad Bascomb. Until I showed him that picture he had never even known of the car. Dick did work in his shop while they built the 66 Chevy II funny car, but he was not a regular employee. Dick was a drag racer per Mr.Thomas. I asked how Dick got involved with Yenko & Nickey he said that he introduced Dick to the owners of Nickey one day and the rest was history. He never knew how Yenko was ever involved......................RatPack............. ..........

[menmyfcs]

The picture I have of the Black car says Retribution 2 on it.It was an earlier NovaI have posted an invoce on the other site from Dick to Yenko. dated 8-1-67. Like I said I will have to look into other paperwork I have here. Best I can tell Dick worked for Nickey from sometime in 65 till about early 67.I have just located a Magazine called Tach of Jan 67 claiming to be the 1st to show the Nickey 427 Camaro.If I can scan the article I will do it.Enjoy
Menmyfc. PS Hope we are not Judged on typing.

[68TopStock]

Rat Pack,

Did Bill Thomas state that Dick owned Bad Bascomb? I have seen the 68 or 69 Nova Funny named "Bad Bascomb's Ghost", and thought it was raced by some friends of Dick's. I have interior shots of both cars, (the red Retribution II and Bad Bascomb) they look the same.

[copo9566aa]

I'am searching Motion stuff in my old Mag...
and i found this cool pic of Retribution II Chevy II /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

[SS427]

Now theres some traction bars for you Sully! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggthumpup.gif