Local Deuce Featured in the newspaper (Long)

Nova Research Project · #1 04-01-2005, 04:20 AM

I pulled into the driveway tonight. Before I could even get out of the car, my 14 year old came out of the house holding a section of the news paper. What now I thought?

He handed me the paper and said "Could we go see it?" Low and behold on the front page of the Daily Break section of the paper was this;

35 years after he purchased special-edition Chevy Nova, it’s still owner's pride and joy
BY LINDA McNATT
THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT

SMITHFIELD — In December 1970, Alan Ives had just gotten a job.

Pumped up with his newfound success and swaggering - just a little- Ives tooled over to Colonial Chevrolet in Norfolk, got out of his clunker and strode across the car lot.

"I want a Corvette," he said.

He remembers the car salesman patting him on the shoulder, handing him keys to the blue, low-slung beauty and telling him to take it home for the night.

Later, Ives called his insurance agent, who happened to be his father's best friend.

"He wouldn't stop laughing," Ives recalled. "He told me, at my age, I'd never be able to pay the insurance."

He took the Vette back the next day. The salesman had something else for him to look at. Sitting across the lot with a handful of similar sedans was a dark blue Chevy Nova with white stripes. Black leather upholstery. Push button AM radio.

Hidden under the hood, though, was a beast that few Novas ever knew: a 350-cubic-inch, solid lifter, Corvette LT-1 engine with a Muncie M-21 four- speed transmission.

Please see Yenko, Page E7

Nova Research Project · #2 04-01-2005, 04:24 AM

It was a Yenko Nova, the product of a Pennsylvania race car driver who pulled stock Chevrolets from the assembly line, pumped them with power and released them in very limited numbers.

"Guys like me, just driving the streets, could have a performance car," Ives said. "And I could afford the insurance."
He walked away from the car lot grinning. After 35 years, he's still grinning.

The car has recently undergone a four-year restoration. It's as bright and shiny as new. And it will be featured with about 200 other vintage Chevrolets on Saturday at the Spring Dustoff car show in Smithfield.

In case of rain, you can peek inside the trailer that transports "Blue Thunder." Ives doesn't take the car out in the rain. And it's not for sale.

"It's a trailer queen," said his wife, Margie. "It used to carry us. Now, we carry it."

There were only 175 of the Nova Deuce LT-l's made. Colonial Chevrolet had 12, and that was only because Josh Darden, who owned the dealership at the time, was friends with Don Yenko, whose father owned Yenko Chevrolet in Canonsburg, Pa.
Was it fast? "What do you think?" Ives said, grinning as he recalled Saturday nights on lonely back roads. "In the quarter mile, there was nothing else out there that could catch it."

The "mini muscle car" got about 10 miles to the gallon, but so what? Back then, gasoline was about 35 cents a gallon.
Ives drove the car for 20 years, on family trips, back and forth to work. Finally, in 1990, when it began to get a little temperamental, the Yenko was retired to a shed.

Four years ago, at his wife's urging - threatening, maybe - the restoration began. It started at American Legends in Norfolk and was completed at Jesse's Rod Shop in Chesapeake.

Ives spent countless hours painstakingly researching correct replacement parts and color of parts for the car. Many of the parts are original.

It still gets about 10 miles to the gallon. Ives uses premium gas, adds an octane booster and a lead substitute and drives it every week or so for at least a few miles.

Only 71 of the original Yenko Novas are still around; only 12 are still with their original owners.
Ives said he believes there may be one other car similar to his in the state, but he's uncertain of its condition.
He's tracked one Yenko that was on the same car lot in 1970 as his "baby." It was purchased by a Navy man, he said, and driven to Nevada. The man who bought it, Ives said, now lives in Minnesota, and it has been restored.
The Yenko brothers stay in touch.

"His still has the Colonial dealership badge on it," Ives said, "but I have the original sales papers on mine."

The Smithfield car show is sponsored by the Virginia Chevy Lovers Club, and the event celebrates 50 years of Chevy V-8 power.

Registration at the show will benefit local fire and rescue squads and Boykins Tavern, an authentic 1700s tavern at the Isle of Wight Courthouse.

There's no charge for admission. Vintage Chevies will be spread across the historic town.
If it's not raining, Ives' Yenko will be prominently displayed.

"This car is better now than it was when I bought it brand new. It's part of my past, part of my youth."

Reach Linda McNatt at (757) 222-5561 or [email protected]