1967 Yenko Camaro production 54?

[bkhpah]

The popular number that has been thrown around on the 1967 Yenko Camaro's has been 54 units sold. I have some documents that have the Yenko stock numbers at 755 and have the Yenko order form for a 67 camaro built and sold in 3/68. The stock number assigned to this car is 760. A bonified car with total documentation. Does this clearly legit car have some other 1967 Yenko Camaro's with stock numbers 756,757,758 and 759 below it?
just a thought.
BKH

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

I wonder how the 'keeper of the records' determined that he received all of the VIN lists from Bill Smith in 1981-2? I believe there could be more than the 54 cars that are believed to have been produced. Yenko Chev. was not the best record keeper, nor the best at organization. They didn't need to be since these cars would not qualify for NHRA competition like the '69 and '70's, and therefore there was really no incentive to keep track of them. I don't believe 54 is a solid number.
Marlin

[Keith Tedford]

I think that you will find that every new car that came onto the lot was assigned a stock number be it a Camaro, Chev or whatever. It is also very probable that Yenko sold Camaros without giving them a Yenko treatment, the buyer choosing to take them as is without spending the extra money. Just a thought.

[bkhpah]

I realize that Yenko gave every new car they sold a stock number. What I am refering to are the 427 conversion cars. I have records that go as high as #755 on the SPAN sheets, and a order/build sheet on a 427 assigned the stock #760 from Yenko Chevrolet. I don't have all the 67 numbers, but a great deal of them. I don't have all 54 conversion cars stock numbers but I do have them as high as 755 and as low as #703. It is possible that some of the 427 Yenko transplant cars are not accounted for because of lost records. Did Vince get all the records or just a majority of them? My guess is that some Canonsburg cars slipped though the cracks. If SPAN was not the distributor maybe some of the Yenko sold and built local cars were not on the SPAN sheets. Why would it be if Spencer was not selling it. If the car is not on a SPAN record sheet does it make it any less of a Yenko built 427 Super Camaro if you can prove its origin? The #760 car is a one owner car that still exists with only 6k miles. I have seen the car and it is without question authentic with a ton of Yenko papers. This car is not in the 54 car count. Makes you wonder?
BKH

[bowtie3168]

I am not sure if this info is of any help, but I will share it anyway. When I was 17 I worked at a Chevrolet dealer called Circle Chevrolet, Shrewsbury, New Jersey (by the way Circle once sold a L88 Vette that was featured in "Vette" magazine). I was responsible for car check-in. Here is the procedure for check in, (I was informed that most Chevy dealers did it the same) the car carrier would come in, the driver would hand you the manifests, you would inspect the cars for dents, scratches, damage, missing parts, etc.. You would check for stolen items, jack, tools, floor mats, radios, blah-blah-blah, you get the idea. Park them in a row and go inside and check them against the order sheet and get stock #s from the controller. Here is the point, the cars were always checked in in their order of arrival no matter of model or anything else. The office always wanted the cars in order of arrival so that the dates would match so that the floor plan (GMAC) would be correct. I hope that this gives you some helpful insight on your topic.
Andrew

[bkhpah]

That is a great point Andrew but remember, Yenko Sports Cars was a seperate division of Yenko Chevrolet. This may help in determining the SYC stock #'s over the regular Chevrolet #'s. I have talked to many of the old employee's and they, with the help of Donna Mae Mims would try and count the cars and would with glaring regularity make mistakes on car counts. Many of the cars were staged on lots not part of the rather small Yenko Chevrolet dealership causing perhaps even more confusion. I have been told stories of 427 Corvettes being stolen right off the lot during busy Saturday hours and nobody would even notice for quite some time. Also it is fairly clear that the 200 Corvair Stinger count for 1966 had been fudged to let the cars qualify for the SCCA production by double counting inventory. Not a state of the art system by todays standard. Vega's during the Stinger program would arrive and overwhelm the employees with the amount of cars that would show up at a single time. Same for the 1970 Yenko Deuces. All the cars would arrive within a months time, overlaoding the dealership. This may account for some of the mistakes seen on the Deuce records as well.
BKH

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

Yenko SportsCars Inc. was a separate legal entity that sold these COPO cars as Fleet vehicles. I believe that the Fleet cars did not count towards the sales volume requirement of the dealership, and therefore may not have received the same record keeping scrutiny as described earlier. It is also probable that Yenko was not too concerned with the floor plan charges due to the cars being transferred to other dealers in the network. When they were transferred to other dealers, Mr. Joe Bobeck of GMAC was notified of the release, and a 'Delayed Payment Privilege for New Floor Plan Units' was ended via a form that contained the VIN's, stock #'s, $ value, and receiving dealership. I believe this allowed Yenko to forgo the floor plan charges until the transfer, the new dealer took them as non-fleet vehicles and started paying the floor plan charges.

To add to the record keeping confusion, the second order of 50 '70 Yenko Novas probably never even came to Pennsylvania. Apparently, Yenko Chev. was so overwhelmed with the conversion of the first 125 COPO Novas, that the final 50 were actually delivered to Hurst Performance outside Detroit, MI. I don't know how Yenko kept track of those cars, but it would explain how the record keeping on the '70 Novas went from bad to worse!

Marlin

[bowtie3168]

Your points are well taken. I agree. This is the reason why I enjoy checking in on this site daily. I think that we are so blessed to have a forum that we can share our ideas on.I wonder if GMAC would help us? I am not sure if they have a policy against it, or if they have any records anymore? Has anyone checked? Let me know.
Andrew

[JoeC]

NHRA required 50 factory built cars to legalize them for some of their stock classes but AHRA had different rules. An article from a 1967 magazine has a 1967 427 Yenko Camaro (with two 4B carbs) running in a stock class. I believe AHRA allowed dealer built cars to run in stock classes if 50 or more were built and sold.
Andrew - did Englishtown run AHRA as well as NHRA in 1967? Any old rule books around?

[JoeC]

Hurst had a small production line set up in an old foundry building in Detroit. I believe it was run by John Demmer and called Demmer Tool @ Die. The 1968 Hurst Old's and the 1968 Hemi Darts and 'Cudas were built there. I saw some pictures taken by a drag racer when he picked up his new Hemi Dart. There was a large old building with a huge parking lot and shows him loading the Dart on a trailer and behind him are sitting about 20 Hemi Darts and 'Cudas. This may be the same place where the Deuce stripes were installed.