Vintage pics of our Yenko Camaro.

[sYc]

Amazing how things happen within out hobby. We purchased our Camaro from Cliff Ernst in Nashville. At the time original paint, original white stripes, hood pins, etc. At the time I was not into rarity, one of one, etc, and thought a Daytona Yellow Yenko Camaro would look better with black stripes. Later on did I learn, or care. that there was a good chance we had the only Daytona Yellow Camaro to come from Yenko with white stripes.

When we began striping the car we did not think to photograph the car before removing stripes and paint, thus only word of mouth to verify the white stripes.

We had traced the ownership of the car, and spoken with all but one or two of the owners, with the trail going cold with owner #3 in Blytheville, AR before Cliff bought the car.

Low and behold Jamie Jarvis is visiting with a friend when the subject of subject of Yenko Camaros in their area came up. Jamie’s friends’ brother-in-law, from Blytheville once owned a Yellow Yenko Camaro, and even had pictures from back in the day.

We were blown away when we saw the pics, as there is no doubt that is our car, once in the Blytheville are, they knew the car ended up in Nashville, automatic, hood pins, holes in tail panel where Francis Chevrolet emblem would have been, stickers on the rear window, and yes, the White stripes.

[tunes]

Great pictures! I've never seen white stripes on a yellow car before.

[bbbenny]

Tom, Those pics are Priceless!!! BBBenny <<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/worship.gif

[Steve Shauger]

Excellent pictures, congratulation. Never knew a Daytona Yenko came with white stripes.

[mockingbird812]

Ain't it a small world! Congrats Tom!

[Stefano]

Kool.

[COPO]

Very cool. What year are those pics?

[Schonyenko2]

Sweet!!

[sYc]

A couple more.

[sYc]

And how cool is this one?

[markinnaples]

All great pics, but that last one is epic Day Two-ness <<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif

[Keith Seymore]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: mockingbird812</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Ain't it a small world! Congrats Tom! </div></div>

To continue with the &quot;small world&quot; theme: My great aunt and uncle owned the hardware store in downtown Blytheville.

(&quot;Seymore Hardware&quot;).

K

[sYc]

Cool...

[resto4u]

why is it that copo's or yenko's did not get a black tailpan? Did only x22, x66 get black out, not the copo's because they were x11, x44 cars so the line did not realize the big block and no black out.

[cook_dw]

The very early X22 &amp; X66 cars did but when they went with X44 &amp; X11 the black pan stopped. Great pics!! What year did you buy the yellow car from Cliff?

[ne70ss]

Very cool.

[sYc]

In 1993 Super Chevy magazine did an article on Cliff Ernst, a businessman from Nashville, titled “The Temple of Zoom”. At the time he had the largest collection of Yenkos in the world, maybe around 20. According to information to Jamie, the gentleman in Blytheville who owned my car sold it to a collector in Nashville.

We purchased the car from Cliff in 1999, in un-restored condition. We redid the car in our garage, removing the faded white stripes and yellow paint, going back yellow, but with black stripes, which at the time I thought looked better, not occurring to me the rarity of the original combination of yellow/white.

In the article is a photo taken of Cliff with a couple of his unrestored cars, Though black and white photo, obvious two of them are Daytona Yellow, and the one farthest away, if you look closely, you can see the whites stripes.

[cook_dw]

Ill look and see if I have any photos of the car from the mid 90's

[sYc]

Above I stated we purchased it it 1999, as I do the math, it would have been early 1997.

[sYc]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: sYc</div><div class="ubbcode-body">And how cool is this one?

</div></div>

This photo is rather interesting. The gentleman from ST Louis who bought our car new told me that a friend bought a Green Yenko Camaro at the same time as he did, racing each other to and from work.

[camarojoe]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: sYc</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Above I stated we purchased it it 1999, as I do the math, it would have been early 1997. </div></div>

SCR1 was in September 1998. You had the car finished by then.

[cook_dw]

Our local Camaro club went and toured his place around that time. I just cant remember if it was before or after SCR 1 which I was there for that one as well.

[sYc]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: camarojoe</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: sYc</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Above I stated we purchased it it 1999, as I do the math, it would have been early 1997. </div></div>

SCR1 was in September 1998. You had the car finished by then. </div></div>

Yes, that is what we got to thinking it was earlier then 1999. It is just hard for me to imagine that we are gearing up for SCR20.

[COPO CARTEL]

Cool story and I dig the color combo

[napa68]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: sYc</div><div class="ubbcode-body">And how cool is this one?

</div></div>

Wisconsin State Fair Park................Day 2 style!

[69 Post Sedan]

Very cool Tom........congrats, as those pictures are awesome!

Kurt

[Tenney]

Too cool!!

[RPOLS3]

Awesome

[sYc]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: napa68</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: sYc</div><div class="ubbcode-body">And how cool is this one?

</div></div>

Wisconsin State Fair Park................Day 2 style! </div></div>

I was hoping someone could identify the location where the last couple of pics were taken. The last one with the two Yenkos no doubt taken at the Wisconsin State Fair Park (four square logo on in back ground).




I am guessing there for a car show, now to figure out who and when.

[BJCHEV396]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: sYc</div><div class="ubbcode-body">And how cool is this one?

</div></div>VERY!!!

[mike70ss]

Brings back memories.

[sYc]

Since my last posts i have been able to speak with three of the former owners of our Yenko. One of them was the one who sent Jamie the pics I posted.

The photo with the woman and child is his wife Janis and son Chris, sporting their Street Machine Nationals (Wisconsin) t-shirts, he thought 1979. The Pace car in the pic is a friend's car. Also, the pic with the Green Yenko, and rear shot with Cragars was at the same show, he met the owner of the Green car at the show.

The other photos were taken at Cliff Ernst's show room, shortly before I bought it.

I had forgotten, but he and his family attended SCR1 at Hendersonville, where he remembered me giving his daughter a ride in his old car. He reminded me that he told me then it should have white stripes. When he sold the car it was in very good condition, original paint and sheetmetal, except hood, which he had to replace as previous owner ran a blower.

Even though the paint was in good condition, the stripes had started to crack, and there were no stripes on the replacement hood, so he contemplated replacing all of them. He tried to find a set of stripes, but could not, so a friend and he gave serious thought to painting them on (thankfully did not). Here is a drawing his friend did with the dimensions, etc, for the stripes.

Also is an insurance card from 1979.

[livettes]

That is very cool Tom! I am glad I was able to a part of finding a missing link in the history and those old photos.
Can't wait to see the car back the way it was.
Jamie

[firstgenaddict]

LOVE Daytona Yellow with white stripes...

[JRC99]

May I ask what kind of shifter that is?

[Jim Ferron]

That is a Hurst His and Hers shifter.

[sYc]

The shifter shown on page one is not correct, a later model. Yenko did use a His/Hers Hurst shifter, I think designed and used in Pontiacs. Yenko used his own special housing/surround for the shifter.

[sixtnine]

Tom we met at the USCC show in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee back in 1997. I have pictures of your car inside the convention center and also old VHS video of you giving me a short ride in your Yenko. Thanks to you I was fortunate enough to meet Cliff and get a personal tour of his collection. The following year I also attended the first Supercar reunion at Cliff's hotel. I will forever cherish the ride in your Yenko and also a huge thank you for helping me to get into Cliff's and view his collection of Yenkos.

[JoeC]

the shifter on the first page is a later version Hurst duel gate shifter

Hurst made many different duel gate shifters , made to fit many makes and models some were factory installed, GTOs and 442s used them a lot

The one Yenko used was the Hurst duel gate shifter designed for a column shift to floor conversion and was sold with or without the plastic console

It was also used in the Hurst Olds, Hemi Darts, as well as other cars but anyone can buy it from Hurst as an aftermarket floor shifter