Supercar Book

[Dave Rifkin]

I've always thought that it would be great if there was a book that had photos and information about all of the different "tuner" cars of the '60's and '70's. Does anyone know if there is such a book already out there or not?

[COPO]

I don't believe anyone has written a book specifically covering factory supercars or dealer tuned cars. There are a few books that cover bits and pieces of the story, but no comprehensive book. I as well as many others would love to see a well written, well researched, factually correct book.

[DaveBonnell]

Go to Borders and get American Muscle by Randy Leffingwell. He does huge color shots and info on at least 30 super cars from Otis Chandler's collection.

Dave

[Dr. Pete]

As a matter of fact, I will be starting a new book project next calendar year on Chevrolet Dealer-Built Musclecars. I was not able to attend this years' reunion event due to some scheduling conflicts here at my end.

I am currently wrapping up a Corvette L-88/ZL-1 racing text book that I hope will be in print by the 2002 Holiday season.

I was going to approach the Dealer Built Musclecar book a little differently however. I would like to tell a story about the life of certain "supercars" with photos to correspond with the text. There have been so many articles on the dealerships or the individuals involved, that another story about that would be too repetitious. So I thought I'd focus on the cars and their unique lives.

I was hoping to find another Dana Camaro besides the one in Kevin's fabulous collection to write about. There were about 80-100 examples produced, according to the former owners of Dana Chevrolet, but we just haven't seen anymore.

If any of you fellow members of this discussion would like to talk about this project, please post a reply to this topic or feel free to write me at [email protected]

Naturally this book would not be complete without COPO Camaros, Chevelles, and Novas that were not individually modified by the selling dealer!

[sYc]

As far as I know, there has never been a book written about Don Yenko, the dealership and/or a TRUE history of the cars, because no one has ever been allowed access to the vast collection of Yenko pictures and related paperwork, which does exist. Most authors have had to do what Pete is purposing and use information obtained from owners and their cars. This is why there are many myths circulating about Don and his cars. Hopefuuly Pete can avoid this pit fall. We at the sYc are in hopes that some time in the near future, that some, if not all, will be released. Many of us were "teased" with a portion of this collection at the first reunion.
Because of Don's involvement with Corvettes, this the most complete collection of racing Corvette artifacts there is, at least according to numerous Corvette racing experts. Tom

[Edited by sYc (09-05-2001 at 10:28 PM).]

[JoeC]

I have been collecting information about the Chevy SuperCars since the mid 80s. The information is out there but you have to dig for it. The Internet is a great source but you have to search through 90% not so good stuff to find the 10% of good stuff. Books, old magazines, and talking to people at shows are other good sources. To really know the SuperCar story you need to know the cars, the racing, the manufactures, the dealers, government regulations, and the people who bought the cars. There will probably never be one book written to tell the whole story. It is like studying the history of anything -- you need to read many books to put it all together. I also collect information on Don Yenko's racing history. He mostly raced Corvettes but did race Camaros in 1969 and 1970. I was surprised to learn he raced a ZL1 engined Camaro at Sebring in 69. He is listed in 1970 Sebring with another 427 Camaro but I have not found much on this car. In the race report for 1970 Sebring it says he was delayed in the pits 40 minutes because some "hippie types" stole the key to the race car. http://www.yenko.net/ubb/smilies/images/icons/shocked.gif