68' Yenko Camaro prototype/demo found

[bkhpah]

Throw away all the traditional thinking once again. Just when you think you have something understood you get a curve ball. This time it comes in the form of 1968 Yenko Super Camaro 8002. This car has been with it's owner since 1970. This car is NOT a COPO 9737 car. It was pulled directly from early inventory and specialy designed from the start. It does not have the 1 1/16 sway bar or the 140 speedo. Build date is 01C. It is Corvette Bronze with the first glass hood and special glass decklid with intergral spoiler. It is cast from the original deck and the underside shows all the date codes/spot welds etc of the original lid. Special SW 2 5/8 black face gauges under the dash with Yenko applied wood grain treatment. It had the SW tach but is missing today. Monitor box was not mounted in the traditional firewall location. All original Yenko medallions and 427 badges are present. It does not have the special firewall tag of later Yenko's but does have door jamb tag. It is screwed in place, not riveted like later models. This car retains most of the original engine parts including hard to find stuff like radiator, alternator, etc. Engine is a CE as expected. It had headers from new. This is the first car put into service for shows and demos. It was returned after its tour was through and resold at Yenko. This car is fully documented and is 100% authentic. There is no Yenko 8001. Looking at this car you can almost feel Don Yenko and crew thinking about how the cars should run and look. Also as a side note to the 68 MV motor theory. The standard bore 396/375 horse MV code block with a cast date of B-13-8-and cast # 3916323 is indeed from a Yenko Camaro. The VIN indicates it is from Yenko 8006...BKH



[Edited by bkhpah (12-30-2001 at 08:53 AM).]

[Stefano]

bkhpah,
Awsome find. You mention a 1 1/16" sway bar for the 9737 "Yenko Sports Car Conversion Package". The original 1969 Camaro 9737 cars which I have seen,have 13/16" sway bars.

Did the 1968 and 1969 COPOs use a different diameter sway bar?

[Charley Lillard]

Cool car Brian..Any idea why there is no 8001 ?

[bkhpah]

8001 is worded in paperwok as "scrapbook" or destroyed. The 68' sway bars were larger than the 69's 13/16. The 002 car still has all the correct PBD parts and is equipped with power steering. It shows 41K miles. Corvette Bronze is a very interesting and rare color. The car was used in the southern states during its touring and demo days...BKH

[Rat_Pack]

Brian, sounds like this is the car that was found in Florida almost a year ago. Last I heard he had taken it to Bob Harris for restoration. Do you have the car now? Didn't the white 68 that Mick owned have a fiberglass decklid or did it have the Yenko rear spoiler?...........RatPack..................

[bkhpah]

The car that I examined is still in the owners hands from 1970. It is not the car that Harris is doing. I know very little about that one. As far as spoiler cars there seems to be three types. The complete decklid with spoiler molded in. The Yenko add on spoiler, and the cars that were factory D80 cars. Not sure if Yenko sold one without in 1968. Unclear about wheels at this time...BKH

[Joe]

are thee any Photo's of this car ?

[SuperCars]

Neat info Brian. There are exceptions to the rule occasionally as we can see with the deck lid. Aside from pilot and prototype cars, it's always possible that customer influences and requests can result in other special equipment aside from the norm on any Supercar. Especially Baldwin Motion cars, as no two cars were probably the same.

On the 68 Yenko motor, I too, believe that the 68 Yenko "MV" code was a 396/375; but with COPO 9737. The Tonawanda engineering records I have, show that there were 79 L78 F body COPO "MV" motors built and several thousand regular L78's built for other cars. I also believe there could be an exception to the 68 Yenko L78 396/375 "MV" only rule as well, for example with my car. I guess I am repeating myself again though, as this was a prior discussion.

But, I have some new info on my 68 as told to me from Vince Emme. Aside from the list of Yenko inventory sheets, Vince has what he calls the onion skin sheets of all the orders of the 68 Yenko's as ordered from GM. The 68 Yenko's were all ordered in batches of 4 cars, etc, except for one car. This was my car which has typed on the onion skin sheet: "special order Drag Car" and was the only solo order. From what I am told this car was initially listed for Jay Kline Chevrolet. Vince went on to say, my car ended up actually going to Branine Chevrolet, with plans to be raced by Branine's sons; but without Mr Branine's knowledge. The car had already been sent to Dick Harrell's shop and had it's additional treatment. This is when Mr. Branine the owner, found out and put an end to his son's plans. Branine then Dealer traded to another Dealer in Liberal Kansas.

[Stefano]

SuperCars,
In your opinion, what equipment was grouped with the 1968 9737 Camaro COPOs?

[SuperCars]

Stefano, I always get in trouble when I give my opinion. But in this case; rather than an opinion, I have the COPO 9737 ECL sheets that show all of the equipment listed under 9737. The COPO 9737 ECL was modified about 3 times over the course of the 68 production year. I will see if I can get Denis to show me how to scan and post this. The initial 9737 sheet, is typed "Sportscar Conversion" at the bottom. Then the following sheets after that are all listed as "Sportscar Conversion/Yenko" and with some minor changes. Now here I go again with an opinion; which is I think these words from the ECL COPO 9737 are where the initials for "sYc" came from.

[68TopStock]

bkhpah,

Very interesting post! Is the glass hood the '68 style, and is the manufacture known? I understand both A&A and MAI made the L88 style stinger hood, and I think the non-stinger hood, as on my car and the '67 "Mr. Bardahl" 427 super stocker, Bill Heischler ran. Is 8002 going to make a reunion? It would be great to see it at St. Louis.

Supercars,

It is amazing to say the least, to hear your '68 Yenko going through Dick's shop. Sounds like your car needs to return to the midwest for some ground pounding (hint hint)! I wonder if John Orlando, (Jay Kline drag driver) remembers anything about your car? Given the state of affairs, how about some red, white and blue at the 2002 reunion. I'm sure someone will have a blue '69 for the third color. http://www.yenko.net/ubb/smilies/images/icons/cool.gif

[JoeC]

Interesting car. The fiberglass deck lid sounds like it was similar to the one used on the Yenko Stinger. Do you know which wheels came on the car when new? What gear ratio did it come with?

[bkhpah]

It has the 68 twin scooped hood. No I doubt it will be at the reunion this year. It still needs restored and has not run in years. It is a very strong car. It has been stored inside always...BKH

[TimG]

A little off of the subject, but it appears that Jay Kline Chevrolet was quite a hi-performance dealer. I have a 1965 Corvette that came from this dealer and have researched the dealer/zone number and show 84-432. Can anyone confirm this or does anyone know if any records may be available from this dealership. I know that were located in the Twin-Cities. Thanks.

[mnyenko]

TimG Jay Kline Chevrolet was on west Lake St. in Minneapolis MN.They went out of business around 1982.Steve Kline has a Volvo dealership in St. Paul MN.He may know what happened to old records.They did not have any records of Yenko cars they sold when I checked around 1980.They had a strong HiPerformance department.Sold Corvettes and other high perf cars in seperate showroom across street from main store.The city bought them out and does cop car repair there now.Earl

[Rowdy Rat]

Tim,

How certain are you that Jay Kline Chevrolet was the original dealership? The reason I ask is that I show Zone 84 during the late 1960s as having its head office located in Winnipeg, Manitoba which would lead me to believe that it could be a Canadian delivered car.

You might want to contact George Zapora at GM Canada. If this car was processed as a Canadian delivery, you might be pleasantly surprised with the information that they have available.

Good luck with your search!

Regards,

Stan Falenski

[TimG]

Thanks for the help, I do know that Jay Kline was the original dealer. I had seen a copy of a reproduction window sticker and it showed zone 84 for Jay Kline, the owner thought it was correct. It appears that I have the wrong zone number.