Re: Span Inc.
It appears that many people had their hands in building the 1967 427 Camaros. Because the Camaro model was new in 1966 and so was the 350 cu in engine, it seems Chevy was pushing the SS 350 Camaro but some people began transplanting 427s as soon as they got their hands on a new Camaro. Bill Thomas probably did some of the first ones since he had a complete fabrication shop and had worked with Chevy on building the early Nova V8 kits. Dana Chevrolet did some in '66 and had an arrangement with Yenko and Span. Attached is a copy of a full page ad from National Dragster 1966 claiming "Coast to Coast" sales of 427 Camaros and Yenko Stingers. It shows the Span contact person as Sandy Enos at suite 5316 Marina Towers 300 N. State Street Chicago Ill. Jim Spencer also worked for Span as some type of traveling salesman who went around building the dealer network to sell the Stingers. Jim is mentioned in the Stinger tech manual. It says he was from Wisconsin and he won a division title racing his Stinger. In the same Dec '66 National Dragster paper is a full page ad for Nickey 427 Camaros with Dick Harrell and Bill Thomas named in the ad. So we know that Nickey, Bill Thomas, Dana, and Yenko ran ads as early as Dec. '66 for 427 Camaros. Yenko had a dealer network built up from selling the Stinger and it appears from this ad that they began selling 427 Camaros built by Dana. The cars may not have been badged as Danas or as Yenkos. At some point Yenko began building his own 427 Camaros with help from Dick Harrell and the crew that was building the Stingers. It appears that Yenko did not start using his YS7xx number system until later in the year since the early YS numbered Yenko Camaros have vin numbers around N227xx. This would be about a May build date. That may be late enough to be a 375hp car. There were Yenko Camaros preceding this but they may have been built by Dana. If the car was built by Dana and sold by Span and the Yenko network, I am not sure what the end customer was told. They may not know who built it and it may not have had a Yenko or Dana badge on it. All they knew was they had a 427 Camaro. The info on the 1967 Yenkos is not clear so this is mostly guess work at this point.
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