The first X44 Yenko?

[bkhpah]

I have just received what I beleive may be the first car of the X44 1969 Yenko Camaros. The car has a build date of O2D, and the VIN starts with 608XXX. The rest of the Yenko run appears to be O3B and starts with the 613, 614, and 615XXX Vins. Can anyone come up with an X44 Yenko that is newer than that? Does anyone have an idea when the first X44 COPO's appear? I am curious if there is a earlier Yenko VIN in the second run. The car is super complete with all original metal and the original drivetrain. It is LeMans Blue/white stripe out of Van Chevrolet. Somewere along the line the first X44 COPO/Yenko had to be built. I feel that this is the car. Any thoughts?..BKH

[JoeC]

I don't know where ED C got his info used on his web site but he shows the jump from car 50 to 51 as #50 vin 587xxx sold by Yenko Chev and car #51 vin 613xxx sold by Marshall Chev. Ed showes car #90 vin 615xxx sold by Van T. Chev.
How does the date on the BE rear compare to the older and younger Yenkos? The 608xxx vin seems out of place but there are a number of reasons why that could have happened. The CRG data base may link the vin to the build date and maybe the trim tag numbers also to see if they match.

[bkhpah]

I will get all the dates to help decode this car. I have checked it before and it is all there. Now that the car is in the shop I will be able to get better info. As for body #'s. This is the kicker. It is later than another o2D Yenko that we will be doing later next year. The body number of the 608XXX car is 219842, The 614XXX car is 219729. Both cars are O2D, both are LeMans Blue with no options. The 608XXX car has been verified by Vince years ago and was the feature car in Car Review magazine @ 1985. So is the body # take first place status or does the VIN? Interesting indeed...BKH

[bkhpah]

As for Ed not listing this car, I am not sure. I think from looking at the list he posted, if he was unsure of dealer, it was listed as Yenko. Is this true Ed. It is the real McCoy...BKH

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

It is interesting that BKH references another L-Blue Y-Camaro with a later VIN but an earlier body number. The '70 Y-Novas have the same situation within the first 30 cars. The first 15 produced were C-Silver, 06A cars and have later VIN's but earlier body numbers vs. the next 15 produced, G-Beige, 05D cars. I believe this only happens within the first 30 cars, 15 Silver vs. 15 Beige, but I'm not positive.

The Y-Nova guys have discussed this 'out of sequence' situation at length, and generally agree that the body number wins out as the higher priority. We feel that the body holds the tags that make it legal for sale, and therefore the body sequence determines the order in which they were 'intended' to be produced. Some cars might get pulled for various reasons, and end up with a later VIN #, but we feel that the 'car' is essentially complete even though it might not have received it's VIN # yet. The body # is the car's first vin #, albeit for internal mfg. reasons. The body numbers also correlate directly to the 'chevy order numbers' which is issued by GM.

Any thoughts welcome, this is just one theory for the Y-Novas. The Y-Camaros are more complicated because there were many more non-Yenko COPO cars mixed in.
Marlin

[Kurt S]

I know of 2 other COPO's made at the same time as this Yenko. One was an X11, other is ??.
We don't have any earlier non-Yenkos in the db.
Does look like a transition car. Bet they got some rearends in and that's why it got scheduled. What's the axle date?

But I have the same question as Joe. Why doesn't Ed's list show this car?
BTW, N608--- should definitely be an 02D car.


[Edited by Kurt S (06-21-2001 at 10:03 AM).]

[Kurt S]

The VIN wins in this case. The VINs did get mixed up coming down the line by the max of about 100 cars. So you can't say that N512345 came down the line before N512346. But it was made before N512445.

The body # in 69 (and 70) was the order confirmation #, the # assigned by the plant when the order was received. This # was used to track the car until the car was being built and the VIN assigned. Most 69 COPO's are out of sequence relative to other cars because their builds were pushed back cause of lack of some components, mainly rearends. The Yenko body #'s are grouped together in batches because they were ordered as groups at the same time.

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

KurtS;
I understand your logic, but when was the VIN # asigned to a particular car? I thought it was asigned more towards the end of the process, when the engine/trans was installed into the car. We thought the VIN was asigned much later because of the two types of paper found on the cars. One type is a crude piece of thick paper with only the body #, trim code and date typed on it, the other type is the traditional Nova Broadcast Sheet showing the Body # and the related VIN #, among other codes. Theory; the first paper was the 'instructions' until the VIN was asigned via the broadcast sheet later on down the line, (?).

The '70 Y-Novas have other situations where the body numbers are in sequence, the VIN #'s are generally increasing, but with very large gaps - like 183 cars, then 1,344 car gap, then back 742 cars, then backwards another 579, then forward..... This 'jumping' around led us to believe that batches of cars might have been pulled due to shortages, (like rears diff's), and then as parts arrived they were put back into 'line' at random thereby receiving a somewhat 'random' asignment of their VIN#, (?).

M

[Denis]

It is possible the Fisher body #'s were assigned by body style (eg coupe, convertible, 2-door, 4-door) and the VIN's sequentially by assembly line?

Seeing as how the VIN is shared between the engine, trans, trim tag, and cowl wouldn't it also make sense the VIN was assigned "down the line" once all of those components were in place?

[Chevy454]

Here's our theory: Wouldn't the VIN # have to come first? It was more than just a tag like the trim tag...it was stamped into the sheet metal itself (behind heater box on Novas & under cowl on Camaros). Fisher Body had to assemble the body before they could affix the trim tag. This explains why some cars with 6 cylinder VIN#s have V-8 trim tags, and vice versa.