Nickey -Yenkos

[Stefano]

A quote from the 1987 'Muscle Car Review' interview with Don Yenko states , "As a matter of fact, Nickey Chevrolet was one of the dealers selling the sYcs."

Does anyone have more info./opinions regarding this subject?

[JoeC]

That is a great interview and we are lucky to have it since it was done so close to Don's death. Unfortunately Don didn't have the most precise memory and some of the things Don said don't seem to correspond to the research. From what I can tell, there was some connection with Yenko, Harrell, and Dana on the assembly of the 1967 Camaros and I don't believe the 67s got the Yenko crest so when they went to the selling dealer who knows what the customer was told. (Don states in the interview that the 67 just got the 427 emblems)
I have some evidence that at least one 67 Yenko Camaro was sold as a Nickey Camaro by Burt Chevrolet in CO.

[copolocater]

Is it possible that a new supercar owner wasn't satisfied with his performance and traded the car in to another dealer who intern sold it as one of their own?Is it possible that Nickey was wanting to jump ship from Bill Thomas, which they eventually did,to look for another outlet to be able to cut some overhead?Did Nickey purchase a car to do a comparison?As you know copy a success to better your own!!Just some theory's.

[hvychev]

This is a tad bit off this thread subject but why have'nt that many Nickey Camaros, Chevelles, Novas been found? I have been doing some reading on Nickey Chevrolet and they offered transplant engines on all of the above cars. Did they ever sell any real COPO cars? Do we have any idea how many supercars cars they sold collectively over the years?
With guest speakers associated with Nickey comming to the reunion we should be able to learn a lot more than we know now. I for one cant wait to hear them speak at the reunion! [img]/ubbthreads/images/icons/cool.gif[/img]

[JoeC]

In my opinion, the stripes had something to do with the cars being remembered as something special. The Yenkos and the Motion cars had distinctive stripes and seem to have some sort of advantage in notoriety. Nickey, Harrell, Gibb, Scuncio, Dana, Burger, Thomas, and others sold 427 cars but after a few years and an ownership change, they would blend into the population of modified cars. Even if the car went to a junk yard if it had stripes on it there was a better chance for it to be saved. IMO

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

Stefano;
Are you vouching for Don's credibility in his '87 interview?? Remember, he also said he sold 500 Yenko Camaros in '69, 500 Yenko Deuces in '70, the list goes on.
[img]/ubbthreads/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Stefano]

Yes,Joe I agree it is a very interesting article and there are quite a few detail inconsistencies. If anyone hasn't read it in a while, like me, it will make for interesting reading.

It seems that the major focus was routinely on the 500 Copos and the mention that the Chevelles were conversion cars, but there is more,much more.

For Don Yenko to mistakenly identify Nickey Chevrolet as selling sYcs would be highly unlikely.

Nickey was a high profile dealership. They sold much more in parts, service and Car volume than Yenko Chevrolet. Don would have known of Nickey without any of the other connections.


Yenko was also familiar with Nickey through his roadracing exploits.

Dick Harrell linked both these two Delerships.

COPOs were much less expensive/profitable than conversion cars. It wouldn't make much sense for a dealer to convert a car which he could COPO order.

Don also states that Payton Wells/Dana Chevrolet offered to sell him conversion Camaros first, not the other way around.

I have always speculated that Nickey sold COPOs in 1969 but I don't ever recall hearing that they came from Yenko Chevrolet.