1969 Yenko Nova - Page 18

67rsss350 · #**171** 12-01-2006, 06:54 AM

Yep Harry Cook, My Dad (Stephen Kotula) put a cam and 427 Tri-power set up on the car after Harry blow-up the original motor and had a warranty one installed. The car didn't have posi from the factory, he had the dealer installed one about a year later (the soonest the dealer could get it). My Uncle is Chuck Chovanec, I work for him. Was the Nova David's or Tad's? Sincerely Brian Kotula

69hurstSC · #**172** 12-01-2006, 07:10 AM

seriously, the best place to research this car is in the town it ran in. From what I've heard about the 37 Novas on the list, only one has a 427 notation next to it, so you can't just say since it doesn't say 427 that it's a 396. Then you'd be claiming that the other 36 weren't converted.

did kevins car come from GM with the 427 in it or was it converted by Yenko?

69hurstSC · #**173** 12-01-2006, 07:11 AM

seriously, the best place to research this car is in the town it ran in.[ QUOTE ]
From what I've heard about the 37 Novas on the list, only one has a 427 notation next to it, so you can't just say since it doesn't say 427 that it's a 396. Then you'd be claiming that the other 36 weren't converted.

[/ QUOTE ]

did kevins car come from GM with the 427 in it or was it converted by Yenko?

vfitom · #**174** 12-01-2006, 09:42 AM

Prior statement in an above message: "The only reason I can think of is that they did convert it to a 427 or 454 (depending on the delivery date), and then sell it less stripes and badges so their employee can get it insured and race it in the 396 class without anyone at the track knowing it was touched. Make the paperwork out saying it's a 396 for his insurance company and financing."

As to the above, is there any proof/surviving cars of this theory? I think this idea is far fetched as far as this 69 Nova is concerned. You have the original owner and now his friends saying it was a 396. Why can't that just be accepted?

**YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY** · #**175** 12-01-2006, 04:42 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Prior statement in an above message: "The only reason I can think of is that they did convert it to a 427 or 454 (depending on the delivery date), and then sell it less stripes and badges so their employee can get it insured and race it in the 396 class without anyone at the track knowing it was touched. Make the paperwork out saying it's a 396 for his insurance company and financing."

As to the above, is there any proof/surviving cars of this theory? I think this idea is far fetched as far as this 69 Nova is concerned. You have the original owner and now his friends saying it was a 396. Why can't that just be accepted?

[/ QUOTE ]

I believe it is accepted that the car was indeed a 396. This is quite a shock, and it will take a bit of time for everyone to get on the same page. These cars made it onto this 'list' for some reason, we just don't know how/why!

Do any of you guys out there in P-burgh know a Tom Farr or Joseph Bongirono?

moparts · #**176** 12-01-2006, 04:58 PM

I don't think this is the 1st case of this happening with a car. (being sold without being modified) How many Yenko Stingers went out that way? From what info we can find there were a 100 more or less corvairs sitting on Don's lot and he would sell them how ever you wanted them. So what would make anyone think that the nova's would be any different? The main difference is you got a tag with the Stinger.

Would it have made things better or worse if Don had kept putting tags on all his SPECIAL cars?

**PeteLeathersac** · #**177** 12-01-2006, 05:58 PM

Sorry for a lengthy posting but here's a couple thoughts...

Reading this thread reminded me of my days in the car business and how our dealership had another separate 'holding company' we would often 'sell' the vehicle to even though it didn't move from it's spot on the lot. . This was done so the dealership could take advantage of manufacturer incentives offered for reaching total number of certain models or grand totals of all units 'sold' in specific time periods...also sometimes for specific tax and accounting reasons too. .

In our case anyway, when the car was actually sold to the end user/customer, the paperwork was the same dealership stuff but one key thing differed...the 'in service date'. . This is the date the manufacturer considers the vehicle sold and the warranty begins ticking away...even though the vehicle still sits on the lot as a new car. . This date thing was seldom mentioned to the customer, hopefully never noticed by anyone and was occasionally a problem if the customer had a legit warranty concern and the manufacturer's warranty had actually just run out. . These cars and other vehicles 'with issues' were on our own lists to recognise the situations and 'warranty' was often covered internally as we didn't want customers to know what was going on. .

As much as I understand, this practice is totally legal and a common situation among car dealers also I don't think things are any different today? .
When buying cars I am still careful to check and clarify with dealerships what the 'In Service/Warranty Date' is! .

This whole blurb is not to say Yenko could have been doing anything crooked but to consider how and why Yenko Chevy could've 'sold' the units to Yenko SC before they were actually needed for conversions...it could be a similar situation where Yenko Chevy could meet sales goals, gain manufacturer incentives or take advantage of tax situations also a place to land vehicles w/ issues? .
If one of these vehicles happened to be sold to a customer before a conversion was ever done but after being passed on to YSC, it would have been on the YSC list, unmodified but with different warranty coverage? .

~ Pete

Stuart Adams · #**178** 12-01-2006, 06:47 PM

Good point.

Interesting to say the least.

camaromb · #**179** 12-02-2006, 02:09 AM

There is no question that some of the 37 Novas were converted to 427 cars. There are some well documented examples. Vince Emme said years ago that 30 of the 37 were converted to 427s. Unfortunately we don't have his paperwork, but certainly some of the Yenko sold cars were not converted. It maked sense that the distributed cars were converted, no reason to get a 396 Nova shipped in from Yenko.
Many Yenko Camaro orders were being cancelled mid-year. One can only imagine how hard it was to sell 427 Novas given the insurance issues performance car buyers were facing.
Mark

JTH74 · #**180** 12-02-2006, 07:52 AM

This is a very interesting topic to say the least and could become very bad for some people involved,and I feel bad for the owners that bought this car in the last 2-4 years thinking it was a 427 Nova. Transferring these cars over to YSC would have helped Yenko Chevrolet sales #'s, and it being a late car with the 454 cars coming it could have just been sold through YSC and not tranferred back to Yenko Chevrolet, or they could have done some slights mods to it, headers,tach,stripes, wheels and sold it as a Yenko Nova and it be on the list of 37 YSC Novas, either way its a Yenko Nova, just not a 427 Yenko Nova, as the original owner states and that should be the definitive word barring original docs to document a car, I don't see why the original owner would need/want to lie because he has no financial gain or loss in this car. There are people on here screaming that since this car was on the list of 37 that it "had" to be a 427 car and rightly so if they are one of the people that knew 4 years ago that this car was a 396 instead of 427, trying to cover their a** because of the probable lawsuit coming from a few owners of this car for some serious misrepresentation. This is still a neat/unique car being a L78 Nova from Yenko Chevrolet and it being on the list of 37 as a YSC Nova. Didn't Brian H have a Yellow 69 YSC Nova with stripes,a L78 with a tri-power set up and it was on the list, correct me if I am wrong. The current owner and past owners of the car since it was discovered it to be a 396 will have a legal avenue back to the people that intentionally misrepresented this car. I can see why Ed C. does not certify these cars anymore. This is a sad situation to see but I can see how it can happen with the money that these cars command, greed has taken the place of preserving these rare monsters for others to see and just the pure love of the hobby, this is another situation where a few leave a bad taste in everyones mouth. I have been lucky enough to have been around some of these rare cars in a more personal setting where I could go right up to them, touch them, sit in them when Randy Miller owned a ZL1, 2 69 YSC 427 Novas,4 69 YSC Camaros, 1 69 YSC Chevelle, because it was a definite priviledge to have been able to go 2 miles from my home and see all this in one place, and I thank Randy for allowing me to have access to his cars and was the perfect gentlemen and glad to show them to me probably when he didn't have the time to do it, but took the time because he knew that I would not be able to see those type cars again anywhere else all in one place, and to Randy thank you! When I went to his garage to see all these great cars and I knew what all the cars were, how many were made,etc, but the 2 69 YSC 427 Novas carried a certain mystique above the rest and on the same level as the ZL1 Camaro, as both being brutally/deadly powerful and fast. Thanks to those in the hobby that keep it pure for the love and preservation of these awesome cars for the future for others to see and experience, didn't mean to rant, but this is how I see it, just an opinion.