Jack Douglas double COPO

[William]

I think Jack Douglass was trying to badge & stripe the COPOs he acquired directly from Chevrolet as Yenkos. That's where the conflict arose. By June, Yenko had dozens of COPOs none of his franchise dealerships wanted because they were also stuck with them. Along with at least 110 other Chevrolet dealerships, Douglass was entitled to acquire 427 cars direct from Chevrolet and sell them. Just not as Yenkos.

I believe Gibb and Yenko went into the COPO programs believing they had exclusive rights to 9560/9561/9737. Yenko stated he had to pay a fee to Chevy for the COPO.

Misled, misunderstood, who knows. Probably a money loser for both.

[JoeC]

The way I remember it , the problem came up when Jack Douglass tried to order sets of replacement stripes and emblems from Yenko

Yenko ordered all the 1968 COPO 9737 Camaros as far as I know he received them all although at least one was sold new by another Chevy Dealer in PA.

Fred Gibb ordered all 50 of the 1968 COPO 9738 Chevy IIs to make them legal for NHRA

Things changed in 1969 as the other dealers wanted to order 427 COPO Camaros and Chevelles

In the MCR interview, Don said he had to pay to warranty the 427 COPO cars and said it turned out to be cheaper for him in the long run.

[Kurt S]

Well, if someone can dig up the original post by the Clary's, it includes the information from the Yenko files...

[Stefano]

We spent quite a bit of time discussing the JD subject and hashing it out on this public forum many years ago. I had the opportunity to speak directly to many involved with the subject, over the years. Several noted authors had also spoken to Jack while he was still alive in order to get the scoop from the "horses mouth". In my opinion there is some missleading speculation.

Jack was the youngest Chevrolet Dealer ever at that time. He inherited the Dealership from his father, who was I believe a retired GM engineer or exec.

There was no intent for him to try and pull one over on Don. While Jack knew Don from some of the road racing events, it was Jim Spencer of Span Inc, who signed Jack up to be a Yenko Network Dealer (also a road racer).

While Jack was not directly lied to, he was lead to believe, that the 1969 Yenkos were being built, to include the 427 /L72s by Yenko Chevrolet.

Jack had remembered the meeting being in the late Summer, early Fall of 1968, so maybe COPO 9561 had not been ironed out quite yet. Upon recieving the first truck load from Yenko/Canonsburg he discovered that he could order such cars himself as there is a financial interest to do so. (known as hold back and turn and earn credits).

Yenko did not have stripe kits available for sale over the counter when Jack placed his direct order as it was placed soon after recieving his first shipment. (Just didn't materialize until months later) Not many people in Chicago Land knew who Don Yenko was or really anything about him. "Yenko" desirability did not usually out do the "427-L72" option, to the original owners I have comunicated with, back then.

Jack recalled the 24 maybe 25 Camaros he ordered this way: Once he determined that he could order cars himself per the Yenko Blue print he ordered 4 cars of each Yenko color. So that is 24 cars. He placed the order within days of his discovering the COPO options. The day after he placed the order (IBM punch cards) his GM / Tom Dumas suggested that they add additional options and colors to their order and the changes were submitted. He could not recall the exact color break down and since Tom always drove a Black Demo, they both recalled having ordered at least one in black, but did not reacall if the black car replaced one of the 24 or was added to the total.

Someone from GM must have contacted Don and let him know that Jack had discovered how to place a direct order and Don Yenko called Jack soon thereafter. Jack's own words were that they had a "very heated discussion" (this is where there is varying opinion). This in large part because Jack thought that he had been cheated/misrepresented. The direct ordered cars were not even built yet and wouldn't even show up for months later.

This telephone conversation is when Don and Jack hashed out an agreement to sell the direct order cars as Yenkos and pay a royalty to Yenko, which included getting stripes and badges from him.


I believe the Yenko Estate document Kurt is referring to mentions 22 COPOs

12 of the 24 subject cars have been accounted for.

Automatic and Manuals have been found

Additional options have been noted

Both Vinyl Top and non Vinyl

All thus far have been X11 D80 in close body number sequence

Endura Bumpers have been documented on many of the found COPOs ( Jack stated that all had endura as Dumas was a big fan)

Not all recieved Yenko stripes and/or badges

The original paint COPOs found without Yenko stripes have style trim pinstripes.

One original owner, who opted out of the Yenko stripes had D90 stripes applied at the dealership, but also already had Yenko Badges.

With only approx 1/2 accounted for it will be interesting to see what else gets discovered over time.

[mssl72]

So, what were the additional colors that Jack Douglas ordered?

[Stefano]

Two Dover White Black vinyl top cars with consecutive body numbers have been accounted for. The Black JD Yenko is just urban legend at this point but both of the Key people, GM and owner say that they had ordered at least one. I believe that 5 or 6 of the found cars are Daytona Yellow.

[Kurt S]

Thank you for the summation!
The timeline details were very helpful.

[JoeC]

The Jack Douglas version of the story may be a little different then the Don Yenko version.

Hard to say what happened in 1969 but there are some things that both sides agree on.

Jack bought Yenko Camaros and was a Yenko Sportscar Dealer

Jack bought 427 COPO cars from GM after buying Yenko Super Camaros

There was a disagreement

In the end Jack Douglas agreed to buy the Yenko Stripes and emblems and install them on some of his 427 COPO cars.

Some people like the Yenko stripes, some don't but they helped sell the cars in 1969 and still do today.

Donna Mae Mims called me in 2004 when she was working on Don's application to the Corvette Hall of Fame.

I had purchased a lot of items from the Yenko Estate on the Yenko Gulf Oil Corvette racing team and the Corvette Museum wanted detailed information about Don's Corvette racing achievements.

In our phone conversations , I asked Donna Mae about some of the Yenko Chevrolet stories that she had told over the years. One was the story that Don had a phone conversation with JD that resulted in Don stating he will fly to Hinsdale and "punch Jack in the face" .
DMM did like to tell colorful stories about Yenko so who knows if those were the exact words used but both sides agree there was a heated phone call with Don and Jack.

here are some items from another Yenko Douglas discussion

[bergy]

You guys are an amazing repository of Yenko information. Thanks for all that you have done for our hobby!

[copo69]

The X11 pinstripes that weren't on original paint Yenko striped cars, did they come without the pinstripes from the factory or did Douglas remove them? I guess what I'm asking is was there a way to delete the pinstripes?