Where is 69 Yenko Camaro 124379N663539 - Page 4

**livettes** · #31 11-07-2016, 01:20 PM

I LOVE this stuff! Thank you for your service and Thank you for sharing your story with us.
Jamie

**GM_427_Racer** · #32 11-07-2016, 02:34 PM

Chapter 4

I guess it is about time to start telling the story about when the Yenko started hitting the drag strip. Before I begin, my Dad (what a guy) had several friends that drag raced, so my first recollection of going to a drag strip was 1956 or 1957 to watch his friends race. Pop could not afford it, but he loved cars and definitely gave me that part of him.

When the rebuild of the engine was going on several other parts were installed with the rebuilt engine, including a new steel flywheel, a new racing clutch, and definitely a new Hurst shifter, the original use to lock up in second gear quite often. Since the car was quite a bit faster and I had my trusty 60 Biscayne, the Yenko did not see the street as much except for special occasions.

The first time the Yenko hit the strip was a night I will never forget. I had met this girl (you guys knew it had to be coming, "a cool car and a hot girl&quot

, so I asked her out to go to the drag strip and "watch" my buddy (the guy that built the engine and had the 69 White COPO), run his Camaro for the first time. So I pick her up, I gotta say she was NOT impressed with the Yenko, but I am excited to go to Meander and "WATCH". When we get there, we find my friend and the white COPO is on the trailer, so naturally I ask what is going on, he tells me that the rear cam plug is leaking and the clutch has been soaked so he cannot run it. SOOOOOOOO, he says, lets put my number on the Yenko and that I race it. Now, I gotta tell you I have done a lot of street racing, but I have NEVER been on the drag strip. I am thinking about it and finally say OK, the slicks come off of his car on to mine, the exhaust on my car now gets moved to open headers and the YENKO comes alive and it sounds like a real race car. It is now dark and before I get in the car to make a time trial, that HOT girl I was telling you about earlier whispers in my ear, "This car better get me home tonight!!!!". I think to myself, what can go wrong, everything in this car is brand new, and I tell her "Not to worry". As it turns out, I am the last one in line for a time trial, and after I go down the track they will be starting the races. I am really nervous, I pull in to the water and set the line lock (forgot to mention we had put one on the car), and start the water burn out and it actually went really well. Thank God. So, I am inching, and I mean inching towards the starting line to stage shallow, but what I didn't realize was that the starting line was about 10 feet in front of me. My buddy, finally started waving at me to quit the inching and just pull up to where he was standing which was about 6 inches from the starting line, so I do that and after what seemed like an eternity, both stage lights finally come on. As the lights come down (five light amber back then), I start revving the engine, the last yellow comes on, I dump the clutch, the front end jumps up (not the above picture), the engine revs quickly to 7500, I powershift (accelerator foot never came off the floor) to second gear and the engine just revs to the moon. I am dumbfounded, lift my foot off the accelerator immediately and I am thinking, what just happened????? My hand is still on the shifter, it is telling me that it is in second gear, I rev the motor gently, it revs ok, but I am just coasting, so I "gently" shift it to third gear, give it light throttle, still coasting, put it in fourth gear, still coasting. At that point, I think OOOOH OOOH, there is a serious problem here, engine is OK, but something behind it is NOT ok. As I am coasting down the track, I remember that phrase, "This car better get me home tonight!!!". Then I think, the Yenko has a problem right now, that is what is important. I did not mention that this drag strip was also a private airport, ahhh good reason to tell you because it will come up soon. I should also mention that they would stop the races to allow planes to land, sometimes a couple times a night. Even though I have never gone down this strip before, I did know that there was a turn off about 2/3 of the way down, actually it was there more for the airplanes to get to the hangers, as I said this will come up shortly. So I am coasting very slowly down the track, getting ready to make the left turn off the track and something catches my eye in the driver's door rear mirror, I think, WHAT THE HELL? It is the left side slick separating from the car. I am really confused, as I am making the turn I am watching it in the mirror and it just keeps coming out farther and farther and farther and then it happens, it comes all the way out, well at least half of the axle and the car falls to the ground on the brake backing plate and the car comes to a stop. I get out and the slick is going around very slowly just rotating around the broken end of the axle that is on the ground. NEWS Flash, I guess I know what broke!!!!! Since I was the last car down the track, all the track workers went on break prior to the races starting. So I am sitting there in the middle of this turn off and if you haven't guessed yet, I will give you a clue, remember how I said this was an airport. Well, I would figure you know now that a plane is making an approach to land, they land and are coming directly towards where I am parked to travel to the hangar. Fortunately, the pilot finally sees me and starts giving me hand gestures, me being the 20 year old, give him the hand gestures right back and point to the slick and give it a kick and watch it spin on the ground. He gives me another hand gesture, to which I respond and he finally gets the idea he has to go to another exit. As I sit there, I am thinking, how come no-one has come to help me. It was probably 15-20 minutes and finally my buddies brother comes down and says, What happened? I point to the slick and axle and give it another light kick to make it spin (you have to remember it is totally dark and there is not much light where I am parked, this is 1970 by the way). He tells me that they thought I was embarased that I missed second gear and they did not know where I went. I said "Are you kidding me?". As evidence with the spinning slick, I did NOT miss second gear. Needless to say when the floor jack came, we pushed the axle back in the housing and then we moved the car out of the way. Since everybody's trailer was full, I had to wait a couple hours for another friend to take his car home and come back to get the Yenko back to my buddies shop and figure out what to do. Needless to say it was a very long night and I got a ride to go get the 60 Chevy. As it turned out, where I bought the car, the service manager was a very "COOL" guy. I called him on Monday and told him I broke an axle and asked if it could be fixed under Warranty? Of course I did not bring up where the car was or what I was doing when it broke. Obviously, before we trailered the car to the dealership, we took the slicks off and put the street tires back on and put the exhaust back to closed headers. Bottom line, I got the axle fixed and while the car was at the dealership I asked if they could put a 4.88 gear in it. No problem they said, of course I had to pay for that, could not swing that one on warranty.

Now I am guessing that some of the folks reading this are wondering, well is there a Happy Ending with the "HOT" girl, did they date for a while, get engaged, get married, have kids and still look lovingly in each other's eyes to this day?? Me and the 60 Chevy got her home around 4 AM, said Goodnight and never saw her again. Oh well, you really didn't think it would end well, did you?????????

The car got fixed and Chapter 5 will come up in a while.............