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]

[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.

[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]

[JoeC]

There are a lot of unanswered questions and we can only guess at what went on but it seems that some dealers did not use the COPOs. I don't think Motion used them at all and since he was installing headers and scatter shields etc. I don't think that starting with a COPO Camaro would have made much difference for him. If he began with a L78 he would only have to purchase a L72 block and probably could sell the L78 block for close to what he paid for the L72 block. A lot of Super Stock guys were racing the L78s. To install the headers and scatter shield he had to do some disassembly and if the customer ordered blueprinting or cam change he had to open the motor anyway. Another problem with the COPO may have been availability. The COPOs were not readily available at all times. As far as I can tell, Yenko, Gibb, and Berger block ordered them with a prearrangement with Chevy but I have heard stories where people would order them from other dealers and had a long wait or could not get them at all. Even Fred Gibb did some L72 427 conversions according to his interview and he certainly knew about the COPO program. I have not heard of any COPO cars related to Nickey. As I said - a lot of this is guessing.

[sixtiesmuscle]

I think you're probably all right to one degree or another. I do think that Nickey led the way on the conversion concept when the Camaro was introduced. They already had a very active high performance cars & parts department, so, it was a natural, and, they were equiped to do it.

I also think the Nickey and Motion cars tended to be more expensive becuase they sold the customer on the "extras", and, the ability to build a car that couldn't be bought elsewhere, and, just to the customer's specs.

[Stefano]

Marlin,
I have enough trouble vouching for myself much less any of the interview or anyone else for that matter. I am merely speculating and having some fun with what may/could have been.

I don't recall the number of Deuces or any of the other Super Cars as grossly misstated.

Reread the quote. He was very emphatic that Nickey sold sYcs. I still can't see him making a material mistake regarding Nickey as a sYc retailer.

I could certainly see why Nickey wouldn't advertise the cars as Yenkos since the factory was actually producing and providing warranties for them.

Nickey may have even allowed the public to believe that the 1969 Copos were Conversions. This would only add to the overall mystique and marketability of the Super Cars.

I do agree that the Yenko and Motion stripes served to help identify the cars as something special and in turn save some from obscurity.

Motion / Joel Rosen was in a different situation. He was the converter and thus paid for his labor and expertise to convert the cars. I wouldn't think Baldwin would have paid Motion much, if any of their profit margin. He would not have shared the same philosophy as the "New Car Dealers". It could have actually worked against him ,had Baldwin Chevrolet COPO ordered their own Super Cars.

Joels was also pushing the performance envelope as this was his main line of businesss. Super Cars were only a small fraction of a New Car dealers potential overall book of business.

It sure would be nice to get Joel Rosen's take on this.

Don didn't foresee that the insurance companies and regulators would eventually squash the muscle car movement. I believe he would have done anything in his power and authority to get Vince Piggens the 500 Copos which he promissed to sell.