I saw a series of pictures of sport car races with Yenco Corvair just recently.

He also had a series of Vegas. I don't know anything about them but they were no doubt Cosworth motored.

Attached Thumbnails

 

This thread is a wild ride, that's for sure. Why does the new poster Mr. 72'SYC post count say "0"? He has at least ONE, why does it say "0"?

72'SYC. I don't know much about the Yenkos and such, can't add anything of value. But one thing struck me as odd in your post, of course the 7:37 ratio is nuts but how about the 9" rear, that is a Ford rear end, I seriously doubt it would have been used in a Chevrolet sold thru Chevrolet dealers. I know there are tons of people who make bolt in 9" rears for everything from Vegas to 55 Chevys, but I seriously doubt it was done on the Yenkos.

To get back to the topic of these COPO cars, the Shelby was mentioned a while ago and I have a comment and question about that.

I did a VIRGIN original 69 Shelby GT500 Conv for a customer about 20 years ago. I found that all the glass body parts on the cars, the hood, fenders, deck lid, quarter extensions, were all painted in lacquer while the metal pieces, quarters, doors and rockers were painted in enamel!

I had to assume at the time that the car was sent to Shelby painted by Ford, and then he removed (or there were none to begin with) fenders and such and replaced them with his lacquer painted fiberglass componants!

Brian

I think I remember reading from Jon that posts in the lounge do NOT count
Multiple posts in one thread will only count as one post.
Site-help, do not count up

Not absolutely positive about this though

Bryan

The dana camaro.

http://www.thechevroletcamaro.com/dana.htm

And a clueless troll at that..........Nothing that he said is even remotely true.

__________________
Home Handyman Forum I Shade Tree Mechanic Forum

Martinsr,
That's pretty interesting about the Fords. Is it possible that Shelby got cars without bolt on parts and possibly pre-painted his own?? I wonder about color match as that was pretty tough back before electronic color matching. I can only remember one Shelby 350, maroon as I recall that belonged to a sports writer that came by our shop for an interview. We got to check it out but not drive it. ( he was at least that sane , haha) My former employer worked at one of the big Ford dealers that had a real 427 Cobra that he got to drive. Never saw it myself.

As for the 9" Ford in the Chev. Back in the late 60's I don't think the 9" had really caught on yet. We built built quite a few for the Ford guys but to swap one to a Chev was pretty rare...my recollection. Not that it wasn't done. The gassers used them too but I think a lot of them liked the Dana for the weight and the ease of full floaters on them. We put a lot of 12 bolts in ten bolt cars and did the C-clip eliminator on them. We did a pile of Mopar 8-3/4 both straight and tapered pinion. I had them in our dragsters but went to the Dana for the Funny cars. Heavier but tougher. The nodular iron case one was the only choice back then and even rare then.

Sure glad there are some old timers here to help me remember some of this stuff.

Now this Dana Camaro I have to check out as I simply do not recall this one at all.

Here is another interesting SS Chevelle that I'll pass on..deviating slightly from the thread.
Two guys from our car club in 69 teamed up together and got a 69 Chevelle SS with the really rare 427 425 hp big block and Rock Crusher Muncie. I think there were about 350 of these really made by GM. Mostly to make the NHRA rules. As I recall the car was ordered stripped of radio, heater, insulation, PS, and other weighty but useless to racing items. Not even sure it could be licensed for street. These also were de-badged and looked like plain janes. This one was black. Eventually the motor was made into the first 502 or 504 whatever they make into in the area. Didn't last long as these early big blocks couldn't take the big stroker. I think the car still exists as a bracket car. I don't think the guys that have it really know what it is or was . Since the original motor came apart so hard that it wasn't even suitable for a boat anchor, it would be impossible to restore it to original numbers. Too bad. This car was a fore runner to the prostock class that was developing then.

Then why did the Camaros have 427's? Maybe someone needs to use the search option on the internet. 427 Camaro and Vettes and Chevelles, Vegas, Corvairs And the rearends replaced the stock COPO 9737 rears not a 7:37 rear gear ratio. Jeezee Pete with a gear ratio like that your looking at a pulling tractor

Back then the Dana 60 was THE high perf drag rear end of choice except for some of the "old" guys hanging on to the '57 Olds/Pontiac rears but I don't remember ever seeing anything about the Yenko cars leaving the dealership with anything other than a 12 Bolt. If they did my money would be on them having a Dana NOT a 9 inch. You're right the 9 hadn't caught on yet.

I remember the Dana Camaros from the magazines back then, they had that cool little "semi-Stinger" style hood scoop.

This guy shows up, makes a post at 3:12 pm, logs off and doesn't come back to the site.

Attached Thumbnails

 

I can tell there is no love lost. haha

It's been a good ride. Lot's of memories of an era gone past. Those of us who were in the middle of it probably take the most offense at it being trashed. Many of these rare cars were at the top our dream list. To get to see one in person was thrilling. To get to service or work on one and take it for a test ride was the highlight of life. haha

It was fun looking back now working in a hotrod shop as long as i did.

The Dana must have been every bit what the Yenko was , just that Yenko was the master of car sales and went nation wide. I don't know what the total number sold was but for what they went for a lot of cash traded hands.

Anyone else got some tidbits on factory hotrods.??? There were a few others that came by the shop during this time.

Surprising not all these were own by "kids". A lot of these were owned by "old guys" (to us) who I think wanted to impress their kids or other kids or somebody that they were not aging . haha oh so vain.

Something Just struck me and its History and Record keeping. It seems we suck at it as people! Other that Magazine We don't have much to go on and for the longest time. I only hear about his most popular builds. But in fact he was doing all kinds of performance stuff.
I wonder if there is a Yenko History site document his life and all he venture in racing. Now the would be something.

Craig

Here is some more Yenko info from Goggle.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yenko_Camaro

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Yenko

and the sad end...about 3/4 of the way down the page:
http://www.planecrashinfo.com/famous1980s.htm

There is a site that is gathering historical information but it looks a long way away.

We forgot to hash over Balwin chev.. Motion Chev... Similar stuff.

Here is another car I have been reading up on. The history some of these cars must have is just great to read about for someone that did not live in that time.

http://www.cheetahcars.com/chrono_history.htm

smoke, and all the rest.
You aren't going to believe this..!!!! My best friend who is disabled with a stroke now just gave me a picture yesterday of what I think is #10 of this list based on the description. I was over visiting him yesterday and he gave me a picture. I'll see if I can get it scanned tonight and post it later. I didn't know anything about this list. I gotta get more info for my buddy. He will be absolutely thrilled.!!

This car was purchased about 72-73 ( memory is a little thin exactly) or so by a customer of the shop I worked in. It had a BBC and Crower injectors lots of chrome and a fancy trailer. I did some tune up work on the injectors and motor and my best friend took over driving chores. This car was a squirl's delight. The only time it went straight was when it was going in the trailer.

I did a lot of chassis tuning and finally got it going straight most of the time if the track was good. As I recall they ran it about a year this way. It ran competively in the comp bracket as an altered.

The owner wanted to run a blower so he got the parts and he and my buddy installed it and brought it over to me to get running since I had a good deal of experience in the blown gas dragsters. It ran pretty well after we got the cam right. It was still vulnerable to burned pistons just as the gas dragsters were when you got after them. I was into match racing funny cars then and my buddy wanted in on the action so we converted it to alcohol and another cam. It came alive then. And ran much like a fuel altered.... what can I say ..ever see one go straight back then?? It was a hellofa crowd pleaser.!! I finally had to go out to the track with them and flog the death out of it untill we got it going straight again...most of the time.

I couldn't even come close to fitting in it or they probably would have conscripted me to try it out. My buddy was thin as a rail so we just coiled him up and stuffed him in it. haha

As I recall they did pretty well with it even against the alcohol funny cars of the day. Nobody except the West coast guys knew what they were doing with alcohol. We still had a serious advantage with the hemi and more cu.in and a lot more boost over the BBC.

I gotta go but I'll get the picture scanned and post it later.