back when Pepsi and Coca Cola sponsored stock car racing

 https://www.flickr.com/photos/dog427435/3019339149/in/photostream/lightbox/

the same family owned this a 1969 Yenko Camaro 427 since 1981, and parked it in a trailer in 1991 and there it sat until recently, when they sold it

Hemmings says a a '68 427 Yenko/Motion Camaro has been pulled out of a garage. Here's why that just clickbait headlines:

The paperwork indicates it was delivered to Yenko Chevrolet where it was sold to an unknown customer.

There is evidence that the car was sent to Joel Rosen at Motion Performance in Long Island.

But, no evidence that Motion did the work, as ANYONE could duplicate the work they did, with the parts they used. Anyone can get a reproduction or NOS period correct Motion sticker.

Then car was stolen from the original owner and was gone.

The car resurfaced in 1972 in Arkansas as a parts car that had been partially stripped and was then sold to a drag racer in Tennessee

He drove the Camaro until the late 1990s when it was parked in a garage until he died. In 2017, the car reappeared when it was sold by the second owner’s daughter. The car was sold and resold before it ended up in the hands of the current owner of Motion Performance who bought the company from Joel Rosen in 2020. When he could not find any paperwork on the car, it was sold again.

Remember what I said about clickbait headlines? Yeah, "Lost Yenko/Motion Performance 427 1968 Camaro in a Garage" was Hemmings headline.

So, was it lost? Nope. It was bought from Yenko, then maybe sent to Motion, then stolen, then bought by the Tennessee drag racer, then his daughter sold it, to the guy who bought Motion Perf. Then he sold it.

THAT AIN'T LOST! PLUS, if the new owner of Motion couldn't pull the paperwork, or verify that Motion worked on it by other means (the entire network of people who could verify it somehow, ya know?!) then it wasn't upgraded by Motion.Further... Hemmings actually asks, "Is it a Yenko/Motion car?"

More than one car has been faked by experts so buyers think they are getting some incredibly rare car. That's the truth. 

https://www.hemmings.com/stories/lost-yenko-motion-performance-427-1968-camaro-in-a-garage

ever heard of the Yenko Turbo Stinger Vega? It produced 155 bhp at 4800 rpm, way above the 90/110 bhp found in the standard Vega.

Of the 400 or so Vega Yenko Stinger packages sold, there doesn’t seem to be any record of how many got turbos installed.

only 11 are reputedly still around.

https://www.curbsideclassic.com/vintage-snapshots-and-photography/vintage-snapshot-and-rt-article-1971-chevrolet-vega-yenko-stinger-the-forgotten-yenko/

The Yenko 1981 Camaro Turbo Z, with only 19 models ever made, is the rarest Chevy muscle car of the 1980s

Yenko based his engine layout on a turbo kit by Turbo International but added his own personal touches to keep things street-legal.

Also on the dash was a water injector bottle indicator light panel, since Yenko included forward-thinking water injection, along with a fuel heater to avoid issues of problematic stumbling that often occurred with early turbocharged applications.

The 5.7-liter V8's 8.2:1 compression worked well with the forced induction addition and power estimates suggest 240-250 horsepower was attainable. Positraction and the factory three-speed auto, only available with the Z28's 350 option, remained on duty. 

Equipped with Weld two-piece wheels paired with Koni shocks and, underneath, Guldstrand polyurethane bushings in place of the factory rubber pieces. Inside, an appropriate Racemark steering wheel and matching Kamp leather seats replaced the stock versions to complete a race-ready package.

https://www.hotcars.com/rarest-chevrolet-muscle-car-80s/

put away in the heated garage in 1973 with only 7,252 miles on it, because of a blown transmission, this 67 Yenko stayed with the original owner until 2018. It’s the only documented Yenko, and only big-block, cowl-plenum Camaro from 67-69

https://fuelcurve.com/the-last-67-yenko-camaro/ for this photo, but go to https://www.motortrend.com/features/1967-yenko-camaro-has-just-two-owners-and-7257-miles/ for the full story

Donna Mae Mims, the first woman to win a Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) national championship

As executive secretary at Yenko, in 1960, Mims started racing cars with friends from Yenko. She quickly became one of the top amateur race car drivers in the country, and Manager of Hi-Performance at Yenko Sports Cars.

Her career and involvement in Yenko led her to racing such cars as the Camaro, Austin Healey, MG, Corvette and Corvairs. 

She worked for Yenko Chevrolet and Yenko sports car division as executive secretary for both and was the liaison for design and production with the Yenko sports car division. They worked on performance for cars such as the Duece, Camaro, Nova, Chevelle, Corvair, and Yenko Stinger.

She worked closely with Zora Arkus-Duntov, Ed Cole and the pioneers of Chevrolet Racing. She coordinated parts delivery and car development of Corvette Race Cars in Canonsburg PA.

Mims freelanced as a writer for several car magazines, including Competition Press, Corvette News, SCCA’s Sports Car, and Sports Car Graphic magazines, among others.

She was a member of her SCCA Region’s Board of Directors, a driving instructor, and editor of the award-winning Region magazine, “Drift.” 

She raced in the 12 hours of Sebring, and the 24 hours of Daytona with Suzy Dietrich and Janet Guthrie, in a Sunbeam Alpine

And, she was pivotal in creating the first corporate sponsored Corvette racing program, as explained in the video below, when she met the VP of Gulf Oil, Grady Davis 

In November 1972, Mims participated in the third running of the official Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash, as part of an all-female team in the Cannonball Run with teammates Judy Stropus and Peggy Niemcek.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donna_Mae_Mims
https://www.beinhauer.com/memorials/Mims-DonnaMae/344411/obituary.php
https://www.corvettemuseum.org/donna-mae-mims/

at least they finally pulled it out of the yard, maybe this will get the owner started on fixing it up to drive again some day

 https://www.facebook.com/TheAutoArchaeologist/

here's what I just learned about Yenko Camaros: They're factory built, and Yenko only added decals. So... why the hell is anyone paying a 1/4 million dollars for one? You can make your own for half that, or less

 Jack Douglass Chevrolet, outside Chicago in Hinsdale, Illinois, was one of the 36 dealers across the country selling 427 Yenko Camaros. 

“In 1969, I remember ordering two loads of cars from Don directly. They came five to seven cars per carrier,” Douglass told Muscle Car Review in the 1980s.

 “While my employees were prepping one of these cars, they found the original Central Office Production Order (COPO) paperwork inside. A close examination indicated that about the only thing Don Yenko had done was put 3M vinyl tape graphics on them, along with a few badges.”

https://www.hagerty.com/media/magazine-features/dealers-bulked-up-factory-muscle-to-create-street-racing-monsters/

Yenko's arrow down the hood was a seriously genius idea

https://bigboppa01.tumblr.com/post/150973857394

Sept 2, 1963, Donna Mims, the executive secretary for Don Yenko, driving an Austin Healey Sprite that had been purchased new by Dr. Jonas Salk, won the Class H Production Race in Thompson, Ct to becoming the first woman to win a SCCA Class Championship.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/505973489414476/permalink/3640396322638828/

https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2016/04/this-car-was-once-driven-daily-by-dr.html

it's stunning to think how many cars once were just has beens, and not wanted for another race season, or some other reason were sold off in the classifieds, like this Yenko Vette

is it a competitive advantage bracket race with a car 10 seconds slower than your competition? It seems to have worked for Kasey Vandenberg, who races one of only three Dana/Yenko Corvairs built by General Motors

Vandenberg is the fourth owner of the 1967 Dana/Yenko Corvair Stinger, which he purchased in 2005. Its original owner was Donald Heath, photographer for actor James Garner, who headed the American International Corvette Racing Team for Dana Chevrolet in California. Heath owned the vehicle from 1967 to 1995.

It has appeared in eight national magazines, two books, newspaper articles, on ESPN, Spike TV and Fox Sport South Network. It was the first Corvair to display at a NASCAR Fan Event.

Corvairs got a 3.89 set of gears by the way

and he raced it in the COPO Shootout... and freaked out all those Yenko, Motion, Gibb and Harrell supercar owners with 10 and 11 second cars! The Corvair is firmly in the 21.12 to 22.50 bracket, and sitting on the line watching the Corvair get so close to the finish line for 10 seconds really puts a lot of pressure on other racers who forgot that they ought to ignore any car in the other lane, and simply make consistent actions to meet their estimated time.

He won seven straight runs.... either the trick works really damn well, or he's the most consistant racer I've ever head of. He is an experienced racer... but it's also quite a mind game to pull on the other racers

https://www.hotrod.com/articles/dana-copo-1967-corvair-stinger-nearly-upsets-copo-pete-shootout-super-car-reunion-22/
https://www.thedailytimes.com/community/classic-corvair-overgrown-volkswagen-makes-stop-at-concours-d-elegance/article_599de882-1df6-5d4c-ae6e-a6b8e7287252.html

who made the most super cars in the musclecar era?

Dick Harrell.

He made cars for Nickey, Yenko, and Gibb Chevrolet

Yenko Chevrolet built two Z-28 "Stormers" specifically for road racing. Car sold new through Yenko for $5900, here is Bill Boye at the '68 Daytona 24-hour with his Marina Blue Stormer

http://www.camaros.org/forum/index.php?topic=7779.30

1 of 99 Yenko Chevelles, but even more rare, 1 of 7 in Garnet Red, with only 19.8k miles, and pulled right out of the garage of the dead original owner (who was certain he'd get around to restoring it someday (jfc, another one)) and straight into a restoration

2 collisions and 47 years in the garage, yes, longer than I've been alive, since the owner was leaving a bar drunk, crashed into a guard rail, took it home and took apart the front end, and gave up on it.

Raccoons lived and died in it... yet it's still in good enough condition to get it restored to flip at auction for profit.

there are about 60 more photos of the process, but not a single one showing how munched the entire drivers side was... but since the drivers side only had about 1/2 the rear fender that wasn't crunched? We already know it was real bad, and they don't want the new owners to see how bad when they are asking over 200k for it at auction

https://www.hotrod.com/articles/watch-1969-yenko-chevelle-go-barn-find-beautiful/

there was a day Bob Sharp said Don Yenko could sell a Stinger for ten bucks.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10157060626005625&set=gm.2037832736298454&type=3&permPage=1&ifg=1

Some times a go cart just doesn't have enough cubes

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1686223568321025/permalink/2245592995717410/

probably the last original owner of a 67 Yenko Super Camaro, finally sold. It has been dry stored since 1973 when the trans blew up... only has 7257 miles

Don Yenko had the car delivered at the local Sunoco gas station, and that is where it was picked up by the buyer. Possibly to get good gas, possibly to farm out some work to upgrade it to Yenko Supercar level from Chevy Camaro level

 This car (YS 760) is the one and only documented 1967 big-block cowl-plenum Yenko Camaro.



The coolest thing you'll read this week


Weaver had two preconditions for the sale. The first was to restore the car within two years. The second was for “one last drive.”

Perry agreed to the first, but not the second. He told Weaver, “John, I can’t do that.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re going to have a lot more than one ride. When you come to Ohio, you get your own set of keys. It will always be your car. I’m just a caretaker.”

https://www.hotrod.com/articles/last-1967-chevrolet-camaro-converted-427-power-don-yenko-uncovered/

Don Yenko, having a bad day with a split window

http://talk.cobraregistry.com/showthread.php?2154-Cobra-related-Oldies-photos/page18