Gold Yenko at Mecum sets record

[JoeC]

Warren D. has original paperwork on the Gold Drag Special , the 427 Nova, and the Fathom Green 69 Yenko Camaro.

Warren offered it to Cliff but Warren still has it

It would be nice if the original paperwork can be kept with the cars.

[lycan]

Originally Posted by JoeC

In 1967, Don Yenko was well aware of the potential of the 427 Camaro for drag racing.

Don teamed up with Dick Harrell and the AHRA to make a minimum of 50 427 Camaros to make the cars legal for AHRA Super Stock drag racing.
Not legal in NHRA but legal in AHRA.

Some of the 1967 Yenko 427 Super Camaros were built with a drag racing package including headers, scatter shield, traction bars , hood pins, tach and gauges, and high temp plug wires.
This is well documented on the original Yenko work orders.

Yenko and Harrell sponsored a 4 car drag racing team for 1967 only.

In 1969 the COPO 427 Camaro was legal for NHRA Super Stock and Yenko sponsored two Daytona Yellow Yenko 427 Camaros.

Don and Dick Williams knew they had to make a good showing in that Super Stock magazine drag test.
They took the Gold demo car to York set up with headers, scatter shield, 4:56 gears and Atlas mag wheels.

I don't think it was a coincidence that Ed Hedrick Bill Jenkins , Dave Strickler, and Jere Stahl were at York for the testing that day.
Jere installed a set of his spring clamps and a set of header collector extensions.
Ed bolted on a set of his slicks.

This PA. crew was "loaded for bear" and they pulled off an amazing 11.94 ET at 115mph

"Mission Accomplished"

SS&DI article claims the car had 4.10 gears ... ?
If Yenko really did install 4.56 gears in Canonsburg, it would even be more compelling evidence of the uncommon "conversion" that Yenko performed for this "drag car prototype"

work with me guys, i'm tryin to make sense of it all

[bergy]

Great info in your post #71 Joe. Do we know if the race equipment installed for the York Dragway run was removed prior to the sale to the first owner? Would be very insightful to see if any of those goodies were on the shop order.

[Copo_Cartel]

Originally Posted by TarheelRyan

I bought the engine from Jeff Boone a couple of years ago. Both Jeff and I contacted the family about the engine, but they were not interested. Another interesting note about the car, Jerry MacNeish noted the car's original BE rear axle is now the earliest BE rear axle in his database. I was going to post a complete copy of Jerry's report and hundreds of other historical photos that Cliff had accumulated over the years to the Yenko Facebook page, but decided I didn't want to deal with more garbage comments and deleted the post prior to Admin approval.

The 11-19 BE rear axle was used in several 01B Yenkos and some ZL-1’s. It is considered the earliest known date for these cars.

[Copo_Cartel]

Heres a photo of mine

[JoeC]

Originally Posted by lycan

SS&DI article claims the car had 4.10 gears ... ?
If Yenko really did install 4.56 gears in Canonsburg, it would even be more compelling evidence of the uncommon "conversion" that Yenko performed for this "drag car prototype"

work with me guys, i'm tryin to make sense of it all

SS&DI article claims the car had 4.10 gears but the sales ad says 4:56 gears

Ron said it had 4:56 gears and he changed it to 4:88

I don't know when the modifications were done , they may have been done just for the magazine test

[JoeC]

Parker on his 'Backyard Barn Finds' youtube channel does some nice videos.

When he was at the Mecum auction, he calls up Ed Hedrick to ask about the drag test.

Ed comes on the phone at about the 31 minute mark .
This is amazing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPamPl3NIp8

[Steve Shauger]

Originally Posted by JoeC

SS&DI article claims the car had 4.10 gears but the sales ad says 4:56 gears

Ron said it had 4:56 gears and he changed it to 4:88

I don't know when the modifications were done , they may have been done just for the magazine test

Dick William has confirmed there was both "engine modification" along with 456 gears.

[Copo_Cartel]

I was told early on ….by a well connected person that was at the drag strip ….saying that the motor was an L-88 ….that had replaced the L-72 . Only for the magazine test session.

[lycan]

Surely someone would have noticed aluminum heads? The magazine article emphasized that the only aluminum under the hood was the intake manifold ... hmmmmm