GR Yenko

[Rsconv68]

I am nowhere near as knowledgeable as you for a COPO certification, nor near close. I have a few things i would like you to clarify so I can learn. If I am understanding this correctly, when it was initially certified, there was enough information at the time to support the claim as a true COPO Nova. Now it is not certified, and is a 396 as it was ordered by the dealership. There was no conversion, but the paint was a special order color. Correct.

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

Originally Posted by Rsconv68

I am nowhere near as knowledgeable as you for a COPO certification, nor near close. I have a few things i would like you to clarify so I can learn. If I am understanding this correctly, when it was initially certified, there was enough information at the time to support the claim as a true COPO Nova. Now it is not certified, and is a 396 as it was ordered by the dealership. There was no conversion, but the paint was a special order color. Correct.

I'll take a stab at this one....

At a high level, it is really (!!) difficult to certify a '69 Yenko Nova unless there is some type of documentation from Yenko. Next best is a letter from Vince in MN, but this is extremely expensive (as we found with the LB car from WI!), and Vince has never released any of the paperwork from which he derived his list. The next best is ownership history via early pictures, etc. As of now only 1 of the 9 Yenko Nova's has documentation, and that is the GR red car owned by Kevin Suydam in Seattle. That documentation is a small reference to the car being a 427 Nova, GR for sale at Roy Stauffer Chev in Scranton, PA. We also have an early pic of that car from Numidia dragway where the 427 emblem is visible on the fender. Two other Nova's (RG's) have very early pics that show the 427 on the fender and there is owner history that corroborates the pics. Other cars have clear evidence of the conversion (note, the majority, if any, of the unconverted 396 Novas have stripes, emblems perhaps but no stripes) in the form of emblems, 427 emblems being filled in, remnanst of stripes in door jams, ghost evidence of the sYc on the headrests, etc and 2 of the LB cars fall into this category - especially the WI car.

The GR car that was brought up in the other thread was indeed certified. The COPO cert was done based on available info at that time, and as I recall there are/were some letters from Mitch Moore and Gary Dyer that came with the car stating that they had owned it but I don't recall that either of the letters specifically stated that it was a 427 car. However, the COPO certifier issued the 427 cert based on his personal belief. This car does not have special paint.

The Nutmeg car does have special paint as signified on the trim tag with a '-'. My notes do say that the car was either a cad or buick color, but it was unclear at the time. I believe it was painted in Firemist which is a Cad paint line, but if it was originally a Buick metallic color I don't think anyone really cares. The contention with that car has always been about whether it was initially intended as a 427 conversion car, and then the conversion was delayed until a couple of years later when Yenko's race mechanic swapped the engine in his personal garage at his house. It's a cool car with a unique story, perhaps not everyone's comfort level - but then keep your $$ in your pocket as they say!