427 Out of a Known Yenko Camaro?
 

Growing up in the south hills of Pittsburgh, a guy up the road had a beautiful 1969 Chevelle with a 427. Saw a couple weeks ago that he got the 427 out of a Yenko Camaro that his buddy had before he sold it. He said that the Camaro is in the Cliff Ernst collection now? I was thinking that the 427 would be worth a pretty decent buck to match up with the original Camaro. I'd imagine some of you are familiar with the Camaro. Here are some screen shots of the Chevelle, Camaro and our conversation.

… If that is true …

… I Hope that motor gets reunited with the car :flag:

… that would be awesome !:beers::beers:

As far as the story goes, I have no doubt that it's true at I've known Mike Blackburn's family for years and he's pretty well known in the gear head circles in the south hills of Pgh.

Now that is a great story if the car/engine re-unite.

Paul

'

Original engine already reunited as this 2006 article or a different car?:hmmm:
http://www.superchevy.com/features/s...ro-copo-yenko/

:beers:
~ Pete

.

I saw that same article and was wondering?? Quote from 2006 Super Chevy article.

I'm going to copy that article to Mike and see if he has the L88 in his Chevelle. Wild.

OK, I talked to Mike and sent him that article. Yes, his engine has already been reunited with the Camaro in that article. Good news and bad I guess.

Cliff owned another gold Yenko project at one time but has sold it. It is possible that it could have belonged the the other car but he has had the original motor for the gold road test car ever since he purchased the car.

'

All good Mark and there is no bad if the car and original engine are back together!
Yenko delivered w/ the Atlas Rims is cool alone but being the actual Magazine Drag test car Hendricks did the 11.94 with makes this car more than special!
:beers:
~ Pete

.

I love the SS & DI road test of the Gold ‘69. Running 11.90’s in a close-to-stock street car back then was really honkin’ on! Not much out there was gonna hang with that!

Mark, i have a friend who was an original owner and raced a 69 l78 Nova back then. Same configuration but he did recurve the distributor and jetted the carb. Car ran consistant 11.70's in that trim. There were a few at the time in the area that ran like that.

'

Here's a few paragraphs from Super Chevy by Ro McGonegal who penned the original July '69 SS& DI article after his 04/19/69 test day w/ Hedrick and the White Striped/Gold L72 Yenko subject car.
:beers:
~ Pete

.

'

:beers:

.

'

:beers:

,

'

Crazy enough, here's a 04/27/69 Pittsburg Press Newspaper Ad w/ the Gold Test car for sale @ Yenko's dealership just 8 days later touting the SS&DI results.
:beers:

-

Very doable. Mike, a friend of mine, has owned his COPO since the early 70's. At that time it already had 5.13's installed, headers, and traction bars, but was still primarily used on the street.

Fast forward to about 1985-ish, the car only has 20k miles on it, still original drivetrain, Mike still runs the 2" hooker super comps on it and slapper bars. He bolted on a pair of 28x9 slicks, opened the headers, and off to Edgewater. Other than headers, distributor and carb tweaks, the long block was bone stock.

The car went 12.20 at 114 mph and it was already laying over at the 1,000 foot mark. He stayed in it through the traps. Don't remember the rpm but it was done making power long before the stripe.

Around 1995-ish he decided to install 4.56's. The rest of the car still remains the same, however since then he's had no interest in racing the car anymore. I have no doubt the car would be good for some 12.0's or better.

The car has been briefly mentioned on this site before as one of the prettiest 10-10 COPO's around the Cinci area. Mike still owns the car today.

that was a great article

Yenko had a press release on the car describing the drag test

That Y Camaro had an interesting 427 emblem installation. They put the Yenko 427 emblems on the front fenders instead of on the hood and on the back Yenko installed the Corvette individual 427 numbers onto the blue Chevy bow tie.

I know of a Yenko Chevelle that also had Corvette individual 427 numbers on back and the Yenko 427 emblems on the fenders.

pretty cool story and cars..thought I knew of most of the 68/69 Chevelles around the area back in the 80's. beautiful but I don't recall ever seeing the black Chevelle SS...? must not have been out much.

'

Awesome picture Joe and thanks for sharing it also pointing out the badging details.
Here's a few more Ro McGonegal articles that may as well land here too, the first about an L72 car Ro bought for himself a few months after the Gold Yenko SS&DI article, the next two both later year remembrances about an earlier Track day @ KC Raceway w/ ZL1 cars from Harrell's shop.
Credit to CarCraft/HotRod/ChevyHiPerformance/SuperChevy/The NY Times/SS&DI and Ro McGonegal himself who also took the pics that day, wow if it's Shay Nichol's ZL1 w/ 50 miles on it also cool hood on the #1 Harrell car back then + W31 style Scoops and more!
:beers:
~ Pete

.

'

:beers:

.

'

:beers:

,

'

:beers:

,

-

:beers:

-

-

:beers:

.

-

:beers:

,

'

:beers:

.

'

:beers:

,

'

:beers:

-

-

:beers

.

-

:beers:

,

-

:beers:

-

'

:beers:

.

'

Inside Harrell's KC shop 04/69.
:beers:

.

'

Looking closer at the Harrell ZL1 pics, the hood appears to be the style used on '68 Harrell cars then plexi lump added later.
The '68 style hood is on the car in the below pics on the trailer taken Spring '69 by Gibb Nova OO Rollie Paulsgrove @ the Gibb dealership also can be seen in other pics if looking closely.
Not sure if the hood was changed before/after the 1991 fire to the ZL2 hood w/ plexi lump as existing car has today?
Who else besides Harrell used this specific style hood also were they built by A&A Fiberglas, Berry Plastiglas or another group?
:hmmm:
~ Pete

.

,

'68 Harrell Camaro pic w/ Hood for comparison.
:beers:

.

'

:beers:

,

'

:beers:

-

'

:beers:

.

'

:beers:

,