GR Yenko
 

Again, there really isn't any 'new' information being presented, all of these points were well discussed many years ago. The Nutmeg car was special ordered, we have the actual order form and related shipping documents. How the car was restored based on the info at that time is between the seller and buyer. Anyone is allowed to take exception, but there's no need to air this out in public when you could just as easily call someone and share what you believe.

Your claim about the GR is a bit off though. That car actually had COPO Connection certification of it being a 427 car, and it was initially restored as a 427 converted car by Gary Holub in IA. The car went through a couple of subsequent owners who all bought it as a certified 427 car until a collector decided to re-restore the car correctly. We all looked at the paper trail of COPO certification, the prior owners of Mitch Moore and Gary Dyer, etc...and it was restored as per the collector's request as he believed it to be a 427 car. Once it was deemed a non-427 car, the collector removed the 427 along with the stripes and installed a 396. It is none of our business how he handled the legal side of things, but neither resto shop in this case certified that car.

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.

This may not be a popular opinion and maybe some don’t have the guts to say it, but here goes.

With the history of this car being well known, and documented, why is this car listed in the registry here as a Yenko Nova supercar ? I would think this is similar to Ed C certifying the GR car.

Seems deceiving for a future potential buyer if they find the car listed here. I think it should be removed or minimally have an asterisk with the known history of the car. Seems to jeapordize the integrity of the lists here and the site.

Jmho

We have updated the registry to include appropriate information regarding the "nutmeg" car for the next posting. It was delivered new at Yenko Chevrolet and later presented as a dealer conversion, but then discovered to have been converted after the sale to OO. Therefore, it is not a supercar. However, if we remove it entirely from the registry, there is a risk that someday someone will present the car once again as a supercar. So, it seems appropriate to leave the car in our listing with the clear, corrected information for future inquiries.

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! :D

This has also been well discussed in the past and I believe we agreed to follow the Shelby model (at that time) where cars like this one are indeed listed on a Registry (mine included) and includes a clear explanation of story. That story can include all types of information with the purpose of generating awareness and questions from a potential buyer. The last thing I want to do is exclude a car because it doesn't fit the mold and thus fuel the underground market where folks don't get what they thought they were buying.

So, I include this car as a separate category and note the 'later conversion by Yenko's race mechanic'. When folks ask how many '69 Yenko Nova's are found, I say '10, including a later conversion not performed at Yenko and several that are 396 cars'.

JMHO,

If I may jump in here, it sounds like the cat may be coming out of the bag on the Nutmeg car, as it did with the red car Gary Dyer owned. I also know Bill Bosco, Dave Neeley, JoeDienno, and Tim Kilkeary who were the 4 previous owners of the Nutmeg car prior to Henderson owning it. I will repeat what Fxstcc11 stated, which is the Nutmeg car was NEVER intended to be converted.
Also, I just spoke to Warren by phone to confirm that he did in fact install a 427 he built from spare late model stock car parts for Dave Neeley after Dave blew up the born with L78. Absolutely no connection to Yenko beyond Warren being the service manager there. Hopefully this helps clarify the history.
I also am personal friends with the original owner family of the red car discussed earlier, (Gary Dyers car), which was also a Henderson stated Supercar, but was later proven to be untrue.

The brown car history has been updated in the registry... end of story. What you provided was just a restatement of what has been discussed.

Regarding the GR car it was purported to be a converted car by previous owners and then COPO Connection certified by previous owners. It was restored by a previous owner as a 427 converted car based on information known at the time, as stated above. It was again restored as a 427 converted car by SCW and once new information was discovered was returned to unconverted by the SCW.

As I stated previously take your issues along with your buddy Tim's directly to the person. Posting on this site is a privilege!

Thanks Steve. We've contacted Ed at AMCM on the car already. If they choose to act, that'll be up to them, but I appreciate your (and all of your) input.

Thanks to all, and bergy. Give it the asterisk so everyone is aware.

Not trying to beat a dead horse, but….

Am I not getting the latest updates on my feed of the Supercar lists?

I see nothing that notes any history of the nutmeg car being any different than any others on the list ??



Thanks Steve, Bruce and all of the knowledgeable folks here for the number one Super Car site in the world ! If the most expert person on almost any car subject is not a member here, one of the members here knows that expert !! I keep learning everyday here! I learned a whole lot here in these discussions about the Yenko Novas !! Now to find me one !!

The full computer spreadsheet of the registry is updated, but the on-line, public portion of the spreadsheet on this site is only posted twice a year. It is time for the Spring update though - so we'll get cracking on that :-)

This has all been discussed before in previous threads. As I understand it, Vince Emme has a list of 37 69 L78 Novas that were sold through Yenko Sportscars, which was a separate company from Yenko Chevrolet. As Marlin Stated these cars were ordered in two batches. The first batch was built the first week of January and had BV 4.10 rearends. The second batch was built the second week of April and had 3.55 rearends. These cars were Garnet Red, Rallye Green, Fathom Green and LeMans Blue and had M21 transmissions. They also had black bench seat interiors and rubber floor mats. The cars listed in the registry here come from this list of 37 cars with the exception of the Nutmeg car. A handful of these cars were 427 transplants. There were also 69 L78 Novas sold through Yenko Chevrolet that are not on this list of 37 cars. I have heard about an automatic car as well as one that was painted yellow. I have not seen the list of 37 cars so I don't know if they are on this list or not. Assuming the above is true I think the list of VIN's in the registry should stay intact with 427 transplant cars noted and unconverted cars noted. Most of the cars probably land in the unknown category. Again this is all second hand information that I have gathered over the years. Feel free to correct me if I have misstated anything.

So if another dealer ….lets just say Konner Chevrolet in Columbus Ohio ordered a batch of 5-10 69 L78 Novas…..then they should qualify as unconverted cars and be on the registry ?? I very much disagree with an unconverted car being on the registry. If Don Yenko ordered a fleet of 10 trucks with 396 …..and not 427 …should they be in the registry ?? Unconverted cars water down the integrity of the registry. Just my small opinion.

Thanks Doug for your comments. I think that we have pretty solid records on the Camaro Supercars, but the early Novas are difficult. For 69 Novas, we're pretty much limited to the list of fleet VINs of POTENTIAL Supercars. As we uncover additional info on these cars - we update the registry to indicate converted or unconverted status. If there are no notations in the public registry other than "Yenko inventory" we just don't know if they were converted at the Yenko dealership or not. However, if we remove the VINs that we're not sure of - we reduce the possibility that someone will locate the cars in the future.

Finally - Marlin would be the best person to be the registrar for all things NOVA (hint....hint)

Vince E. said many years ago that he felt there were 30 Yenko 427 Novas built and he had a list of 37 vins.
I believe the number 30 is good because there is info on about 25 427 Novas if you count all the new car ads, used car ads, original photos, window stickers, found cars, etc.

One Yenko ad listed four 427 Novas in one ad. One Yenko dealer was said to have 3 and other reports show the large Yenko dealers having sold at least one.

There were two cars restored as 427 cars but later found to be sold as 396 Novas. A Garnet red black top and a Fathom Green black top (not Cliff's Fathom Green 427 black top car)

In my files are 6 restored 427 Yenko Novas that have been around many years.
and 7 known 396 Novas sold by Yenko. Could be more 427 and 396 L-78 Yenko sold Novas.
The 2 ex-427 396 Novas were on the 37 list but I don't believe the other 5 L-78s were on the 37 list.

The 427 Novas sold by Yenko Chevrolet can be more difficult to document then the 427 Novas sold in the Yenko dealer network.