Frank A. Serena Jr- original owner shares his story
 

How it began:

Where would I even start!….56 years worth of stories…WELL,I got him on June 7th.1969 from.W.R.Austin.Chevrolet.in Norwalk,Ct.in.the early afternoon…It was my graduation present from High school….My dad regretted doing that every day afterwords…lol…Like being late to be home from a friends house cuz of summer college courses early the next day and going down Rt.15 into hyper speed mode turning the speedometer around for a second revolution….Guesstimate speed was over 150 mph…It is a wonder ‘’HE’’and I are still here….And boy did I catch hell from my Dad for that stunt…But those kind of stories though many,are long gone…I will tell a recent one from 2 years ago that you might find funny…I was coming back from the 1st.major show I brought him to…’’The N.Y.Cruisers Battle of the brands’’…He took best in show for his 1st.time out over a very large field of superb cars….And on the way home on Rt.84 a newer Ford GT.500 pulled up next to me and gave me that look….I was laughing inside cuz I FINALLY,after all these years that had past,from my CRAZY times with him to now…I finally had the chance to say something that I waited a very long time to say on such an occasion….I rolled my window down,and with a grin said…”Sir,you are 54 years too late’’!…And we both laughed and continued at normal speed…Respect ,as it were…from new school,to old school…Hope you enjoy that tidbit of a couple of events with me and the ‘’MEAT CLEAVER’’.






More details about the car....

…IT's a long story that I haven’t told in a long time …so sit back and,grab a beer,and here we go…My car was ordered by a guy in Cali.to be raced,A,B.or C.super stock…it came through Don’s shop with a configurations that no other Yenko of that last year came out with,especially the motor…yes,it was an L-72 cast block(the 425hp one),but that is where it all ended…It was given ,what us old timers called a 3/4 lift cam,Aluminum L-88 competition prepared heads,an Edelbrock C-427 intake,and a specially prepared 800 cfm Dual pumper carb(it performed better with 76’s in the front,74’s in the rear).How I got the car was this…As the story was told to me…The 2 cars that were supposed to be delivered to W.R.Austin Chevy rolled on the delivery due to bad weather…With Will Austin and Don being good friends.Don sent the 2 cars destined for Cali.to So.Norwalk,CT. to Will’s dealership instead.I wanted the Green one w/White graphics,but was purchased by a friend of mine and My dad grabbed the gold one soon afterwards for my H.S.grad present…Glad he did ,considering what the car ended up having and what it all meant…Guess you could really call it a one off build…Funny too..Lynn Yenko was the one who did the graphics on the car first…It was some time later that a Yenko expert named ‘’Vince Emmi’’contacted me and informed me of his #2 position in the Gold run,and just how rare and special the car was…Even Lynn Yenko said that it is very possible that because of it being a beyond special order,that some of the added features may not have been included on the original build sheet,as she said…I am sure the gentleman out in Cali.was not at all happy with how this story unfolded,but it is as it is…hence at the time ,the car totaled out at $5774.00…Well,That is the meat and potatoes of it…enjoy!…You might have had to go get that 2nd .beer…lol

Damn that's gorgeous!!

----Wow,,,What a great Yenko! Your 1st ride must have been iconic. I'm assuming there was a restoration involved in this story somewhere. Give it up for us nut cases.....Bill S

Or better yet not restored , hopefully the rest is as original as the tag and firewall appear to be . Hope there will be more pictures .

Cool story. There can't be many original owner 69 Yenko Camaros still out there. Does the engine still have the AL heads and other modifications on it? Was the green one you wanted Rallye Green or Fathom Green?

Frank A. Serena Jr- a few more pics
 

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What a great story, we would love to see some engine shots.

Those are pictures of four different cars. The top one is Franks N579474, the second one is from the Brothers Collection N579444, the third one is Doug Perrys N579034 and the last one is from the Cliff Ernst Collection N579281. There are also two that have black stripes N578989 and N579308.

Franks car is #6 or #7 on the gold cars vin list. It is as least #6. A long time ago I wrote down body numbers and then numbers on as many of the gold cars that I could come up with. I will try to find that and post what I wrote down.

Gold cars vin/body numbers
 

This is my scribbled notes.