[Supercar_Kid]

I thought Marlin had mentioned before that he knew of at least one Deuce that got a '69 style Hurst dual gate auto shifter in lieu of the long handled 4 speed appearing "Super Shifter." I believe he's mentioned that a few cars were sold with their column shifters intact as well. I can't say I know of a Dual Gate equipped example personally, so I won't argue the fact. I'm still trying to learn these cars myself.

As far as the factory installed Hurst 4 speed shifter on the 4 speed Deuces is concerned, do we know for sure it was Don who was behind it's implementation? I don't doubt that the engineers at Hurst could have quickly come up with the combination of using the existing '69 Z/28 offset shifter box with a GTO bench seat handle to properly fit in a Nova configuration when they were approached with the idea, but what interests me most is who came up with the idea of including a Hurst shifter as part of the 9010 COPO package in the first place, and what special preparations were taken to make it happen at the factory.

There were no year old Hurst Z/28 shifter boxes or GTO bench seat handles laying along the line at Willow Run prior to the batch of 9010 cars coming through. Nor would there be any other Nova floor pans to be stamped with the unique 4 speed shifter hole that the hybrid Hurst set up would require, and Fisher Body would have had to be made aware of this. The big block rods and K member would have to be on hand and ready to install. There would have had to have been some sort of "briefing" of the assembly line workers prior to the batch of COPO cars coming through.

When you think about it, it just seems like a lot of extra engineering went into utilizing the Hurst shifter in the 9010 cars, not to mention a lot of extra cost. Now from Yenko's perspective it sounds like a no brainer...pay a little extra and have the cars arrive with Hurst 4 speed shifters factory installed and ready to ship, or pay a crew to switch out nearly 100 Muncie shifters with expensive over the counter Hurst units and then be stuck with the original and essentialy worthless factory Muncie units. Seems like just another part of the COPO system that Don utilized to make his life a little easier back in Canonsburg. But for the brass at GM, I'm sure a cost analysis had to be done to decide what the Hurst shifter would cost in terms of actually getting it on the cars at the factory, and whether it could be justified to be done at all. Somewhere there's got to be paperwork or documentation of some kind discussing this. I'd love to know who's at the bottom of the idea to include the Hurst at the factory, and just what it took to build the special batch of COPO cars in the middle of regular Nova production.

When it comes down to it, a Yenko Deuce is essentially everything a 70 Z/28 is just wrapped in a Nova shell rather than a Camaro. Perhaps the Hurst shifter was something Don felt was required of a performance car, and having had them installed in his 69 Camaros he may have simply demanded it as part of his COPO package. I guess we'll never know until some docs turn up. I doubt Chevrolet offered to tool up to include the shifter without some prompting from Yenko's end, but if it was solely Yenko's idea you'd think some documentation regarding it would have popped up somewhere.

I guess maybe in time something will turn up. On a side note, does anyone have an original GM window sticker for a 9010 Nova? COPO Pete? I'd be curious to see how it lists the shifter.