@@jstavene he is a GREAT guy and great story but this particular period of time wasn’t really his. He came into his own later on - not to discredit at all but he didn’t really fit into my writing for this story
I LOVE CARS AND I HAVE 7 MUSTANGS AND ONE CAMARO AND MY 92 Z28 IS SPECIAL BECAUSE IT WAS MY VERY FIRST NEW CAR THAT I ORDERED NEW BACK IN 92 AND I STILL HAVE IT TODAY WITH 16 THOUSAND ORIGINAL MILES AND I PLAN ON NEVER SELLING IT.
I briefly owned one of the 2 Yenko Turbo Stinger Vegas (the red one pictured, is identical, may be the car I had), that were sent to GM for emissions duribility testing. One of the engines blew early in the testing (they had to achieve 50,000 miles with out emission equipment failure), and they gave up on the project. I bought the other car, with 4,000 miles on it, from Roger Penske Chevrolet in Southfield, Michigan.The original title with it said General Motors Engineering, and it had a racing seat replacing the driver side bucket. Other than that, it was a stock Vega GT coupe, with a blow through turbo setup, with a holley electric fuel pump, and fuel pressure regulator. It had the Bort front and rear spoilers, and I vaguely remember it having traction bars. I saw it on the used car lot, and recognized it as a Yenko, because I had read about the project, in Hot Rod or Car Craft Magazine. On the test drive, I had the luck to line up with a '71 LT1, Z28 Camaro, on Telegraph Rd.,at a stoplight. The Camaro was game, and when the light turned green, we took off. We were door to door through 1st and 2nd gear, at about 65 mph, I shifted to 3rd, and a second later the power dropped off, and I backed out of it. At the next light ( Camaro gone now) I repeated the process, with the same result. I was impressed enough with the performance, that I bought it anyway, as is, no warranty. I was just learning to work on cars, but I was pretty sure it was a fuel problem. I couldn't find a mechanic, locally, to attempt the repair, so I wrote a letter to Yenko (that's what we did in late 1971), to see if they could send me any information, that I could use to get a mechanic to work on it. A couple of weeks later, I got a letter back, with a printout of an electrical circuit drawing, for the fuel pump. Still couldnt find anyone with any turbo experience, and took it back to the Penske, and traded it in for a left over new '71 Vega sedan delivery, losing $1200 in the trade. Ironically, another guy in my town, bought it, and blew the engine, about two weeks later, and replaced it with a stock engine. Wish I would have kept it, it would be the rarest Yenko in existence, now. (used Yenkos were not as desirable, then, as they are now!) 😢
Haven't been on the Yenko Camaro Forum in years, the stories I recall were Fredd Gibb had the first Yenko 427 Camaro's on his lot for sale, and were put together by Dick Harrell, very shortly after that it was the other builders that followed suit including Dick Harrell.
I think that mention of Dick Harrell, who pioneered with Fred Gibb should have been mentioned. I would request another video to cover 2 other makes - Mr. Norm and Tasca Ford. Thank you!
A cousin of Harrell's, is/was the father of a childhood friend of mine. True story. I remember the friend having pics of Harrell's Camaros in his room when we were kids.
I was in High School when Mustang fox bodies came out we all wondered why no 351W were made available... we believe it came down to the insurance companies..
Insurance and the EPA. If you couldn't get one certified with the 50,000 test, you couldn't sell it new. Also, there was the threat of jail if you removed emissions equipment and sold it as a street car, not just fines. Plus insurance on muscle cars was crazy back then. They figured out quickly that most muscle cars would be having some insurance claims not long after purchase. A friend in the early '70s had owned a '69 Road Runner new. He had 3 rear ends, 4 transmissions, and 2 engines installed under the 50,000 warranty. He had to use different dealers but they finally caught up with him and cancelled the warranty.
Right. Matt Murphy built these down at his shop in Marietta, Georgia, for Berger, Earnhardt, Tom Henry Chevrolet and Carl Black Pontiac. He would even build you a C5R-powered, wide body Camaro. GMMG cars were all technically ordered as B4C (police) Z/28s, with badging added on.
The knowledge, science, and technology to make more horsepower had already long been established bedore the muscle car era. WWII aircraft powerplant designers were always on the cutting edge. But during war, when it is all or nothing, a lot of these high horsepower engines had short overhaul periods. Around 300 hours flight time on average. By the time you get into the 50s, putting what was learned in aircraft into car engines had to be done with reliability in mind. And slowly cars had 300plus reliable horsepower that was relatively low maintenance. Unbelievable, really. With very few limitations and Octane at the pump to see them along, engineers could take it as far as they could. Until they couldn't any more.
After his 68 Chevelle got stolen my dad was looking at a 66 L-72 corvette but insurance was as much as the car payment so it was between a 69 SS396 Nova and a 69 COPO Camaro both $1900 thankfully he chose the latter
Wow, some content and history lesson. I’m lucky to have grown up in the late 60s and early 70s and been around the muscle car era. Your editing skills are fantastic in this video. Good job.!
When Yenko's Bill Hartley retired and opened his high performance engine shop in Coal Center Pa.he hadcustomer's like Harry Shehan &Bob Bacha Kulczynski Bouchard.Chevy set up Don with new dealership on Rt.19 and hired Joe Dvorchak.
We talk about how awesome that era was but this era of cars is going to be looked back as one of the best as well. Can’t deny that the big threes cars out now are serious high horsepower and pound for pound dominate the 60s cars out of the box. The older ones just look better.
I grew up in the HP era and drove Chevys exclusively. And I was fortunate to be selected as the pilot of a pure stock 1969 Chevelle for an entire summer at our local dragway. My current ride is the 5.0 Mustang GT that I bought in 1988. That said, the EPA was not "anti-performance." They targeted the most egrious contributors to the emissions challenge and also demanded more efficient powerplants to achieve better gas mileage. As I see it, the real problem was the automakers. They could see the challenges coming but refused to act until it was too late.
Right on! If the industrial giants started acting on KNOWN pollution problems by the '40s when they *should* have, we wouldn't be in this giant mess we're in now. And good for you. Too many "car guys" who like burnin' gasoline & rubber are oblivious to the *facts* of climate change. Selfish thinkers.
I received my license in 1983. Stories of the Motion/Yenko cars were common among the people a little older than I was. I had a 1978 Z28 and it was the fastest car I had driven. It was a drivers car, but not a true performance car. If you had 300hp, you really had a fast car at the time. I rebuilt the motor with flat tops and 461 heads and got my 300hp. I do feel the mega-power cars of today showcase a drivers lack of skill. In 2016 I bought my car I used for sales. An Infiniti Q40 [aka g37] with 328hp. I ran cat-backs, throttle spacers and k&n filters. 0-60 was mid 5 seconds. The extra mods didn't do a whole lot without a tune. But, I was able to use all of the horsepower and never got beat in a street race. There are not many real drivers out there. So the 78 Z28 may not have been a high HP car, but it did teach me how to drive.
My cousin Linson Kendall who drove the Blue Angel Anglia years ago took many secrets to his grave. He had his own 3 angle valve job and locked the doors when he worked on his FE 427. His power numbers were much more than the factory ford teams. Fomoco came to him to learn how he made more power. He only used Ford factory performance parts. It's what he did to them, he would not tell them. I worked with his Nephew Kevin Kendall many years and he was a fine machinist. Linson built a 351 for Kevin's brothers new 1980 Ford Futura. The only difference you could tell that car had something was to hear it or see the dual exhaust coming out behind the rear wheels. I never could get around in my my 300hp z28.
Chrysler had the 68 Dart and Barracuda a race Hemi that had similar if not more power. Street Hemi engines didn't have the compression or Holley carburetors.
In 69 I wasn't even old enough to drive but was a car nut. I didn't get my lisc. until I was 18 because I couldn't get into drivers ed class in HS when I turn 16 in the early 70s. Finally got in when I was a Sr. at 18. In my state Drivers Ed was Mandatory. That being said I remember reading about these cars and being tested in the car magazines out at the time.
Top respect for Don Yenko. The CJ 69 Mustangs in Stock are in the low 10s. I miss those days. Don Yenko was never a showman like Shelby. Motion and Baldwin. I never respected as much.
Actually Ford didn't do that project because they couldn't, they had Kar Kraft but the 429 Boss in it. The FE motors were bad enough to work on, that was even worse
Ford wasn't worried at all they had engines that could compete just most manufacturers had a engine that could compete 😊i love them all ,especially the over the counter ls7
@@jeffsaranpaa5268 You should talk to Blair Patrick, Alex Dynsenkyo , Jim Kuntz, Keith Craft, and Robert Yates about the 428 SCJ and adding Tunnel Ports to over bored 428CJ and SCJ FEs . Tasca had some good guns there.
One more dealer Harrell Chevy. I can't imagine walking into a dealer order race car for the street. Sure dodge had it's tuners as Pontiac, and Oldsmobile Then race ready cars ZL1 Camaro engine was 5 grand alone hand built in a near surgical like room. Today's cars just don't have it. At our car shows I help at new stuff gets quick look by all ages then classic gets admired. I have seen Dale Earnhardt edition Camaro was cool. Saleem , roush and Shelby all put their touch on cars and trucks. Wonder why they didn't offer the old 60s and 70s era trucks?
Unfortunately, the Federal Exhaust Gas Funneling Prohibition Ordinance (BABVVO) and the Federal Transport Tourism Emission Restriction Ordinance (TEBBVO) will soon ban the driving of combustion engines in public outside of verifiable commuter trips and transport trips, as exhaust gas fungling will then be a traffic offense!!!!!!!!!
Very well done! Curious why, or if there were no dealer hi-po '67-'69 Firebirds. I've never heard of any at least. Better looking imo. Less of a mullet-y kinda vibe that Camaro.
The 427 Fords should have been in the Mustangs. The 428 Fords were really strong and they were sold from the showroom. They weren’t “boutique cars” but they should have been solid cammed. The roller cammed modern 428s can carry the front wheels past the 60 ft beams in Stock. And in Super Stock.
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0:10 Cigar chompin' Dandy Dick Landy throwing on one of two 4500 Holley Dominator carbs, now thats a cool little snippet ive never seen before! Right around that time is when the big Dominator Holley carb was introduced and it made a big impact on the world of doorslammer drag racing. Im surprised how they made 2 4500 Dominator carbs flowing 1150 cfm each work on engines around 468 cubes or even less...but they did and did so successfully. I always liked seeing relatively small cubic inch Cleveland Ford motors making big power for the time with dual Dominator carbs. A single 4500 Dominator carb, modified by Barry Grant back in the late 1990s was on top of one of my Oldsmobile .030 over 455 engines with a weird Offenhauser intake. It made like 585hp/585ft.lb of torque that first day but i had exhaust gas temp sensors on all 8 pipes and found the 4 outer corners were lean big time and the inner 4 holes were fat...temps were 1400+ on #1,2,7,8 and 1200 or less on #3,4,5,6. That intake suk'd. Later with the then new Edelbrock Victor 4500 flange single plane the engine made an easy 620hp/620tq at only 6200rpm. I actually took the jets down by only 2 numbers front and rear from the original BG configuration. At that time it seemingly made the best power. Im still kinda proud of that engine and its performance. Ive toyed with same engine using a modified 4150 regular style Holley carb and performace was seemingly about the same but was not on an engine dyno so its hard to tell. The point im trying make is the 4500 Dominator carb has chiseled its place in history as a formidable contender in the racing and go fast world. Seeing it in its infancy and Dick Landy throwing one onto his what i believe to be his 1971 'Cuda ride is just one awesome clip from the past.
Love these guys and what they did (badass cars!), but Yenko, Motion and Nickey can't be compared to Shelby, they were merely "tuners", not licensed automobile manufacturers like Shelby.
@@RicAughinbaugh-lj9nn I had a 71 Corvette with a 454 and it was not as fast as the Chevy guys will admit. Ford has set the fastest track times in NASCAR when Bill Elliot in 87’ at 210.364. Chevy would not be as competitive with the help NASCAR has given them. Ford has also won the last two championships even though they did not win as many races.
Interesting story. Between '71 and up until ~'84, I owned a '67 Camaro RS, (2) '68 Camaros (with one being a convertible). (2) '70 Camaros (with one being a Z28) My '67 was stolen. I got it back, stripped after ~6 months.(Interesting story, as I was the one to recover it.) Before being recovered, I found a '67 Camaro convertible in which someone had installed a 427. In third gear at ~1500 RPM, he suggested I punch it. It spun the tires so hard that they more sizzled than squealed. I realized there was simply too much weight up front for the combination to be balanced. I declined buying it. A few months later, I got my '67 back. I installed a 350 along with a Rajay turbocharger and a 4 speed in place of the Powerglide.
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I always thought the Motion cars looked like crap, too much trim stuff, they looked like somebody went crazy with a JCWhitney catalog. The dealer built cars don’t carry the same status as factory built, generally available muscle cars. Even though the final cars were factory built, GM or Chevrolet weren’t anxious for the buying public to know about them, what were they afraid of? The story always seems to lead back in some way to them not wanting to upstage the Corvette. It would be a sad commentary if true, that the existence of the Corvette was the reason you couldn’t buy the kind of cars that Ford or Chrysler were able to build.
Henry Ford II saw the writing on the wall in 1966 and resisted many really fast and hard running 427 cars in the production process. They had the goods but he saw what the insurance and government were up to. It is a shame that we never got the road cars that the race cars produced. Mopar and GM were in the same boat. 1970 was on the calendar to put your best foot forward. Fords 427 Tunnel Port 650 hp detuned engine was going to be the 1970 last hurrah at Ford and GMs LS7, and Mopars SS HEMI In the E body was going to be the 1970 line up and the insurance company told the big 3 that it would not happen because they already had put a freeze on insurance for these specific cars. The year that could have been, never was. And Ford took the FE out of the cars and said trucks only. That was H 2s engine and he was not going to see it making a maximum 300 hp. I read this in his autobiography. But you can still build one to this day, GM and Mopar are still trying.
Why does nobody talk about the A/ B modified production second gen Camaro prepared by motion and drivin by Dennis Ferrara??????? Motion took it to the next level basically a gen 2 . They could have went pro stock . None your other players could have done that back then high 9 low 10 but yet nobody talks bout it . Motion Ruled Period …A/MP B/MP competing against the hemi cars … and winning . There are plenty of pictures etc . The sec gen Camaro was bad ass period
There was no "crusade against performance". There WAS a public outcry against pollution, causing Nixon (R) to establish the EPA. That said, cars are faster now than any of these so-called muscle cars from the late 60's or early 70's. And they use less fuel, and emit less pollution, to do it.
@@Navybyrdeyou will confuse these anti government types with facts. You are correct that there is more performance today than in the glorified years of the late 60’s early 70’s. The manufacturers wouldn’t make changes sometimes until forced by the government. Seat belts, safety glass, and a host of other things comes to mind.
Joel Rosen was terrible. His work ethic was poor. I watched a in depth video about a corvette stage 3 he built for a customer who still had the car from new. And the story this guy told about the problems he had with the car and mechanics of it was un-real.
My dad had a conversation with him once to try and authenticate his camaro which he THOUGHT MIGHT be a motion car - wanted $1,500 in the 80s to tell him if it was or wasn't lol
That’s where Chrysler was focusing their efforts, period. Because of all the crybaby whining GM went road racing. Your beloved hemi had no chance against a302 Camaro on a road course let alone a 510 inch All alloy Rat in a Mclaren M8
@@quantumss ….. but he did need over 700 lbs less weight. How did grump do the first two years of pro stock ? The Hemi didn’t need a gimmick to win. Chevrolet did.
@@hilleryclifford1350 …. So … they didn’t race in pro stock , or nascar because of crybabies???? They weren’t competitive in nhra pro stock or nascar , period !
@@brettdenisegibbs6533 …. There was only a handful of these cars ever made. Chrysler made around 10,000 hemi cars from 66 - 71. The yenko, motion etc didn’t sell 10,000 cars combined.
@@rarecars3336 That has nothing to do with the car not selling even though Chevy would win on Sunday. It’s never been a great car without a lot of modifications.
The Supreme Court's decision on the Chevron Doctrine has neutered the ability of alphabet agencies to make rules with the effect of law. Numerous cases are currently moving through the legal system now that may well prove to be the salvation of American Muscle. That and Auto makers love the cash big power cars and trucks can bring.
@@genehunsinger3981 It's possible... plus most guys are pretty afraid of accomplished, smart women, but let's talk again about that this Fall & we shall see. I would seriously not rule it out.
