How to contact Yenko???

[Rich Biebel]

A good friend bought one new. It was green. He drove it to the track and raced it a number of times. It ran in the mid 12's with slapper bars and some steep rear gears and some slicks. At about 5000 or less miles the engine spun a bearing and blew up. The car went to a dealer in Linden NJ and they pulled the engine and said no warrantee.....We picked it up with the engine piled up in the trunk, an oily mess.

I installed a Z/28 302 that was run in his other car....A '69 Z that ran as quick as 12.1's in F/S and it was a race motor.....A little worn but still very fast...


I drove that Yenko for 2-3 weeks.......and it was the best street ride I ever drove......Awesome performance for that era even with the smaller 302.

I tried to coax a few guys into a little street race with it but no takers....

A 66 Street Hemi Belvedere was my main target.....He worked across the street.....The Yenko would easily beat that Hemi in street trim....


It was sold for around $3000......Who Knew!!!

That would be one heck of a racecar with a favorable HP factor...

[Chevy454]

I've helped a couple guys in the past few years with this, and best as I can tell they've gotten nowhere. We still have some of the original correspondence between NHRA & Don Yenko trying to get the car approved...I'm not sure what the hold up was, as they were factory built (Yenko simply did stripes/emblems). Yenko got 175 of them, and there were for sure 2 others that went to Canada (and have GM of Canada paperwork) and rumors have circulated for years that a couple other dealers got a car or two as well. I'm not sure what the NHRA needs to get a classification on these cars, but I'm guessing it must be something from Chevrolet, and I'd say they haven't been interested in several decades now (if they ever were).

Can someone elaborate on *exactly* what is needed by the NHRA?

If there's anything I could do to help please let me know...--> chevy454 at yenko.net

[Greg Hill]

If it was a Ford it would have been approved years ago with a letter from Carrol Shelby.

[Steve Calabro]

The combo has to be submitted by the OEM to the NHRA. Since the final product was not completely produced by the OEM, how can they submit it?

[Chevy454]

Originally Posted by Steve Calabro

The combo has to be submitted by the OEM to the NHRA. Since the final product was not completely produced by the OEM, how can they submit it?

The part that concerns NHRA was indeed produced by the oem...Chevrolet built at least 177 COPO 9010 novas in 1970, thats documented. 175 went to yenko chevrolet for stripes/emblems while 2 went to dealers in canada for public sale. Theyre like my 69 yenko camaro and chevelle, take off the emblems/decals and you have a factory built COPO car, that carried the gm 5/50 warranty just like your grandma's 6 cylinder nova did. The part that concerns the nhra (body and drivetrain) were factory assembled pieces...

(btw, we have a forest green '70 yenko deuce that was sold out of central in ohio...been in drag form most of its life and is my dads weekly bracket racer.)

[Steve Calabro]

Didn't Yenko change more than the stripes and emblems?

[Chevy454]

Originally Posted by Steve Calabro

Didn't Yenko change more than the stripes and emblems?

http://www.yenko.net/dealers/yenko.htm#70Novas

Ya, they all got a Dixco hood tach...but so what? Like any dealer then or now, Yenko chevrolet would add whatever the customer would pay for...but that should have no bearing on the classification of a 1970 360hp/350ci Nova, of which at least 177 were built by chevrolet on the assembly line for public consumption, had vins, and carried the standard 5/50 warranty.

Many of the 50+ 1968 copo novas built by chevrolet (ordered by fred gibb specifically for s/s racing) were modified by dick harrell performance before being advertised and sold as gibb-harrell novas, yet they are in the class guide and have been for 40+ years (in there as assembled by chevrolet 396/375hp 400thm form).

The 1970 360hp/350 nova should have always been in the nhra guide, plain and simple...its not a paper shelby combo or vin-less like the cj's.

What specifically is required by the nhra for classification? There are a couple guys on the gm historical documents side that might still care...we have most of the paperwork, but the nhra hasn't cared the last 3 attempts.

[twudarczyk]

Originally Posted by Chevy454

http://www.yenko.net/dealers/yenko.htm#70Novas

Ya, they all got a Dixco hood tach...but so what? Like any dealer then or now, Yenko chevrolet would add whatever the customer would pay for...but that should have no bearing on the classification of a 1970 360hp/350ci Nova, of which at least 177 were built by chevrolet on the assembly line for public consumption, had vins, and carried the standard 5/50 warranty.

Many of the 50+ 1968 copo novas built by chevrolet (ordered by fred gibb specifically for s/s racing) were modified by dick harrell performance before being advertised and sold as gibb-harrell novas, yet they are in the class guide and have been for 40+ years (in there as assembled by chevrolet 396/375hp 400thm form).

The 1970 360hp/350 nova should have always been in the nhra guide, plain and simple...its not a paper shelby combo or vin-less like the cj's.

What specifically is required by the nhra for classification? There are a couple guys on the gm historical documents side that might still care...we have most of the paperwork, but the nhra hasn't cared the last 3 attempts.

Would you want to give someone else this information you have as far as the paperwork and let them give it a try getting it approved?