If you aren’t familiar with Don Yenko, he was a race car driver turned car dealer whose Pennsylvania dealership modified new Chevrolets into performance machines. In 1967 (the first year of the Camaro) Chevrolet began their COPO program. Customers who had the correct contacts in the automotive industry could order a new Camaro using the Central Office Production Order, but more about that later. This first-year Yenko Camaro can be found here on eBay with an asking price of $519,900! While that might seem like a pretty strong asking price, there was a nearly identical car that achieved a high bid of $330,000 at Mecum Indy 2019. Take a closer look at this rare car and thanks to Gary for the tip on this Yenko!
In ’67, Camaros ordered under the COPO program meant the car was delivered to Yenko’s dealership with either a 350 or 396 cubic inch engine. Yenko’s team would then transplant a monster 427 Corvette engine in place of the 396. They would also beef up the drive train and suspension turning the car into a Yenko Super Car. This car is one of only 54 with the Yenko conversion done in 1967. The engine is “correctly dated” and has less than 100 miles on the odometer since the restoration. If you want to read more about Yenko and COPO, check out an article here on Hagerty.com.
The interior is fairly plain with simple bucket seats. You can see some gauges under the dash. Those were part of the Yenko handy-work. They installed oil pressure, voltmeter, and water temp. gauges to keep tabs on the new powerplant. A Stewart Warner tachometer was also installed to monitor the RPMs.
As you can tell from the background, this car is being sold by Throttlestop in Wisconsin. They don’t say who did the restoration on this car, but it looks like a quality job. The only things that look a little off are the wheels and tires. They appear to be larger than the 15-inch rally wheels that would have originally come on the car. When combined with the new springs and shocks, the car sits really high. What do you think? Does it look high to you? Are the wheels larger than stock?
wow.
love everything about this monster.
would love to have cruised the strip in this when i was much more irresponsible!
Whoooooaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!
Can you say JAW DROPER???Pretty cool name for the license plate…
Hint hint…
Well, what size does it say on the side of the tires? Tho i do know tires have actually gotten smaller in width!! despite the same size indicated on the sidewall!! If you compare for ex. a 235-60R15 grand prix gt radial from the ’70s with 1 from the ’90s, the # of tread ribs/channels went from 6 to 4, the tire got narrower & even the RWL’s got smaller! WTH.
I have both in my garage & i am not happy seein that. They are not fooling me.
Odd Yenko didn’t mount the tach on the top of the steering column.
The new owner may think he has something super rare, but
I bet they made less ’69 RS camaros with the 230 & 250 6 cylinders combined!. lol (since, i never seen one, tho some1 here has at Carlistle – but that’s it).
No power steering or brakes here. I guess more a strait line qtr mile or stoplite racer. Surprised there is a radio.
I guess that exterior paint is an approximation of deepwater blue tho it looks purple under the light …
http://www.paintref.com/cgi-bin/colorcodedisplay.cgi?model=Camaro&year=1967
Hmm. There are some vagaries in the description that makes me think it might be a “tribute” car.
Google the VIN. It shows up in a list of VIN numbers from Yenko’s inventory sheets. Always Google VIN numbers of high dollar enthusiast cars, most will have a history that can be tracked.
Steve R
This is the best looking ’67 I’ve ever seen and I used to own one…Wow.
Does not look like it sits high to me…it looks perfect.
That front end looks way high.
yeah both look high to me, with the rear end proportionally lower. And go Water Buffalos!
I’m no expert in Camaro ride height, but it looks like it’s sitting too high to me. Is there a ride height spec out there for a car this old?
As far as what it is, for that kind of money I would be wanting to see ALL the paperwork and relevant markings on the car. Maybe take two experts with? Price makes the head spin.
Look at old hot rod mags from the early and mid 60s. Front end high, rear end low was just how they did it then. Front end low, back end high started around 1968 around here.
That said…was there a Yenko equivalent stuffing 427s into 1967 Mustangs, or 426 Hemis into 1967 Barracudas? I know of none.
Tasca Ford did engine transplants into Mustangs. Mr Norm’s Grand Spaulding Dodge ran a in house performance program. These weren’t alone, the were several other Chevy dealers as other brands that focused on serving the local markets that didn’t receive national fanfare.
Steve R
Can someone please clear up what a “correctly dated” engine is exactly? When I hear correctly dated I think of an engine that is date coded to the correct time period that car was built. I would like to think that for the amount that is being asked for this car that it is the engine installed by Yenko.
I thought the same thing.
Since the motor was a transplant Vette motor it wouldn’t be matching #, but for that much $$ I would hope there was a record of the Yenko build that would have that info
Very nice , A brute I’m sure, had auto and 4 speed big blocks , nothing factory, 519k ummmm no . We could have a stable of drivers,and retire early. I get all the pedigree stuff, but for my money a clone looks just as good in the high speed lane going by you as a pedigree. Plus now you can go bigger than what was offered in 1970. Bigger crate motor, same rust free body, m22, 12 bolt posi. I go faster, I win , you can lean on my car too. Lower ET higher account balance, a win win. 500k in any pedigree automobile makes me very uncomfortable. Then again I like 5 $ excise bills
I think the ’67 Yencos had Pontiac rally wheels on them.
For this amount of money there needs to be several requirements to be met before the asking price is considered seriously.
The (original, or copy of) YENKO dealership paperwork/documentation for this vehicle.
A personal inspection of said vehicle by either God, or Jesus, and vehicle must be personally certified as “honest.”
Something just does not feel square about this one, can’t put my finger on it though.
So went and read the bay ad for this one. I see it does have documentation, but the way the listing is worded does not inspire confidence in me. I hope it is a honest car, but the ask for it is insane. I have seen too many documented/fake/clones over 50 years not to be aware that there are many out there with questionable histories.
For the asking price one could buy an incredible number of sweet rides that one could drive, this is a museum piece, not a drivable item.
Well that answers one question. A dealer down the street from us was selling a tribute ‘68 Yanko. My son fell in love with it. Wanted $48k for it. My son asked how much a real one cost and I had no idea.
This one looks to be restored to a higher level also. That said, a 10x difference! Half a mil for a Camaro! Man that is a lot of money for a hobby car.
Interesting, back when they were new I never saw a RS or a SS that had the backup lights in the tail lights.. Hmmm, but then again I am older than dirt…Hahahahaha.. way too much money to even consider
RS package came with the reverse lights in the valence panel.
I am the former owner and restorer of this car. It is a real, documented 67 Yenko with real paperwork and is 100% correct and as it was delivered new. The ride height is exactly correct for a 67 and the tires are the correct factory size bias ply ones. It’s never been judged to my knowledge but my 68 Yenko that I restored scored 999/1000 points, was featured in multiple magazines and books and I thought this resto came out nicer. My 68 sold for 550k or something like that at Mecum’s Vegas sale a few years back. Hope this helps to dispel the “tribute” and “fake” concerns
I copied the photo of the left front tire, rotated the photo and enlarged it.
The tire size says F70-15.
The wheels & tires do seem to fill the openings a bit much. I’m guessing that this particular Yeko, in spite of the claim of the suspension being beefed up, would not be the car for an attempt to grab the lap record at Road America. It certainly rides too high for circuit racing. Unless I pick the winning Lotto numbers, it’s way out of my league, and all my friends belong to the same club!
I’m sure the original Yenko paperwork is legit as most sellers and buyers don’t show the paperwork because someone can try to duplicate paperwork , Yenko info , title etc… . Cowl tags show most everything for 1967 Camaro. Yenko dealership gave the owner the engine information about the 427 engine swap and it would be documented in the original paperwork of the sale with the numbers of the motor with the VIN number all on the orginal Yenko paperwork to prove Authenticity of a numbers matching Yenko Camaro. Only 54 Yenko Camaro’s in 1967 . They could be ordered with many options depending how deep your pockets were and your desire . Some were RS , some with gauges , console etc.. But they are rare and very fast .
Really neat car that belongs in a “secured environment” for sure. That’s big time money there. As far as the height goes it’s actually normal for sixties cars, the kidz weren’t into that lowered at all four corners road race stuff all that much, especially street and drag racers as someone already mentioned.
I dont understand the COPO connection here at all if Don Yenko was ordering 396 cars then swapping in the killer 427. The COPO program allowed Don Yenko to order 427 Camaros directly from the factory eliminating the need to swap out engines in the first place in I believe 1969. That makes sense, like the ZL1 aluminum 427 Camaro that was built at the factory carried a COPO number also. 427 Chevelles were also a Corporate order in 1969. No Novas however, were ever built that way with the 427. The Baldwin/Motion performance cars were all dealer swap 427 cars even in ’69.
Great ride here that would have stood up to any muscle car made, ever.
I didn’t see anywhere the exterior color spec on this Camaro. It’s obviously dark blue, but is it “Deepwater Blue Metallic” Paint Code E-E? That’s what I had on my ’67 Chevelle SS 396 L78 (Been looking for it going on 15 years now!).
I suppose it’s probably better than a door sized piece of canvas with two different colors of house paint on it but probably no more likely to drive around in.