Don Yenko was a guy who loved high-performance cars and decided to leave his mark on the world by introducing a limited amount of dealer-created Yenko Supercars allowing people to buy the car and race it the same day.
Yenko Chevrolet cranked out Corvairs, Chevelles, Novas, and Camaros in the late 1960's, and we found an original '69 Yenko Camaro owned by Pete Gerling, a man not afraid to use his Yenko how it was intended!
Pete Gerling's 1969 Yenko Camaro still wears most of its original paint and interior. These cars were built to race, with limited creature comorts, but they could be ordered however the buyer wanted. Things to look for are the original Stewart-Warner gauges, headrest markings, and Yenko badging. Pete told us an interesting story of how Don Yenko hired his daughter to apply the stripes on the hoods at the dealer.
Under the hood, Pete's Draggin' machine features a duplicate of the original 427 Big Block Chevy. The original lives in his garage for safe keeping, but this one gets driven. Hard!
Our day at the track netted mid 11-second passes, and that was with a hot, greasy track and limited grip. These cars a simple, big-inch, high-powered point-and-shoot street terrors, and they'll run the number all day long. Most surviving Yenkos are either in museums or crossing auction blocks fetching dollars worthy of really nice houses... we like the fact that Gerling's is on the track where it belongs!
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