1969 Yenko 427 Camaro Discovered!
Today, the thought of finding and buying a real deal Yenko 427 Camaro for just $3,900 is simply, but at one time you could actually find these cars for reasonable money. Take this one that just surfaced after being parked back in 1979. The story goes that a Jeff Etchison picked this car up off of a buddy who had been drag racing it back in 1974 for just $3,900. After working out the deal and taking ownership, Jeff started street racing it around Elwood, Indiana. After a few run-ins with the law, he decided to park it in ’79 and that’s where it stayed until just recently. Special thanks to Michael for the tip!
Yenko put together just 201 Camaros in 1969 and of those only 30 were equipped with automatic transmissions. Well, Jeff’s car just happens to be one of those 30 and of those it’s 1 of 7 in Fathom Green. Clearly he had good tastes, but it’s incredible to think a senior in high school was daily driving a 427 equipped muscle car with 450 horsepower!
Shortly after parking it, Jeff decided to start the process of restoring it, but life got in the way and not much progress was made. Sadly, in early 2017 he passed away and his rare unfinished project was sold to a family friend. The new owner is now restoring it in hopes of preserving this incredible piece of automotive history and Jeff’s story along with it! We hope to see this car back on the street someday in the near future. If you’d like to read more about this amazing find and the man who stashed it away all those years ago, find the full story here on Hot Rod.
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Comments
Absolute street terror of car. Any 427 Camaro, be it yenko, Dana, Nickey, or the Baldwin/Motion machines were nothing to take lightly, and you had respect for the power if you were lucky enough to drive one let alone own one. Heard they were capable of high 12’s right off the lot and it only got heavier from there. Great post, and hopefully this one will be saved.
My 67 Chevelle SS with a 69 L68 427 was also a beast, I’m sure cutting a couple hundred more pounds made it even more so. I’d love to get behind the wheel of this when it’s finished, big fun !
Why not me ???
The best part of this story is that it still retains the original engine. I’ve been a reader of Barn Finds for atleast a few years now, and it’s frustrating to read of yet another classic missing the original engine. Not this time.
I agree Josh, not to many had 450 horse rigs as seniors in high school, but there was many heavy hitters with HO rigs at school back then. Always enjoyed watching the bleach burnouts during lunch at school while having a beer. LOL!
When I first started reading your post, the first thing to pop into my mind was the bleach burn outs! I graduated in 1977, so we saw all the prime muscle cars. We had a quarter mile road parallel to our school, with about 20 classrooms facing it. This was great for burnouts, but not so much for the streak ers who ran out of steam…..
All I can say is WOW!!!!!! That is wild to think This 427 yenko is still in one piece. I wish I could be the caretaker,but we all know ,cant touch that.
I sure hope it gets back in driver mode. Back in the early 80,s when I was buying all kinds of ,now very pricey muscle like this it was gettable! . Back then I had ,at defferent times 4 68 z-28 Camaros ( real mo 302s) ,all happened to be orig. color corvette bronze which I think was a rare color. All where between $800 and the best one was bought for $4000 from the first owner
I bought a 64 gto that was the #3 built and was one that came with the 421/tri-power package in the trunk that the dealer had to install. Also had for a short time 70 boss 429 mustang, and a 66 Shelby that might have been a factory sponsored racer.not sure of that ,but some people knew the car and where surprised that I got it. Those cars went away fast since I was very good at finding these ,and many more. I saved a lot of them that where destined for scrap like the 70 440 cuda. The owners wanted to pull the 440 and put it into a truck since it had so much power and ran good. The car was going to go to the scrap yard after that. I talked them into letting me buy it complete. $1000 got it. It only had 57k miles and was a fc7 purple car. loaded with options ,even had the rimblow wheel,15″rallys-you can figure the rest. Its in a collection now in cali. That’s just a very light touch of what crossed my path.
People that remember all the cars and trucks that I had say I should write a book while I still remember the hundreds that I saved or at least keep going instead of tossed away, as what happened back then.
This Camaro just brings back those days. Oh yea all most had a 70 hemi cuda convert, but I stopped to get a burger at dicks drive-in on the way to see the cuda, when I got there the dude just sold it to someone else 15 min. earlier
Another 50 K above purchase price for a mundane Camaro ?? Doubtful.
$3900 then was like $17 000 today.
Wow! I’d be willing to donate my time to help with the restoration just to be able to say I got to do it!!!! Great peice of American muscle car history. Lots of found memories of seeing these rare cars on the streets tearing up the asphalt. Oh to be back in about 1965 through 1973……..
I have a ’04 F150 that needs a lot of work, if your heart is set on donating time! You know where Carnarvon is?
I had the chance to see a few Yenkos once, quite a sight.
And this one
And this one. Note there’s also a Yenko Vega in the back of the one shot.
How would you like to have to decide which to drive? I’m told the owner would take out at least one different car every day of the year and he is supposed to have one of every Chevy convertible made from day one through 1975 IIRC. That doesn’t include the various duplicates, hardtops and non car vehicles in his collecton.
Here’s a few more, this is a private collection by invitation only..
Man…… for a second there I thought this was a Yenko for 3900 bucks. Stupid me..
I’d like to see paperwork!
After looking at all of the pictures I only have one thing that I saw that makes my skin crawl.
He is doing (or having a ) restoration (done) and in the process the car is being supported by the front frame horns. This a major NO NO on a Unibody car especially since you can see that on the drivers side they are attempting to pull out and straighten the rocker panel. It might look good when they finish the repair but when they set the car on the ground they are going to find that there is a sag in the rocker panel.
This alone throws the entire “restoration” process into question in my mind.
Jim, I’m not a Camaro guy but I thought the unibody on these F-bodies was from the firewall back and the front had some sort of subframe instead. Can you fill me in? Admittedly I’m way out over my skis here. :-)
You are right, the front subframe was bolted to the unibody from the firewall back. The 68-72 Nova had the same setup.
Steven is right, the unibody is firewall back.
Not buying this is a Yenko. A friend of mine picked up an aluminum 427 Yenko block paid buku for it and if this is a Yenko 3900 bucks show me the pedigree.
Read again. It’s not 3900.
The car sold for $3900 in 1974, not 2017.
In 1970s cars were cheap. A L88 corvette went for $4000. My 55 Chevy 327 Muncie 4 speed $650 57 Chevy new 427 Muncie 4 speed $1200. I have no doubt about the price of a Yenko Camaro for $3900.
Old school torquer intake with the carb mounting flange offset about 30°. Really did nothing but look cool and cause linkage problems. And a Mallory dual point distributor and double pumper Holley. Vintage stuff that I sill enjoy!
Saw a 69 L88 in 1971 sell for $4000. 55-57 Chevys went for $500-1200. Many had big blocks and Muncie 4 speeds. I turned Down a 69 Chevelle convertible 375 HP 4 speed for $1200. 3,000 miles on it. Last year one sold for $125K who knew. So a Yenko for $3900 how many you want? I lived on the east coast at that time.
One of my dream cars!! Great find, wish I found it!
Now if I could only find one of those and a 67 Shelby in that condition. I would by happy………and broke!
@ Glen
I would only go to Carnarvon to help restore a 1904 whatever.
Is it me, or are we getting a lot of repeat features here? Or am I just looking at too many cars added as bottom page features? I’m getting so confused, I had to googlemap to make sure there was only one Carnarvon.
I used to race my 69 Z28 Ralley Sport against a Yenko in HS. The engine was not original and was sporting a 454 at the time. It was black with the red striping etc. If either of those cars were still available it would sure be sweet. The Yenko brought 2000 with the block in the garage for pickup. The Z28 brought a whopping 1500. Those were the both sold in the early 80s!
Holley carb appears to be angled side ways on the intake. I’ve never seen that before, can someone explain why this was done? Looks like there is able room front and back for the carb to be positioned straight.