Hi guys !

I keep getting mixed up : is the book "yenko : the man, the machines, the legend all about Don himself or is it about the cars ?
And is it good ?

Elias

Mixture about Don Yenko and the cars. Covers old and current Yenko Owners as well as the History.

Written by Bob McClurg who is well known in the Drag Racing circles and if you ever pick up any older Mags from the 60/70/80's and look at the photographers name good chance it will be his. Hes a good guy who I am happy to say will be my guest while on Oahu mid month.

I will be sending out an autographed copy of his book for a friend in Sweden and can send one to Antwerp as well if you wish.

i can scan the books Contents page if you wuld like to see whats covered

It is actually great reading. I now know more about the Yenko family than I do about my own. Great reading. I usually don't read to much of the coffee table books but this one really is good reading..

I have a mixed review of this book.

On the positive side, the chapter on the Yenko family is good and uses nice info and pictures contributed by the Yenko’s.
The pictures of the cars and memorabilia are well done.

There are some good original articles with comments from some original writers. I thought that is a nice addition to the book.

On the negative side - there are a lot of small mistakes and some large ones and some of the photos are incorrectly labeled.

Examples of small mistakes or typos are the listing of wrong specifications, wrong colors and codes, states the 69 Ed Hedrick Yenko used a ZL1 engine, and many other small errors.
Most books have small mistakes and those can be overlooked by the reader.

I am more concerned with the larger mistakes and incorrectly captioned photos.

Some of the production totals used in the book are incorrect. Firm numbers are not known for some years, so these should be noted as approximate numbers or given as a hi/low range if that is known. IMO

One photo shows a 1983 Camaro and claims it was Don’s last race car. This makes the reader think that Don stopped racing in 1983. Don still raced until his death in 1987 including racing a Corvette at Sebring in 1986 and racing Hondas in SCCA.
The 1983 caption is unfair to Don because it cuts off 4 years from his racing career. One of Don’s great accomplishments was his 30 year racing career 1957 to 1987.

Some other photos have incorrect captions. Examples are the incorrect labeled Corvette race cars and the pictures of 1967 Z/28’s labeled as unconverted 427 Super Camaros.

The Chapter on the 67 Yenko Camaros is most incorrect and does not do justice to the history of the 67 Yenko Camaros. It incorrectly claims the first 25 Yenko Camaros were built by Dick Harrell, gives the wrong location for the Harrell shop, incorrectly claims only one SS350 was converted, and other mistakes. Also is missing info on the early 67s and the Yenko sponsored stock bodied 1967 drag cars.
Better info on the 67’s can be found on the internet. IMO

The Chapter on the Yenko Chevelles has errors on the most basic specifications and is confusing to the reader because it uses info for the 427 COPO Chevelles. Some of that does not apply to the Yenko Chevelles.

For example, the book incorrectly states the Yenko Chevelle info as RPO CODE 9562 F41 suspension and MQ 4:10 gears but should state COPO 9562 F40 suspension and KQ 4:10 gears.

I thought it is strange that Vince Emme is not mentioned in a book about the Yenko cars. Anyone who knows anything about the Yenkos should know of Vince. He has had original Yenko records since the early 1980’s and has documented many cars. Vince’s name is still used in many ads, articles, and auction sales to document the cars.

In my opinion, most will enjoy reading the book, but it could have been better with more accurate research and more careful proof reading to weed out some of the errors.

It is actually great reading. I now know more about the Yenko family than I do about my own. Great reading. I usually don't read to much of the coffee table books but this one really is good reading..

I agree. :thumbsup::thumbsup:

I agree as well. Great reading. Nice to read some background on his life outside of the cars. Neat pics. I agree with Joe as well. Also, MOST of the cars are documented examples. Always nice to see the real deal doc'd cars. Some I hadn't seen. Martyn's book on the MOTION cars was neat as well. I had not seen many of those cars.

I find mistakes to be annoying because when I read them I have to go and check my notes to see if I have a mistake.
For example the book has pictures of the white 67 Yenko and states it is YS-704.
I have that car as YS-703 and believe my notes are correct.

According to Jerry Thompson, who along with Don owned the car, the 1983 was the last race car Don owned. Jerry told me he and Don had a new car in the works when Don was killed, which was never finished.

The 1983 Camaro photo caption states “ Don’s last race car….” I believe Don was still racing until his death in 1987.

What races did Don drive this 1983 Camaro?
I just have a listing for Don in it 1983 Lime Rock 3rd place co-driven with Jerry Thompson.
I am always looking for more races that Don ran to add to my list.

The last big race I have for Don is a Corvette at Sebring 1986.
I checked Daytona and Sebring 1987 but did not see him listed.

In the 1987 MCR magazine article, Don stated that he is racing a Honda CRX.
In the mid 1980's, Honda was promoting high performance Honda dealers and racing the products.
Mugen racing, who did the Mugen Honda F1 program, was involved with
making performance kits and building a high performance Honda CRX and other Honda products.

I know Yenko Honda ran ads selling performance Honda parts, so it looks like Don was up to his old tricks with racing the Hondas as he did with the Chevrolets.

A friend of Don’s said he was also working on a turbo charged Corvette project at the time of his death so I am looking for more info on that.

As an interested observer, I agree with Joe that there are too many factual errors in the book, both about the cars and the people involved. Unfortunately, those reading the book will assume that certain things are true when in fact they are not ! The research about the dealership in its heyday was very spotty and the author gave too much credit to the wrong people, as well as not identifying people in photos correctly.

I got mine the other day, it is informative and well written. Bob McClurg wrote an article on the Yenko Camaros way back in 1969, glad to see that he had the passion to bring this project to fruition.

Thanks Bob!

I got mine the other day, it is informative and well written. Bob McClurg wrote an article on the Yenko Camaros way back in 1969, glad to see that he had the passion to bring this project to fruition.

Thanks Bob!

What article did McClurg write on the Yenko Camaros way back in 1969?

He shows the SS&DI article on the 69 Yenko where he was the photographer but it was writen by Ro McGonegal.

Ro is a great writer who is still at it today.

Some of the info appears to be based on Yenko articles from the 1980’s and 90’s. Those old articles do not have the best info based on what is known today.

An example of this is the caption for a 1968 Yenko Camaros states this car "is the original 1968 factory prototype COPO 9737, described by some as the missing link between Yenko built 427 conversions and the factory built 1969 COPO cars.“

I’m not sure what he means by “the missing link”?
There was an article over ten years ago on this car saying it was a 1968 COPO factory built 427 but that has not proved to be correct.
This car falls near the middle of production so I don’t see how it can be a prototype 68.

He should have done more research on this car because it really is an interesting very low production car. It is not only a 1968 Yenko 427 Camaro but is also one of a very few made 1968 COPO 9737 special paint (dash paint code) Camaros.