Smokey Yunick

[Jon Mello]

Hot Rod magazine pic, December '67 issue.

[yenkomark]

     Vic's car is the 68 we had at Yenko for several years.Well, sort of.... As I recall , when David Tom found it , it was very rusty and he rebodied it before selling it to Vic. It had been acid dipped originally, so the metal was thin to start with.

[maroman]

SOOO, that's saying this '67 is sitting somewhere? Anyone know if it's a real Z? When built?

[Jon Mello]

There is not only one first-gen Smokey Yunick Camaro and the Bonneville article confims that. Where the first car is now (the one that showed up at Riverside) is anybody's guess but I would have to think it no longer exists. There are no docs that I know of that indicate that Smokey built a car from an actual '67 Z. David Tom did give me some original door panels that he got from Smokey's shop and they are from December '66.

[maroman]

Thanks Jon, he's one man I sure wish I had met.

[Jon Mello]

Me too, Doug. Very interesting character, to say the least.

[JoeC]

Smokey sold at least two Camaros that were dressed as 1968's and they were run in 1969

Don Yenko bought one of them but they were both in some of the same races in 1969

Don Yenko won the Citrus 250 at Daytona in 1969 and ran it in the 24hr Daytona race with Dick Guldsrand as co driver
Don ran about 6 TransAm races in it in 1969

I think the other one was bought by Tiny Lund but I am not sure

Tiny had a bunch of Camaros and won many Nascar races in them from about 1969 to 1971 often had Pepsi as a sponsor

[Jon Mello]

I have seen Tiny Lund driving a '69-bodied car with Pepsi sponsorship that was supposedly built by Smokey. I don't recall Tiny in a '68-bodied Camaro but maybe my brain's not firing on all cylinders.

[Jon Mello]

Smokey Yunick's Camaro at the '68 Daytona 24-Hour, where it was disqualified. This photo is from Cars Illustrated
magazine. What's nice is it names a couple of Smokey's mechanics. I wonder if either of these guys is still around.

[kgu]

Smokey Yunick sold several (3 or 4) acid dipped 67-68 bodies plus one Daytona or Salt Flat "COMPLETE" (black and gold with #13 on doors and hood) car, less drivetrain, to John Todds in Spring of '69. Front clip and  black bench seat were installed on-in  my '67 street car and balance of car was still at Todco when I left in Spring of '72. I still own part (hand made Z-28 ram air prototype with #13 hand written on it) from Smokey.
                                                                                                                 Ken

[Jon Mello]

Thanks for the info, Ken. I remember you telling us about the one Smokey Camaro that provided your car with the seat and front clip, but I did not recall hearing there were 3 or 4 others. Why would John Todds buy all these cars and what became of them? Seems odd to buy them and just park them out back to waste away. Any chance you could show us a photo of the part you still own?

[kgu]

The one parked out back had a roll bar and and a factory wire harness and interior if I remember and was never "chemically milled". The dipped bodies must have been test bodies in as much as they were all dipped too long, but to different degrees. Not usable and why bought - not sure. I think Smokey might have considered them scrap. I believe they were stored in a barn outside of Montreal and maybe then scrapped. They were really way too thin to be unusable. I will take photos of what I have from Smokey and of a cross ram filter housing that was from Titus, Woods, or Smokey. Also not a production part but maybe someone will recognize it.

[Jon Mello]

Very interesting, Ken. When you say the one out back had an interior, do you mean a full interior including carpet and headliner. You also indicate one was black & gold with the #13 on it but than also indicate the bodies were all too thin to be useable. Was the #13 black & gold car the one parked out back or one of the unusable bodies stored in a barn? Sorry if it's obvious and I'm confused. I suppose it was McConnell's money that was in play on this deal. Smokey would've been offloading the stuff cheap anyway because Bunkie Knudsen lured him over to work for Ford by then.

I'd love to see pics of the Smokey items that you mention.

[JoeC]

Jon, I don't know if Smokey could have built a 69 Camaro for Tiny Lund as Smokey went to Ford in 1969
when Bunkie Knudsen left Chevy to run Ford he took Smokey with him

Yunick built a 69 Mustang with a 429 and a 302 for the Ford Motor Company in 1969 and worked on other Ford projects

Smokey's mustang
http://www.ponysite.de/smokey.htm

[rick50]

Back in the late 1980's or early 1990's,  I called the Chevrolet dealership in Daytona Beach, FL inquiring about historical records as I was doing some research on an early MO engine block that I have.   I talked to several people there but got lucky with an older guy that gave me the telephone number of a lady that was retired that used to work at, what was then, Spence Chevrolet.

While she had no idea where any of the old records might be or if they even still existed,  she did remember her early years working there.   When I explained to her about me trying to make a Smokey Yunick connection to the engine block,  she said she couldn't help me with that but she did remember some strange things going in regard to Smokey Yunick during those years.    She remembered wooden crates coming in from Chevrolet to Smokey Yunick's attention.   Spence Chevrolet would call Smokey's shop to come pick the parts up.  Also,  the invoices would have their dealer code with a dash 13 on them.   Any invoices with a dash 13, she wasn't supposed to pay Chevrolet.   She said it wouldn't matter if the dash 13 was there or not, because all of the invoices stated  "Misc. Parts"  in the description column and the unit cost was zero.