The 1969 Camaro might be one of the most common muscle cars out there still roaming the streets, but there are only a handful of genuine Yenkos to go around. We’re all familiar with the story of Don Yenko, who took new first gen Camaros, and added a 450 horsepower 427 big block from the Corvette, a stripe package and other visual goodies, and created some of the most legendary Camaros to ever exist. Considering that there were only 198 ever built, they are also among the rarest examples.
In this video we found of an episode of My Classic Car, we get a look at Don Clark’s authentic 1969 Yenko Camaro. “It runs very nice. Seldom, but nice.” is what Clark has to say about the original 427 big block in his Yenko. In addition to the Yenko, Clark also owns an original 1969 COPO Camaro and a real Z28. He might not drive them all that much, but we appreciate the fact that he says he’s not concerned about resale value of the cars. It’s the feeling of owning something so rare and powerful that appeals to him. He doesn’t look at them as merely investments, and we can respect that.
Ironically, back in 1969 you could buy your own brand new Yenko Camaro for the sum of $5,200. In today’s money, that would be somewhere just over $32,000. When you really think about it, that’s less than what a basic 1SS 5th gen Camaro would cost you, and literally tens of thousands less than what any of the new tuner models go for. Has inflation really gotten that out of hand?