This year’s MCACN (Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals) recently wrapped in Illinois right before Thanksgiving. “Cool story, what does this have to do with Corvairs?”, you say?
This year, A LOT! The Corvair Yenko Stinger was the invitational mark this year as it was the 60th anniversary of its release. Our resident Yenko owners, Bruce and Seth were unable to attend, but shared photos and a brief write-up from other attendees. Enjoy!
If you count YS101 and YS105, there could be 117 documented COPO Yenko Stingers.
YS001-YS101 = 101
YS105=1
YS107-YS120=14
9700 =1
Of the possible 117…
6 have been completely destroyed including the tag (5 by fires and 1 by scrapping)
21 of the original COPO ordered Stingers have been re-bodied (only the known ones, likely more) leaving only 82 or fewer original bodies currently owned.
14 of the COPO cars are completely missing from historical records and have no documented current owner. So there could be another 14 Stingers found in the future
There are currently only 76 COPO Stingers with documented original bodies currently owned.
There are only 26 COPO Stingers that have known original bodies and the documented correct date coded engine. There are quite a few that have not publicly documented their date code on their engine.
I hope some of my fun tidbits made you go hmmmm…
~ Rick Loving
Corvair Historian & Chronicler of useless facts.
You will hear the word COPO bandied about when referring to the Stinger and also with some Camaros and Novas. COPO stands for Central Office Production Order, which was a special ordering system used by Chevrolet dealers to request unique vehicle configurations not available on the standard order sheet.
Dealers could use the COPO system to order special equipment for things like fleet trucks or police cars, but some dealers (like Don Yenko) also used it for performance builds.
Technology isn’t allowing for the video to be presented here, so if you want to see a video walk through of the show, you will have to click here.
Just because you don’t own a Stinger doesn’t mean you can’t wear Stinger merch. We have a small collection available in the SFBA merch store. Indulge yourself and support the club!
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