This Muscle Car From The 60s Nearly Broke The Rules

There are certain things you should never do, like swimming with sharks in chum-flavored Speedos or fire-juggling on the Hindenburg, but not everything taboo has such disastrous results. In fact, sometimes, doing that thing you’re not supposed to do ends up in pure awesomeness, like shoehorning a massive V-8 into a tiny car. It was considered insanity to equip a compact with a high-output big-block, but Dodge did it with the 1969 Hemi Dart, and so did Plymouth with the 1969 Hemi Barracuda, resulting in two of the most bonkers factory drag cars of all time.

Divisions

Chevrolet Performance

Founded

1911

Founder

Arthur Chevrolet, Louis Chevrolet, William C. Durant

Headquarters

Detroit, Michigan, U.S.

Current CEO

Mary Barra

Chevrolet didn’t have the huevos to bestow superpowers on their compact muscle car, but a franchised dealer in Pennsylvania did. Yenko Chevrolet is most famous for their souped-up Super Camaros, but it also dabbled in other cars, including the 1969 Yenko Nova SC. Equipped with Corvette 427s, these diminutive rebel Chevys were all kinds of wrong, but felt so right. That much power in such a small car created the ultimate YOLO experience and made the Yenko Nova SC an instant legend, which is now one of the rarest Golden Age collectibles.

Yenko Chevrolet Super Cars

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We’ll get to the super-cool ’69 Chevy Nova SC in just a sec, but first, we need to understand what a Yenko car is and why it matters. After a successful career, racecar driver Don Yenko set up a speed shop at his family’s Chevrolet dealership in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, to give customers a performance boost. After assuming control of the dealership, he decided to sell custom builds as Yenko-branded models, starting with the 1966 Chevrolet Corvair. Sold as Yenko Stingers, the Corvairs got upgrades in the brakes and suspension, but it was the engine that really saw a dramatic shift. With several tiers, the Corvair’s stock 140-horsepower flat-six could be jacked all the way to 240 ponies with the Stage IV package.

Yenko Production 1966-1970

• Corvair Stinger: 515 units
• Super Camaro: 316 units
• Chevelle SC: 99 units
• Nova SC: 38 units
• Nova Deuce: 175 units

Yenko then took an interest in the new 1967 Chevrolet Camaro because of its unrealized potential. In 1963, just before the muscle cars exploded on the scene, GM inexplicably banned all of its divisions from equipping engines over 400 cubic inches in their intermediate cars. There was an exception for the Chevrolet Corvette, which actually came in handy for Yenko, but the Camaro and Chevelle were blocked out. Yenko began replacing Camaro engines with Corvette 427 big-blocks by hand in the service department, giving customers the ride that Chevy should have provided. Cars also got a fiberglass hood and beefier suspension and brakes to handle all that extra power.

Yenko Super Camaro Hits The Scene With Force

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In 1969, Yenko discovered the joys of the Chevrolet Central Office Production Order (COPO) system that allowed him to special-order Camaros equipped with 427s straight from the factory. The COPO system was meant for fleet orders that wanted special equipment, like a police department needing non-stock features, but Yenko exploited it to make Camaros completely badass. In addition to the 427-cubic-inch V-8, the COPO cars came with power disc brakes, heavy-duty front sway bar, 4.10 Positraction rear ends, cowl-induction hoods, and spoilers. Yenko finished the cars off with custom stripes and graphics with the sYc (Yenko Super Car) logos.

Yenko Chevelle SC Arrives The Same Year

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Also in 1969, Yenko got to thinking what a tragedy it was that something as aggressively cool as the Chevrolet Chevelle was limited to a 396-cubic-inch V-8 and was getting its ass kicked by Hemi-powered Mopars. With that, the Super Car was expanded to include the ’69 Chevelle, which got the same 427 Corvette engine as the Yenko Super Camaro. Finally, there was the Chevelle that couldn’t be embarrassed by the Dodge Charger Hemi R/T or Plymouth Road Runner. While the Yenko Camaros and Chevelles were powerful upgrades, they were intermediate-sized rides, and not terribly extreme. There was, however, another Yenko Super Car that took things to a different level of craziness.

1969 Yenko Super Nova Beast

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The Nova SC is unlike the other 1969 Yenkos in that it wasn’t a COPO car. The thing is, Chevrolet would not allow a 427 to be equipped in a compact car, and for good reason. With an insane power-to-weight ratio and a smaller wheelbase, this is a thing that should not be, and yet Yenko made it happen. Yenko would order Nova SS cars with the top 396-cubic-inch V-8 option and swap out the engines with 427s. The reason why he didn’t order base-model Novas, which would have been cheaper, is that the SS cars already came with the upgraded brakes and suspensions, so it saved time and money on the conversion.

’69 Big-Block Drag Race

Going old school like the first Yenko Camaros, the Nova SC was built by hand and, possibly because of the labor-intensive process, only 38 were produced. Then again, it could be that a little car with that much power was intimidating to a lot of potential buyers. This was not a car for noobs, nor was it really something anyone should drive on the street. Technically street legal, it was more of a drag car than a daily driver. According to GM Authority, Yenko had reservations about building such a chaotic ride, saying, “it was barely legal at best”, adding that it was “skirting the edge of product liability,” but ultimately took pride in bragging, “it was the wildest thing we ever did.” He also tempered that by noting the car was “a beast, almost lethal,” which it most certainly was in inexperienced hands.

The Hemi-Killing 427 V-8 Smokes Everything

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The ’69 Yenko Nova SC was equipped with crate 427-cubic-inch L72 V-8s, which were conservatively rated at 450 horsepower. 450 ponies doesn’t sound very conservative, but these suckers really made the Nova SC cook, indicating they were likely more powerful than the official rating. Obviously, there are no automotive press test drives on this one, but rumor has it that the Nova SC was an 11-second car with some anecdotal evidence that it may have even run a quarter-mile in the 10s. Either way, it was enough to smoke any Hemi-equipped Mopar of 1969, and that’s really the only thing that mattered back then.

The 1970 Yenko Nova Deuce Wasn’t As Brutal

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In 1970, GM finally lifted its pointless big engine ban, which was great news for muscle car fans, but totally put the kibosh on Yenko’s Super Car side hustle. In reality, the Camaro never got a big post-ban engine option, so he could have built a 454 LS6 Super Camaro, but for whatever reason, never did. He did carry on with the Nova, however, with the anti-climactic 1970 Yenko Nova Deuce. Equipped with the 360-horsepower 350-cubic-inch LT-1 V-8, the ’70 Nova Deuce wasn’t exactly terrible, and in fact sufficiently awesome, but a far cry from the completely nuts performance of the ’69 Nova SC.

The Super Nova Is Super Collectible

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Either 37 or 38 1969 Yenko Nova SC cars were produced, so it’s already a rarity, but it’s possible that only 10 or so still exist, making it a genuine unicorn car. Just two real Nova SC cars have shown up for auction in the past decade, both fetching impressive six-figure gavel drops. That blue beauty pictured above brought nearly $400,000, and the green one featured elsewhere in this piece nearly cracked a half-million bucks. Hagerty sets the Concours condition value for this car at $470,000, but that should come with the caveat “if you can actually find one.” You could be willing to spend any amount of money on one of these, but if nobody is selling one, it doesn’t really matter.

’68 Yenko Nova SC Auction Sales

• 2012 Mecum Spring Classic: $475,000
• 2015 Mecum Kissimmee: $380,000
• 2024 Mecum Kissimmee: $100,000

These cars are so rare that replicas are bringing in top-dollar at auction. In 2024, a ’69 Chevrolet Nova Custom, billed as a “Yenko replica”, sold a Mecum Kissimmee for an even $100,000, which seems like pure lunacy. The fact of the matter is, the ’69 Nova SC was an outlaw car and something that even Yenko admitted, “they should not have produced,” so it’s kind of a taboo ride. As with anything people aren’t supposed to have, there is a higher demand, much like alcohol during Prohibition. There is a flourishing Yenko Nova SC replica market because the cars are rare and kind of like the forbidden fruit that tempts wickedness, which always creates desire.