When you do family genealogy, you often end up going down various rabbit holes. Being a car guy I found it interesting to have more connections to me, than I first thought it would. Doing genealogy research on my paternal family who have roots in southwestern Pennsylvania since the mid-1700’s. There was a comment in my Father’s yearbook with a buddy that they both were from “GunTown.” I learned that to be a term for Canonsburg Pennsylvania. At about that same time I was seeing a meme going around about car guys not knowing each other’s names but knowing that one of them drove a Yenko. Me being a car guy, had not really knew what “Yenko” was.
“Some serious pavement pounders came out of this former Chevy dealer in Canonsburg, PA.”
It did not take long before I realized that Yenko was the original Chevy hotrodder, and oddly enough they had a dealership in this western Pennsylvania town of Canonsburg. South of Pittsburgh, but north of Washington Pennsylvania. The more I dug into the history of this American hotrod icon, I found connections to my own family history.
On a recent trip to Western Penna, I had to stop and check out this Chevrolet dealership where Don Yenko customized Chevy’s in the 1960’s and 70’s. On West Pike Street stands today a disheveled art deco styled commercial building. Out front is a historic marker telling the Yenko story.
The Last Name of Yenko
Western Pennsylvania is home to many immigrants in the 19th century looking for industrial and mining jobs. The only reference I could find was that the family name was from the Ukraine. And that his dad, Frank was born in Charleroi PA in 1900 and went to Bethlehem Township High School in Marianna PA. While his Mother Martha Campbell, a schoolteacher whose family had been in the area since early 1800’s was of Scottish ancestry. No doubt the name Yenko was shortened upon arrival from a longer version.
Who was Donald Frank Yenko?
An only child whose father Frank was also a car guy, active in SCCA, which was thriving at the time with men who were into racing cars for fun, and a myriad of social and business groups, including Boy Scouts of America. With his Dad’s love of cars no doubt led Don to his lifelong passion, and his work. And with his father owning a car dealership, it is no wonder he started to drive at the age of 12.
Don also had a dream to learn to fly, and at age 16. As most guys in that era, Don went into the military, there is references to both the US Army and Air Force. Note the Army Air Corp became the Air Force in 1947, Yenko would have been 20 years old at the time. And many pilots got their hours during their service. Later during his time at Penn State University he started a flying club.
Like many pilots Don was fond of speed, and being the son of a Chevrolet dealer, started racing Corvettes. Win on Sunday Sell on Monday, became a popular marketing technique for selling new cars. As Don became more involved in his father’s Chevrolet dealership, he took that seriously, as he stated. “I got tired of looking at the rear bumper of Mark Donohue’s Mustang.” He took the cue from Carroll Shelby and used his own dealership to source cars he could make into race cars.
The Yenko Chevrolet Dealership
Frank Yenko started selling Durant cars in 1929, that brand ended in 1932, no doubt because of the Great Depression. In 1934 Frank opened a Chevrolet dealership in Bentleyville PA, and expanded to the Canonsburg location in 1949.Small family-owned car dealerships were common practice at the time. Taking over the family business from his father in 1957, Don made history taking production line Chevys and made them into customized street legal hotrods in the heyday of the muscle car of the late 1960s into the early 1970s.
Don used a General Motors dealer program called the Central Office Production Order (COPO) system to order and acquire cars through his dealership. Taking on the 1966 Chevrolet Corvair, as he was impressed with its handling. He got SCCA approval for racing them by removing the back seat and increasing the horsepower and torque of the little rear engine economy car. Those first 100 Yenko Stingers were white with blue stripes. I wonder of Ralph Nader noticed? When Corvair production ended in 1969 Yenko worked on other Chevrolet products, such as the new 1967 pony car, the Camaro, putting Chevy’s 427 cubic Inch 425 horsepower engines and other high performance parts creating the Yenko Camaro, and the family car Chevelle. Even the Nova, and the 1971 & ’72 Chevrolet Vega. Calling them Yenko Stinger Vegas, based on the GT Hatchback. Equipped with front and rear spoilers and Yenko Stinger side striping a special aluminum block 2.3-liter inline 4-cylinder engine with alloy-plated forged aluminum pistons. Vega’s aluminum engines were not known for reliability. And though Yenko was pushing for high-compression turbo-charged engines, Chevrolet did not build them. Yenko did offer after-market turbos, few of those were made. And like all Yenko-modified vehicles, they are all prized by collectors and considered very valuable.
What happened to Don Yenko?
As the 1970’s came about, with rising gas prices and increasing emission standards, the 1980’s malaise era of General Motors vehicles slowed down interest in performance driving. Just getting fuel to drive to work sometimes was a challenge for the working man. Racing cars became a sport for the very rich. Don Yenko produced his last muscle car in 1981. He never became the wheeler-dealer that Carol Shelby was with Ford, he eventually sold his dealership in 1982 to nearby Sun Chevrolet.
Don had two daughters, Terri Yenko Gould and Dr. Lynn Yenko Zoiopoulos who are often seen at car events celebrating the Yenko brand. Don’s marriage to Hope Meloy Yenko ended in 1974, who he had met while at Penn State. (an interesting connection to me and my family, is that Hope went to the same high school I went to in Coatesville Penna in eastern PA where she grew up.
Don spent his post dealership years focusing on his various interests which included flying. Sadly, he died at age of 59 in 1987 while coming in for a landing with his Cessna 210 near Charleston West Virginia.
Why does Don Yenko Matter
An avid car and airplane enthusiast who lived and worked fast. While speed was often at the core, he also wanted things done precisely and efficiently. Which makes sense for both a pilot and a race car driver.
While his Father had a strong influence on his passion for cars, and due to the dealership was able to provide Don with access. It was Don whose business acumen took it to the next level. No doubt stretching things thin at times to achieve his goals.
While he is not as widely known as others in the automotive world, he has a strong following for what he accomplished in the production of the most collectible American cars, known as “Yenkos” to the way he lived his life.
What I found interesting that relates to my family
My paternal family has a long history in this exact area of Southwestern Pennsylvania. My Grandfather was a physician and medical examiner for a good amount of the early twentieth century. So, no doubt somewhere, there may have been a relationship between the two families. Don spent a short amount of time at Washington and Jefferson University in Washington PA, as did my grandfather, my own Dad and his brother did. Though my dad was born fifteen years prior to Don, and my uncle, both were military and interested in aviation, as seemed the norm of the era. Though not in cars, I still wonder where my interest in autos came from.
It is interesting that Don’s wife Hope went to Scott High School in Coatesville PA, where I went for Middle School. All of these small connections came together so I could learn more about an important figure in American car culture as I learned more about my own family. All because I randomly came across that meme about car guys not knowing each other’s names but knowing the exact car they drove.
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