We’ve all heard the rumors—someone on the other side of town has a rare collector vehicle: a one-off muscle car, a Duesenberg, a Le Mans-winning Ferrari…Most of the time, these are either fictional or a misunderstood whisper, like when an amateur turns a Fiat into a Ferrari.
Skip Lecates, of York, Pennsylvania, has heard all the stories, but one tale about a Yenko Nova kept circulating among area enthusiasts. “I started hearing that rumor about fifteen years ago; that it was in the nearby town of Red Lion,” he says. “I started a real push to find the car.”
One Saturday in May 2012, Lecates left his home determined not to return until he found the car. He kept snooping and eventually came to a long, wooded driveway. He turned into it, not knowing where he’d end up. But he finally found a pair of trailers, there among the forest.
Bingo. He had heard the car was stored in a trailer. “I didn’t know if I’d be shot,” he says, remembering his walk toward the house.
The owner of the Yenko Deuce had bought it for his wife in 1970. It had a 360-horsepower LT1 engine with solid lifters and an automatic shift on the column. Yenko added SS Wheels, striping, swaybars, mirrors, and a hood tach. It retailed for about $5,000.
The car had been in the trailer since about 1987.
The owner named a price, Lacates liked it, and by Wednesday of the next week the car was his. He trailered it home a few days after. “A friend of mine got all worked up about it, so I sold it to him the following Monday,” Lacates says.
For Lacates, it was easy come, easy go. “Right now I am persistent on finding a 1970 L78 Nova,” he says. A barn-finder’s work is never done!
The Yenko Deuce sees the light of day for the first time in decades. CHICK RENN
The Yenko Deuce had an automatic, a 360 HP LT1 engine and 123,000 miles on the odometer. CHICK RENN