The 1981 Yenko Turbo-Z Camaro marks the final effort from muscle car legend Don Yenko to take a normal factory high performance car and elevate it to “super car” levels. Starting with a175hp, 350ci powered Camaro, Yenko and his crew added an upgraded suspension, IROC style nose, a new decal package, and most importantly, a turbocharger from Turbo International. This was a draw through style setup and reports from the day claim that it allowed the Camaro to run in the 14-second zone at the strip, which was quicker than anything else made domestically in 1981…by a ton!
Yenko had expected to build about 200 of these babies, but the production run has only been documented as being 19 units. The Turbo Z was offered in “Stage 1” or “Stage 2” packages. This is a Stage 1 car and only three Stage 2 cars are known to have been built. Part of the reason for the lack of Stage 2 Turbo Zs was their hefty $17,500 price tag, and that was in 1981 dollars.
The seller claims that this is the final Turbo Z built by Yenko at his dealership, which actually makes this the last Yenko super car ever. That is a neat piece of history, but we are not sure if it warrants the $180,000 asking price for the car. We will say that the Camaro is in incredible condition. It has undergone a full nut and bolt restoration and the photos seem to bear that out. The car looks brand new.
Lastly, these cars have kind of been lost to history because at the time they were being built, Yenko didn’t do a whole lot to promote them. He had run into issues with insurance companies and other regulatory bodies during his earlier career and in order to prevent a repeat of that, he did not spend a lot of time or money on splashy ads or sales material for the Turbo Z. He did have a press car however and it appears in Hot Rod and all of the other high performance car magazines of the day, garnering great praise and adulation from editors used to driving the barge like offerings of the day.
This is a very neat car and if it is the last Yenko ever built, it surely is a great piece of American high performance car history. Who’d a thunk we’d ever be writing a blog item about a $180,000 1981 Camaro?! Not us, that is for sure!
eBay Link: 1981 Yenko Turbo-Z Camaro
Isn’t this a bit like saying you’ve got the nicest “Elvis on Black Velvet” painting on earth?
This Yenko is a titanic model of untimely and poor execution. 1981 was the depth of one of the biggest recessions in automobile history. The 1970 1/2 F-Body was one of the oldest designs on the road in the US (excluding certain AMC products). Instead of using a decent turbo kit, such as the then-new Gale Banks twin turbo system, Yenko used a wheezing “suck-through” mess that was nearly as bad as what Pontiac was peddling. Yenko then fitted it with a weird double-chin front air-dam, and sold it for almost twice the price of a normal F-Body.
Epic fail.
Is that EGR valve functioning as a blow-off valve?
Cool car. 17,500 was a bunch back then…..I have the dealer invoice for the 1980 Buick Regal Mom bought new – $3300
And the boneyards were loaded with REAL engines ripe for swapping into the new smog-choked crap. Any wonder Yenko didn’t sell many of these?
And the boneyards were loaded with REAL engines ripe for swapping into the new smog-choked crap.
Not legal for use on the roads back then. Probably still not legal today.
I had a clone of one of these that was built in 1980 by the original owner because we couldn’t get them in canada.
It would run circles around the real one. The main reason was the much superior Martin Turbo system, and the Bill Mitchell Hugger Camaro suspension. Not to mention it was a four speed.
A pretty inglorious end to yenko…
Typical of RK Motors aka (Best Of Show). They got tossed out of their Mentor Ohio Tyler Blvd location a few years for some sort of shenanigans. They sell muscle cars to overseas buyers which in my book is total FAIL, but that’s the way it goes I guess. I’m not a big fan of RK Motors…
People can laugh at the disco era Camaros all they want. Fact is, 78-81 years out sold every other hands down and that was during a recession.
Always been a bit of a fan of that shape Camaro
This is my favourite year / body style for this car. Would be an excellent candidate for a modern(er) electronically controlled corvette engine, 5 speed auto trans.
of course the suspension could use modern upgrades too, and the brakes, well 4 wheel disks naturally.