In the mid 60s, Don, now a successful Corvette road racer, having seen what Carroll Shelby had done with the Ford Mustang, decided that he could do the same with a Chevrolet product. Not having a large choice of base cars to choose from, Don settled upon the lowly Corvair. In late 1965, Don convinced GM to build, ship and finance him, 100 specially built Central Office Production Order (COPO) 1966 Corvairs. They were equipped with 140 HP engines, 4-speed transaxles and fast steering. The cars would be known as "Yenko Stingers", "Stinger" being a name Chevrolet had licensed, but allowed Don Yenko to use.

Once the cars arrived at the dealership, they had numerous items added by Yenko, including a combination fiberglass rear deck lid/spoiler, bold racing stripes running over the trunk, top and rear deck lid, fiberglass "sail" panels replacing the rear side glass and a carpeted piece of wood in place of the rear seat. This was necessary since the cars would be raced in a class for 2 seater vehicles. Customers could chose from one of four different Yenko engine options, from the Stage I engine (with 160hp), up to the all out race Stage IV engine that put out over 240hp from the flat Corvair opposed 6 cylinder engine. Soon Stingers began dominating the SCCA D-production class, with Jerry Thompson winning a national championship in 1967 in a Stinger. Yenko Stingers prices ranged from $ 2,600.00 up to about $ 3,100.00 for the hottest Stage IV cars.

Yenko Stingers can be identified by a metal tag attached to the driver's side door jam, engraved with a Yenko assigned serial number, such as YS97. Even though Yenko only produced about 130 "Stingers" in total, there are many more Corvairšs that carry a Yenko tag. For many years the SCCA required all Corvair's had to have this tag, available only from Yenko Sportscars, Inc., to be eligible to race in SCCA competition.

Don, knowing quite well how hard it would be to sell 100 cars from just one location, set up a network of Chevrolet dealers across the country to help distribute the Stinger. Most of these early Yenko Corvair's went to Chicago, where they were distributed by Span, Inc. for Yenko Sportscars. The top selling dealer of these cars was the famed "Nickey Chevrolet" of Chicago.

This distribution plan was working well until 1966, when, Ralph Nader released his expose on the Corvair, "Unsafe at any Speed." Actor Ernie Novak was killed in a Corvair, and now the book went into much detail explaining how unsafe the Chevrolet Corvair was. Needless to say, this bad publicity would eventually lead to the end of the Yenko Stinger and the Corvair program. Approximately 25 Stingers were produced in 1967, with a couple of more produced in later years. Chevrolet stopped production of the Corvair in 1969, though they sold leftover 69's as 1970 models.