Our Suburban sold on BaT for a pretty good price and my wife was so excited about it that she immediately was like "let's do that again!". We had many discussions over it and our many choices of cars got whittled down to a 1st generation Camaro. After Covid shut down all track events and we couldn't enjoy the Pink Panther at all, we wanted a car for maximum seat time. In other words it had to be competitive at autocross, be able to rip down a 1/4 mile, not overheat brakes during a track day and still have to keep us cool while driving around town on a hot day.
I was at the shop that media blasted our Suburban the day after the auction closed and the owner said "what's next for you guys?" and I said "67-69 Camaro". He said "follow me" and he led me to a shipping container that he claims has not been opened since 2000. He popped it open and there was a 1967 Camaro, all disassembled from when much of the bad sheet metal had been replaced in the 90's. He told me a price, I found that price to be quite reasonable and I bought it. It was originally a Sierra Fawn Rally Sport, black bucket seats, 327 V8 with 4 speed Muncie transmission car but not much of that matters because we are changing all of it.
The plan is to go restomod in the Pro-Touring style with a complete suspension swap, upgraded interior with integrated 6 point cage, LSA supercharged V8 with Tremec TR6060 6 speed transmission, 315/30-18 tires all the way around and yes, air conditioning. We will run it in CAM-T at Nationals and do every open track day we can and maybe even Time Attack with it. If all goes well, we might go to LS Fest or Goodguys with it, too. Briget is considering starting her own YouTube channel about the build, I'll let you know if that happens. For some reason the forum will not let me post pics of it. It has only a couple of small rust spots, should be so easy to fix compared to the Suburban. Link to YouTube channel
Y'all did such a great job with the Suburban, can't wait to see this project get underway!
Congrat's you two!!!! Definitely approve of the powertrain choices....oh and the body work ....that'll buff out
1967 RS Camaros are the Bestest Camaros.
Briget should definitely start a channel, I'll be first subscriber!
Looking forward to watching this. It looks like they forgot to replace some of the metal they cut out. Seems like a perfect opportunity to widen it up a bit!
RossD
MegaDork
9/23/21 9:32 a.m.
In for a youtube build! And even just a normal GRM build thread too!
NOHOME
MegaDork
9/23/21 9:42 a.m.
I be like a baby waiting for breakfast to walk in; Bring this on!
Look forward to following along!
In the off chance you didnt know about it, http://www.rhoadescamaro.com/build/ Very different build plan than you have, much milder and more origional, but there might be one or two helpful bits in there.
loosecannon said:
.....and still have to keep us cool while driving around town on a hot day.
THIS. If you can't drive it on the street and to/from an event, why build it?
I fully support this!
And get it built already! I want to live vicariously through you!
And '67/68 are the BEST, in my opinion.
Just putting this here: Corvette (suspension) parts, all of them. You'll thank someone who says this later.
rustomatic said:
Just putting this here: Corvette (suspension) parts, all of them. You'll thank someone who says this later.
I think Corvette suspension is a great option for a great street car but to make a top level street car that can win a Goodguys event or SCCA Solo Nationals event, I think it takes a suspension designed specifically for a Camaro's weight, width and wheelbase. Having said that, several of the complete suspensions that I am looking do use the C7 Corvette uprights on the front end. I am looking at the Chris Alston Chassisworks, Speedtech, TCI, Speedway Motors and RSRT complete suspension packages. I am weighing the different options.
NOHOME
MegaDork
9/26/21 4:38 p.m.
I would like to petition for a better thread tittle. The current one in no way shape or form describes the potential for what might be about to happen. Pretty sure the Queen of Concrete can be convinced to help with this.
Just saying,
Pete
Here's what we want the car to look like when it's done, but colour has not been chosen yet
NOHOME said:
I would like to petition for a better thread tittle. The current one in no way shape or form describes the potential for what might be about to happen. Pretty sure the Queen of Concrete can be convinced to help with this.
Just saying,
Pete
I agree, can someone change it to "Loosecannon's 1967 Camaro RS build"?
NOHOME
MegaDork
9/26/21 7:22 p.m.
In reply to sleepyhead the buffalo :
Muchas Garcias!
Ok, been a change of engine plans. Turns out that I would be well over class minimum weight with a supercharged LS motor so I will be putting a naturally aspirated LS in it to save weight and will try to get power levels up with some old fashioned hot rodding tricks like cam. compression ratio and raising redline. Like this How to build an 8000 rpm LS screamer
NOHOME
MegaDork
9/27/21 7:16 a.m.
In reply to loosecannon :
Kinda happy to hear this. To me, "Boost" reads as either "not finished" or "broken".
We got the car home today and I was able to pull everything out of it and do a little inventory. The rust is minimal and it shouldn't take long to take care of but I've never seen such careless hole cutting for speakers in the doors, did they use an axe or a machete? I can't decide
I respect the idea of aftermarket suspension designs (clearly) but for this application it would be REALLY hard to not justify recreating the geometry from a C5/C6 Vette and using all the aluminum arms etc. I would even use a Corvette Torque tube and rear trans (Unless that's illegal.. cam has some wierd rules for being no rules)
Weight is nearly identical (3100xx Vette, 3000 CAM-T)
Wheelbase is slightly longer on the Camaro but the C6/7 are close and impacts would be minor for a longer wheelbase. Very slight Ackerman change and may run into firewall issues with the engine setback.
Just a thought but definitely along for this ride.
I saw a lot of my friends cut speaker holes like those in the doors for Jensen tri ax 6 X 9's back in the early 70's using dads old tin snips, hack saws, files and 1/4" drills. I couldn't bring myself to hack up the doors on my '68.