1968 Camaro RS - Super Pro Drag Car

THE BEGINNING:
A friend gave me this wrecked 1968 Camaro RS. Everything forward of the firewall was torn up and I had to strip it down and start over. This time, it was built to race!

THE FRAME:
This car was my first attempt at total car construction! It was basically scratch built out of 2"x3" rectangular and 1 5/8" round tubing. I made a drawing of sorts and used that for this build. I used Vega front A arms and spindles (given to me) along with a Pinto rack and pinion steering setup.

OUT BACK:
Out back a ladder bar setup with Koni coil overs, a Herb Mc Candless prepped Dana 60 rear with a 5:57 gear, spool and Strange axles finished it out. Wheels were Centerline all around.

THE ENGINE:
The engine is your basic TRW 406 CI SBC engine with 12.5 to 1 forged TRW pistons, LT1 "pink" rods, Cast 400 crank with a set of GM iron BowTie heads with a bowl cleanup and port match. Cam was a Comp Roller at .600 lift and 300* advertised duration and I used a set of Crower roller rockers up top.

The car started out with a Predator carb, but later I went to a 850 Holley DP a friend loaned me, and then to a 9375 Dominator.

THE TRANNY:
Early on it had a Turbo 350 and a GER converter. The converter went south in the first season and took the tranny with it so I went looking for a Glide with a trans brake since about that time Delay boxes were just coming around. I built my first Glide with a brake in 1989 and have been doing so since. Never had any help with that and so far all has been well. When the Glide went in a TCI converter went in also.

THE ENDING:
I won one race with this car and had a bunch of late round finishes as well. The car was fairly light at about 2250 lbs and it ran low 6.0s on a good day at a good track.

I sold this car "turn key" for $8500 in 1991 to have funds to finish the Studebaker. The car went on to greater things as the last owner wrecked it two years ago at Roxboro Motorsports and walked away from it. The car was totaled but he was unhurt. Oh, and he was running a killer BBC down in the mid 4s with a car that wasn't designed to do that. Wonder why it got away from him?

Anyway, I have many fond memories of this Camaro and at times I've wished I had it back. She's gone forever now though!