1968 Chevrolet Camaro - Blackjack Or Better Off Alive

Tom posted Wilwood 11.25-inch discs at each corner and hid them behind Budnik Fontana 17x8 and 17x11 rims staged with 245/35 Pirelli P7000 and 315/35 BFG Drag Radials. Then he laid in the drivetrain that features an Alston FAB9 axle housing, a Strange Engineering center section, and S-series 31-spline axle shafts sprouting from a Tractech locker differential fitted with 3.70:1 gears. An overdriven high gear is a Pro Touring essential. Tom chose a Tremec TKO-600 five-speed and put it behind an 11-inch Hayes clutch assembly smothered by a Lakewood safety shield.

Compared to the rest of Lee's project, the forged-part filled Ram-Jet 502 crate engine is relatively untouched, but this motor is nothing if not balls-out alert, humping no less than 500 lb-ft from 2,200 all the way to the 5,800-rpm red line. Downshifting is a superfluous exercise in this 3,400-pound runner. Lee just squeezes the throttle a little bit and goes, regardless of what gear the lever is in.

He upped the lube capacity with a Milodon 7-quart sump. He maintained the juice with a 140-amp alternator, added cooling insurance with a Be Cool aluminum core, and extracted the waste with 2-inch primary pipe Chassisworks headers that were ceramic coated by Embee Performance (Santa Ana, California). The 3-inch Pypes exhaust system passes through flat Spintech Sportsman muffs that afford the down-low Camaro plenty of ground clearance and a raspy, guttural snap to the exhaust note. That big fuelie unit is fed by a Walbro in-tank pump and sucks wind through a K&N element. All accessories are driven by a Vintage Air Front Runner serpentine system.

Though Lee's runner sounds like it could be a comfortless street fighter, it's way too mature for that discipline. Tom's a senior manager at McAfee (computer head) and he has used his electronics background to customize the Camaro's interior palette-but first he had to build a place to put it all. The upright, silvery instrument panel holds a collection of Auto Meter Ultra-Lite gauges nicely offset by a Budnik Famosa steering wheel. There's also yards of black leather for the Corbeau LG 1 seats, the door panels, and the custom console Lee built, as applied by Westminster Auto Upholstery (Anaheim, California). "Pete's an absolute wizard and I'm ecstatic about how the interior turned out. Pete made it look great." The thick-pile carpeting was meant for a Mercedes-Benz. The ensemble is spectacular, yet tastefully subdued.

The audio collection includes an Alpine CDA-9835 head (CD with iPod stereo connector) and a slew of JL Audio equipment (500/1 and 300/4 amplifiers, XR650-CXi 6.5-inch speakers front and rear, and a 10W7 10-inch subwoofer. The electronics are underwritten by a (second) dedicated deep-cycle Optima battery affixed with its own voltmeter. The rearview mirror is wired for Homelink, a temperature display, and a digital compass.

Lee took the comfort and convenience notion to another level, adapting a Vintage Air HVAC system, a remote trunk release, a battery inverter in the console he made, a Detroit Speed Selecta-Speed windshield wiper kit and Billet Specialties interior illumination. All phases of the build are on Lee's website, www.camarorestoration.com.

You'd think that this package would represent the ultimate end, but Lee's brain doesn't think that way.

Hot rodding is about changing things, trying new things, maybe even rebuilding the entire car. Had he done the car now, it would have an Art Morrison full frame, an LS engine, and a minimalist interior plan. Camaro better off alive? Wonder what the slugs at the gyp car lot would think about it now.