When tragedy strikes and a car you love gets totaled, it's easy to become discouraged or frustrated. Nick Relampagos felt this impulse when a racing accident caused his pro-touring 1970 Camaro to spin into a concrete barrier. But rather than give up, he chose to rebuild it better than ever. The result is a wild 750-horsepower track machine that's packed with high-end upgrades and custom-built carbon fiber parts. Autotopia LA recently interviewed Nick about the story of his car and how it ended up in its current form.

The classic formula for any hot rod is to take the biggest V8 engine available and drop it into a relatively small, lightweight chassis. General Motors understood this, but rather than starting with a car, it applied the formula to its recently-debuted GMT400 truck platform. The 454ci big block V8 was normally found in heavy-duty full-size pickups, but starting in 1990, GM dropped it into a 1/2-ton short-bed model and called it the 454 SS. This menacing muscle truck was sold under the appropriate RPO code "B4U" and came with a variety of performance and handling upgrades. Its success forged a new market segment for trucks like the SVT Lightning and Ram SRT-10.

Our project Z/28's interior was a mess. When we pur­chased the car, the interior looked like a remnant from one of those movie cars that has had its in­sides blown out by a terrorist bomb. In reality, our 1969 Camaro interior was a terror: the seat covers were ripped and torn, the carpet was faded and shredded, and the door panels were all of the above. But from the bright side, we were lucky - all the correct parts were in their correct places. At least no one had replaced the original 1969 seats with high ­backs from a 1973 Camaro.

In the end, your Camaro will be judged by its exterior fi­nish. No matter how good the interior looks, or how de­tailed the engine compartment is, people always look at the paint first. If the paint falls short, they usually don't bother to check out the rest of the car. But if the paint is really slick, really deep-looking, then you'll have to fight off the spectators with a stick. 

An engine rebuild should be an integral part of any car restoration. Six cylinder, small block, or big block, the Camaro's engine is the life-blood of the machine, so it deserves first-class attention during your full-scale restoration.

Front end components take a terrible beating. Consi­dering highway conditions - pot holes, rough rail­road crossings, speed bumps, driveway dips, high­way imperfections - it's miraculous that so many older cars are still roaming the roads on their original front end parts. Ball joints and bushings in particular absorb tremen­dous punishment because they connect the spindles to the con­trol arms and the control arms to the chassis, respectively, ac­tually supporting much of the Camaro's weight as the wheels and tires bounce over highway hazards. But although Camaro front ends have survived the mileage and the years, the damage of time and use eventually takes its toll, usually surfacing as tell-tale pops and squeaks before advancing to the dangerous level. 

After dismantling the Camaro, the restoration pro­ject can progress in a number of different direc­tions. If you intend to rebuild the engine yourself (more on engine rebuilding in a later chapter), dis­assemble the engine and send the block, crank, heads, etc. to a reputable machine shop for boring, polishing, valve work, bal­ancing, or whatever. That way, when you're ready to proceed with the engine rebuilding at a later stage of the restoration, all of the necessary components will be refinished and ready for reassembly.

In 1966, the Trans-American Championship racing series was created by the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA). During those early days, manufacturers competed head-to-head with modified versions of their production cars — these included the Ford Mustang, Mercury Cougar, Plymouth Barracuda, Dodge Challenger, Pontiac Firebird (and later the eponymous Trans Am), and of course the Chevrolet Camaro. Competition was fierce, and as is often the case in racing, teams were looking for any advantage they could get. Mark Donohue's Sunoco Camaro Z28 pushed the limits and bent some rules to achieve an incredible winning streak in the 1968 Trans-Am championship.

Some cars are built to turn heads. Others are built to make history.

For the 110th running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge on May 24, Chevrolet’s new Corvette ZR1X will do a little of both as it leads the 33-car field to green at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

And honestly, could there be a more fitting choice?

Taking apart our 1969 Camaro Z/28's exterior body panels is a tad more challenging than removing her interior. Still, we were up for the challenge, as you can see from the lead photo. Our Z/28 looks like a full-size scale model, with the exterior items all laid out as if they'd just been removed from one of those plastic scale car model trees. Follow along with the step-by-step guide, so you can get your Camaro looking like a full-size scale model like ours!