When I was about 2 years old my father traded some Snap-on tools for this 1968 Camaro. He drove it for a few years, but with a growing family and a company to run he ended up parking it in an old barn at our house.

Over the years the rats stole the keys and ate the seats. Then water leaked in and rusted out all of the floor boards and trunk. The break pads rusted to the point where they were welded tight to the drums and the car wouldn’t even roll.

After several years, my dad tried to resurrect the car. With a blow torch we cut the center of the break drums out so it could roll and moved it from the barn at the house up to his first mechanic shop in Round Rock off of N. Mays. He pulled off all of the sheet metal off the front clip (nose, hood, front fenders) and had it repainted. He even replaced the motor with a 1970’s LT1 motor with the camel hump heads and a 350HP cam shaft.

However, life caught up with him once again and this car was pushed into the back parking lot of the shop with a new motor and fresh paint on the front, but it was never even fired up.

Several more years passed and when I reached the age of 13 I became very interested in cars. At that point in time I’m not even sure I knew what a Camaro was, but I did know that it looked really cool. After harassing my father for a few years he finally agreed to give it to me. He must have been offered money for that car a hundred times by other people, but he always told them that he was hanging onto that car for his boys.

As I look back, the years that would follow would be some of the best days of my life. I worked with my father and brother gathering parts and rebuilding the car piece by piece. Every birthday and Christmas all I wanted was Camaro parts. I told my father that I wanted to be driving it before I graduated high school and he just laughed.

Eventually, I did get it running before I graduated high school, but it was by no means street legal. In order to keep me off the street and out of trouble my dad started taking me up to the drag strip in Little River.

We had a blast at that little track. The whole family would pack up and we would trailer it out there. I don’t think I ever won anything, but I had a lot of fun and learned how to drive fast in a safe environment. It was probably one of the smartest things my dad ever did. I learned to respect the speed and know my limits. I definitely scared myself on more than one occasion, but we always tried to be as safe as possible.

During the years that I raced the Camaro I learned a ton about cars. I knew all of the ins and outs of the motor, ignition system, and fuel system. We were constantly swapping parts and tuning it to get as much out of it as possible. We were still using the old LT1 that my dad built back in the 80’s and we never even pulled the pan or heads. That old LT1 was pretty quick and we got it running in the 12’s. Not bad for an old school motor that smoked.

About the time I started college we started building a new motor. It was going to be the most outrageous 350 SBC on earth. Huge aluminum heads, massive roller cam, port matched intake, and hundreds of dollars in machine work. Most of the parts I bought off a friend who was running a mechanical alcohol fuel injected race car who was wanting to upgrade to a big block. It took over a year to build the motor, but it was all worth it.

It scared the crap out of everyone. The power was insane and I was even afraid to drive it at the track on it’s maiden voyage. My dad took the honors and managed to over rev the motor during the burn out and broke one of the rocker studs. Even on 7 cylinders it was still fast and ran as quick as the old motor. After a quick repair in the pits we were finally able to get it going. The fastest time on that motor was 11.78 in the 1/4 mile at over 120 mph.

Since then I have continued making improvements and I was eventually able to make it street legal. I drive it now and then, but I think the thing I enjoy most is working on it. I’ll do my best to keep this site up-to-date with any changes that I make.