Styling and customizing trends come and go. Some are timeless and classic, others make you wince after the period of being the in thing has gone. Come enjoy seeing what some of them have done to one of America's favorite cars.
You'll be surprised at how some things are just as great today as they were half a century ago, while others are cringe-worthy. We like to see people make their cars go faster, handle better, or look better than they did as they came from Chevrolet.
10 Candy Paint Job Camaro - Badass!
Ever since someone figured out you could have a translucent effect by spraying a silver base coat with a highly polished mix of color and clear to make a thin topcoat, the candy paint scheme has been a great customizing addition. Truth is, later on, some paint manufacturers actually figured out how to offer stratified single coverage paint that does the same thing.
The incredible shine by having a mirror effect behind a thin layer of highly polished tinted clear makes for a wonderful paint job that looks fantastic. What started as candy-apple red has spread to burgundies, greens, blues, and other colors that minds with a great imagination could come up with. This will always look fantastic.
9 Too Much Nitrous Oxide Injection - Ridiculous!
With the advent of cheap turbocharging, nitrous is starting to be relegated to specific drag racing classes and as a boost addition to other forms of forced induction. Its successful use on streetcars is limited, and it should be used sparingly.
Don't burn up your $10,000 engine by trying to run a 500 H.P.+ nitrous single stage plate system. Seeing the damage that occurs during a misfire is not funny at all.
8 Lowered, Stanced Camaro - Badass!
Done properly, with the low hanging parts moved out of the way and suspension upgrades that are designed for handling, a lowered car can be awesome = especially on the road racing course. Most people do not do it right, and the car suffers. We like it when someone went to the trouble of making the thing handle like a slot car.
The look can be fantastic. We also like the look of the tires filling the wheel wells with little to no noticeable air gap around the wheel wells and archway. Keep the wheels from hitting the car body itself becomes a challenge, so do the job right.
7 Rat Rod Camaro - Ridiculous!
We've never thought retroactively making a clean car look like it's rusted and trashed looks as good as a trick paint job. That's just our opinion. You can see where someone took great care to make this entry-level Camaro look as if it's spent multiple hours in the northeast during the winter. He even faked scuffed tires from urban parallel parking. It's quite an effort.
Model A King-pin mounted front end grafted to a spent mid 70s hulk of a Camaro. Well, it gets attention, and it's a great welding project. Who needs disc brakes anyways?
6 Airbrush Graphics Camaro, Badass!
The wheels of this custom RS Camaro look dated 45 years after this car was customized. The airbrushed border graphics are timeless and look as good today as they did in the early 1970s - when someone thought, what if? Notice like the candied jobs, the base coat of the striping is silver with a translucent red mix above it to give it a glow.
Look at this Z-28 with the incredible air-brushed graphics that add details to the look of the car. Obviously this is a 2500 H.P. race car, but the car looks terrific and it's one of the prettiest race cars we've seen.
5 Jacked Up Camaro - Ridiculous!
What can we say?! You'll see every particle in the road with your high beams on, and it will be ok so long as your wet sump oil pan has good internal baffles. Admit it, old people, most of us did this during the 60s, 70s, or 80s via spring shackles, higher spring rate, air shocks, or a full tube and tub job with a narrowed rear axle, it still looks dumb.
Well, ok, a broken body mounted on a Mad Max-style H1 frame, does get you up and over meter-high walls with only slowing down. It does get you around obstacles nicely. Bring your face mask for all that dust you'll be taking in.
4 Smoothed, Chopped Body Camaro, Badass!
If you look closely, all the dimensions have been altered in the above car. The tell-tale is the reliefs for the turbo-charging in the hood and the smallish look of the grill area. We also like the removal of the door handles and the subtle roof chop, which also makes the windows move outwards, giving it a more flush look.
This 1971-72 car has been subtly cleaned up with the removal of external items such as door handles. By adding larger wheels, the things that stand out are changed and it makes it look fantastic.
3 Bedliner Sprayed Body Camaro - Ridiculous!
This does have two advantages, a much lower laser, and radar signature and repelling of gravel and small foreign object damage. However, it's ugly, hot, and ruins the look of the car. We suppose it's all about the intent of the vehicle. If it's for road racing and you don't care about the extra surface drag, then go for it.
Pressure wash it once a week and use paintless dent repair techniques when you hit garbage cans, small animals, and rocks under 2lbs, that's about the level of maintenance to be expected. It looks ugly, however.
2 Twin Turbo Camaro, Badass!
We love insanely fast 2,000 H.P. LS-powered Camaros. The amount of boost that can safely be made from electronically controlled turbocharging and fuel injection is awesome. Just 40 years ago, 2000 H.P. was what a top fuel dragster put out.
Now there are road cars driven by guys who successfully drive these cars daily to promote their companies and industries to do it for others. The ability to control these beasts and make them tractable to drive every day and not just on the quarter-mile dragway is awesome.
1 Too Big A Blower Camaro - Ridiculous!
The owner thought that running an E.M.D. blower from a 2-cycle locomotive engine would look cool on his car. During an interview, he said the engine made around 1,000 H.P. once he got it sorted after several failures setting it up. Not very practical, however.
This owner wanted the most convoluted twin-turbo/roots blown fabrication he could build. He got it. He has actually driven it around fairgrounds during rod shows, but it's not as fast as a real twin-turbo set up for racing and it's awkward.