Roadster Shop Built the PERFECT SUPERCHARGED '69 Camaro [4K]

We sat back and wanted to do something that was sort of impactful that had a little different theme. It's not frightening, but it's a fun car. We're about to dig in on a 69' Camaro with street fighter vibes. Powered by a 650 horsepower LT4 manual six-speed. Everything you want in a perfect street car. The idea was do like some sort of street fighters like ass kicking car. Make it look mean. Dude, I love this car. Cruise it down the road. It's a nice cruiser. Put your foot in it. It grips. It grips badass and it's built by Roadster Shop. Hey guys, we are back in Illinois at the home of the Roadster Shop with my friend Jeremy. Stoked to be back out here. You know that. Stoked to have you. When we did the podcast before when I was out here, we met, hung out for like five minutes. Yeah. And then jumped up in the podcast room. Yeah, it was like I didn't get past the starstruck like thing. I was the same way. I was, you know, I was geeking out. I was like, holy ----. That was fun, man. That was fun. You know, we saw the video you guys put up recently of this, because this is a car that's been in just for some general servicing, right? Yep. You built it, what, 10, 11 years ago? I think this car was built 11 years ago, which means we probably would have started it 12, almost 13 years ago. It's aged very well because you know how it is, dude. At this point, a 69' Camaro has been done every way possible. But this, I think this car was one of the leaders of that generation of car. You know, there's so many elements to this that are cutting edge at the time. It's unique. Like you said it, man, we've got some 69's in the shop now. And it's hard. Like, what do you do to get creative with it? And over the years, we've kind of pivoted to maybe leaving them like a little more stock, a little more restomod style. But this car, even at the time, I mean, Camaros were rocking and rolling. I mean, so many people were doing them. So even then, we sat back and wanted to do something that was sort of impactful, that had a little different theme. The idea was do like some sort of street fighter, just some badass, like ass kicking car. That's a perfect description of it, for sure. Let's pop hood. Yeah. We'll hit mechanicals first. Sure, let's do it. Is this one of the first cars to do an LT4? As far as I know, this is the very first LT4 crate motor. I mean, somebody will challenge that claim, right? But at the time, this seemed to me, from what I could gather, it was the first LT swap crate motor in a build, which was challenging because they were only available wet sump, or dry sump, sorry. And there were no serpentine drives available. There were no aftermarket parts available. It was sort of like experimental. It was fitting the tuning side of things was tricky. It's sort of like you're the guinea pig. Is it a stock crate? Bone stock crate. 650 horse, which is plenty. It's not frightening, but it's a fun car. You'll see when we take it out and take it for a spin. It's just a good driver, like no drama. Cruise is easy. It's quiet when you need it to be quiet. It's loud when you put your foot in it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just a good car. So Trans T56 Magnum. Tremec Trans from Bowler Transmission. This was before he was doing the carbon upgrade on them. And this was back when the Tremecs were pretty dialed. So this Trans has been perfect, man. Right out of the gate. Like it's sort of the same recipe. There's some things that have just lived. They work. So we keep doing them. The carbon inner tubs. I think we developed them on this car. And then that became a production part for our chassis. You see how nicely it frames out our front suspension. For sure, yeah. That's a nice little piece. Bolts right in. A little more tire. I think we modified them a little bit because this does have a 295 on it. We rolled the fender lips to get as much tire in there as we could. Yeah, yeah. And really turn it. Ford 9-inch rear. Ford 9-inch. It's a Fast Track Roadster Shop chassis. 9-inch Ford with a 4-link in the back. It's all our proprietary front suspension geometry. Some things have upgraded. Like we've got now forged sway bar arms. And we're forging our own knuckles. And machining our own steering arms. The installation is the big one. On the Fast Track, a little more labor intensive. Where you're getting into the rear floor section a bit. Gets into your rear sub rails. So not as easy where the spec is just straight bolted on. Drop your subframe out. Drop your rear end out. And boom, dude. Ride height's a little lower. So I think when you see like the silhouette of this car. You can see there's something cool about it. The stance is so perfect. Dude, it sits so good on this car. You were starting to say I interrupted you because I do that all the time. No problem, man. Freaking excited, you know. But Bear Master, Bear Brakes all around. Bear Master, Bear Brakes. Rick over at Bear is one of the best dudes in the industry. I'm like a relationship guy. Yeah, dude. When I connect with somebody that's good to me. And takes care of us and helps out. Like it's lifelong. You got to have some professionals in your corner to pull stuff like this off. Guys that use our chassis. I hope that's how they look at us. It's like dude, if they need something. They call me. We get it sorted. We get them taken care of. Yeah, oh yeah. You got to sort of build that network. Because that's what builds the car. That's what makes something pretty spectacular in the end. Unless you're just that ******* good. And then you talk about relationships. And I think every car that we've ever built. Pretty much has a set of Ring Brothers hood hinges on it. I know you're going over there to shoot these guys. They're focused on that. And it's a great product. All right, let's drop the hood. And let's start walking around all the. Because there's a lot done to this. Everything was done with that concept in mind. To make it look mean. Like if you saw this car in your rearview mirror. It should look like it's going to kick your ass. I'm going to kick your ass. Yeah, yeah. It should look nasty. Front bumper is pretty much scratch made. It's kind of the only way to do them. Where they really encompass. And make that whole like glowing grill shape. So we made the front bumper. Made the lower valance. It's hard to like. What all do you do to these Camaros that's different? How many different ways can you do a front chin spoiler? How many different ways can you do a rear spoiler? Yes. So the concept there was sort of make it floating. You know and it's got a thin little attachment point. So the turnbuckle pieces do sort of support it. Looking at the nose of this car. It really looks like it's just kind of floating there. And then like the customer does use it. This customer lives. I think he was from Cali and then moved to Brooklyn. I've never been to Brooklyn. But I can visualize how horrible those streets must be. And it's got enough clearance. Car sits low to the ground. Low enough where it looks cool. But you got to have the car where it's still drivable. So as hammered as this car is. Everything's still kind of tucked up. Where it's at least four and a half inches up. What's the the four holes there? Is that just like a decorative kind of touch to it? It's decorative. But we've also got a cooler behind it. So it does let some air blow through and snag the cooler. Like I'm inspired by vintage race car stuff. Like I always dig 60s, 70s. All sorts of road race Trans Am. And you always look at these like a punch flare hole dude. It's so simple. Now that doesn't mean like plant them all over the car. Because then it just goes sideways. But four little punch flare holes. There's just something interesting about it. Dude it looks sick. That it could have been a billet piece. It could have been more elaborate. But sometimes the simplicity of just doing something like that works. Are those flip open or are those? They are. They are? Yeah. So those are it's like the rally sport motors. The headlights sweep in. But we laser cut the bezels and then machine the inserts. We tinted some clear and smoked it in. So it gives it that amber look. I love it. And I love how it ties to the wheel color. I'm guessing with you guys that had to have been intentional. But I found that the brass fittings here. The brass colored fittings. Which by the way that's not actually holding. It's not actually holding. You know some things like that. It's like you know the drift car guys do it. But it's cool. But it works. It's adding like that little splash of anodized color against the satin. And those are also the wheels that went with the car originally. So these are 10, 11 year old plus wheels. That's it man. I know it's a 295 on the front. So it's a 18 by 10 on the front. And the backs are 345 30 19s. So it'd be a 19 by 12. So some other body mods on it. Kind of obvious obviously. Rocker. And it all falls together into this right? Yeah so that whole side scoop detail. That was part of that vision of make it this tough street fighter look. Yeah. It helps split that tone. And all that satin silver that's on the car. And then it incorporates some of that darker color. And sort of makes it interesting. The back's actually pretty straightforward. Because they do make this oversized glass. So the back you can kind of pop that trim out. And it's you know a little bit of gapping and things to get it to that level. This car has aged so well dude. It blows my mind actually that it's that long ago. What is the material used for the diffuser? Is that all metal? The diffuser's aluminum. It is. It's all sabbed out of aluminum. And then the tips were something that they've got like a little carbon sleeve on them. And that's something that's maybe a little tuner-ish. But it kind of worked. This car has like a few little items that might have been borrowed from the tuner guys. It does. Like the things we were pointing to up front that are holding the lower valve. Yeah there's some like 16 year old kid that sheet metal screwed those to the side of his Honda. And here's a big dollar car that uses them. And they kind of look cool. You're goddamn right. All right you go that side. I'm gonna go this side. Let's go in the interior. Sure. Hey guys real quick reminder. We have a lot of merch on our store atlamerch.com. We order all super high quality premium stuff. Every time one of you guys buys our stuff it makes a huge impact on what we do. So I want to say thanks to everyone that supported us. If you see something you like please dig in buy it. I promise you'll love the quality of what we sell. atlamerch.com Now let's get back into the video. Well this is actually overall very simple. Why don't you walk me through because I know it's there's a lot done here. Yeah the goal is to keep it sort of like GT3-ish style. It's stripped down but it's not. You still want some creature comforts. You want some textures and you want it a little refined without feeling like a raw race car. The seats are great. These are those Recaro Sportsters. Which if you've got a car that sort of calls for a modern seat it's hard to beat it. We picked some kind of racy parts here and there. Like it's got a Delrin shift knob and even like down to the shift boot. There's just styles of things that it's kind of shaped like you'd see maybe a neoprene fire proof boot. Bigger a little bit more bulbous. The carpet that's something kind of unique. I don't know what the exact material is. But you know at a glance it looks raw and it almost looks like that sort of asphalt cloth. Like does. Wire covering. It does. And then the dash. It's nothing over the top. We just flattened out the dash cluster area. Fabricated all that. But the gauges are cool. Fortunately they don't have an odometer. So I don't know how many miles are exactly on this car. Bummer. Because they're racy. Probably one of the first gauges that came out that was like properly backlit. Great for a race car. You know you can see you've got all your controls on your speedo and your tach to be able to toddle through. Makes it look racy. But you flip them on they're illuminated. They feel a little bit more OE. Feels refined. These are just fasteners holding this. Yeah just fasteners. When you look at a center console. That's another one of those areas where you talk about restraint. Just a simple piece that makes it a little bit more interesting than looking at a raw tunnel. Gives you a place to plant the window switches. Right. And sort of finishes it off. I really like the pedals. What are. Because these are. Really cool. So the pedals. That's something that. This might have been one of the first cars that we'd put those in. It's a billet pedal assembly that we design and manufacture in-house. It's been in every single roadster shop car for I mean at least the past decade. All right we're out. Let's go drive it bro. Let's take it for a rip dude. Yeah hell yeah. I know you guys are all familiar with Magnaflow exhaust. Especially for performance exhaust. And mufflers. But what a lot of you might not know. Is that they produce catalytic converters. For just about any and every make of vehicle out there. I highly recommend. Go check out Magnaflow exhaust. You're probably going to find what you're looking for. And I love having them as a partner. And I look forward to a lot more years with them. Now let's jump back into today's video. Wow this is a great car dude. You guys have definitely nailed it on the suspension platform. Where it's stiff enough. So you know if I start if you start to turn it the car is going to work. Yep. But it's not so stiff that it's uncomfortable. You know that you wouldn't want to sit in it all day long. I mean I'll usually look to ride quality before the performance of the car. But you don't want to give that up. You want the car tight and level. But you also know that the average person building a custom car. Is typically going to be street driving it. They're not going to be hitting the track. Exactly. My gauge of performance is like on ramps and off ramps. Right. Like how's a guy going to use the car. He's going to cruise this thing. Drop it down a gear and go ripping across a you know. That's the truth though. And it's got enough power to do that you know. Without even having to downshift you know. This car is sick bro. Bummer that there's no odometer. Are you curious to know how far this guy drove it? I wonder if you could pull it out of the ECU. I'm not sure but that's the downside to those gauges. Yeah. It's got enough power where it's a fun car to drive. I mean it puts you back in the seat a little bit you know. Dude it definitely does. Part of it is for me too is it's got torque. Yeah. Horsepower comes more into play as you're up in speeds. Where torque's the zero to a hundred fun time stuff. Exactly and it's always there on this car. No matter what RPM you're at it's pretty responsive. Yep. This is just fun drivable power to me. Like I'm not I'm not scared at all. It doesn't mean I'm not paying attention but I'm not. I'm not nervous about batting the throttle and having it do something I'm not expecting you know. Yeah there's no situation regardless of where you're at in the RPM where you're going to stab that thing and that car is going to like do something silly. Yeah I always enjoy when someone tells me yeah my car it has a roadster shop chassis. Everything they say after that right away I know so long as they did the install properly. We got a great driving car. That's good man. Nice. How fast do you want to be going by him? Fast fast. As much as you want. You guys are all set up and good to go? Yes sir we're good to go. You got two cars three cars coming on the side so I'd wait a second. Truck's coming our way. You want to let him go by so we got a clean? Yeah I guess yeah. Oh ****. Hold on this guy's blocking my shot. Yep I can see that. Is this the drone police flagging us down? Oh now he's getting out. Here we go. Green vest. Yeah that's important. That's like a crown somebody gave him. We're in trouble with that dude. How's it going man? We're filming uh this car right here. Nothing to do with construction? No literally just the Camaro. Okay I was told that you guys might have a drone in the area. Nah we have a drone in the area. Is it in flight right now? Not really? No. I don't see Josh putting the drone up so that guy might have made it. It's still hanging up there. Oh is it? On the left yeah. Is the drone like a problem over here? Yeah for flights there's an airport nearby. Oh uh but it won't let you take off if you're near an airport. There is an airport a mile that way. Yeah but if you're too near it there's zones. There's like literally geographical zones that it won't let you. It's like an invisible wall. We're good. We'll get out of your hair. We're good we're about ready. Sorry. Thanks man. We're all good. Hey Josh are we okay? Yeah just then. Another uh drone question. Copy. Dude what is this like? Freaking out about drones. What do they think we're gonna go get steal trade secrets from them? Dude I love this car. It's a good car man. This car is so cool. No drama at all just like just go. Yeah. This car rips bro. Yeah she scoots huh? I mean it doesn't feel like anything even sketchy other than that everything starts moving a lot faster. Car rips. Anyone that thinks 650 is not enough horsepower you're either a pro driver that needs more power or you just don't understand. Dude it's a good it's a sweet spot for a fun street car. Sorry it's a fresh set of tires so. Yeah yeah yeah. Think about this you guys. This car was built over 10 years ago. Still relevant in all the design cues and execution. Absolutely badass car. I always love shooting with the Roadster Shop. As always you guys thanks for hanging and watching and I'll see you in the next one. Later.