A Grand Touring 1971 Camaro by GAP Racing
When Rob Roberts sold his 1969 Camaro project car, he didn’t know just how much his sons, Matthew and Austin, would miss it. He could tell that Matthew especially was sad to see the car get loaded up on a trailer and roll off forever. “I knew I had made a mistake,” Rob told us. He had sold the Camaro to make room for a Corvette ZR1 that would replace it. The LS9-powered C6 got hot-rodded with an aggressive cam, an overdriven supercharger, and a set of HRE wheels, but it just wasn’t the same as the old muscle. Soon enough the bug for old iron bit him and Rob found a 1971 Camaro to buy as a project. The car was a driver, although it was always in need of some sort of mechanical attention. Rob told us, “the car was leaking oil, then the fuel gauge didn’t work, and I didn’t even know what was wrong with it.” Those nagging gremlins caused that early iteration of the car to earn the nickname “Enigma” because Rob never really knew what the problem would be each time he wanted to take it for a cruise. In order to make the car dependable enough to drive from his home in Texas to Biloxi, Mississippi, for Cruisin’ the Coast, Rob dropped in a basic Chevrolet Performance crate 350 and hit the road. The car did its job, delivering Rob and Matthew to Mississippi. It was just missing something. That’s when Rob decided to meld his Enigma with the best parts of his Corvette ZR1 to create a road-carving Camaro capable of comfortable, reliable, cross-country cruising.
This story is from the May 2017 edition of Hot Rod.
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This story is from the May 2017 edition of Hot Rod.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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