GRAND SLAM

BUILT IN JUST TWO YEARS BECAUSE HIS OTHER PROJECT WAS TAKING TOO LONG, MITCHELL RANDO'S '69 CAMARO WENT ON TO BE CROWNED MOTORVATION 37 GRAND CHAMPION

- BORIS VISKOVIC

MITCHELL Rando's first automotive love was an HZ Holden ute, and he's had a few of them over the years, including one he's building for Drag Challenge with a turbo LS. His dad turned him onto EHs, too, and Mitchell eventually ended up with a pretty tidy V8-powered one. It's been off the road for almost 10 years now getting a complete rebuild, and Mitchell got sick of not having something cool to cruise around in, so he did what any proper street machiner would and bought another project.

"I bought the Camaro off a mate, Dave Preedy, who has had some pretty cool cars over the years, including a really nice orange Camaro," Mitchell begins. "Then he brought in this Camaro with all-new panels and all the components brand new in a container, unassembled. He did a right-hand-drive conversion but never quite got it finished, and then it went to Melbourne to get the body gapped. That didn't get done, so it sat on the hoist in Dave's workshop for almost eight years."

While chatting with Dave one day, Mitchell rued the fact that he hadn't bought the former's old orange Camaro: "Dave said, 'I'll sell you the primered one if you want.' That's where it all started."