Falling in love with a true muscle car

If somebody asks me to describe my car, he would hear this: A work in progress.

In January 1996, I was looking for a sporty and, ahem, affordable American car to replace my daily drive, a yellow 1974 Chevy Nova 2-door sedan with a 250-cid 6-cylinder engine. I wanted to restore a car with a V-8 engine. My dad drove a 1952 Chevy 2-door sedan until 1979 so I have an affinity towards Chevrolets, albeit the old ones. I had gone as far north as Isabela (where I saw a 1953 Chevy Bel-Air 2-door hardtop and a matching 4-door sedan used for spare parts) and as far south as Cavite (where I missed a 1963 Chevy Impala with the SS trim) while looking for my project car. Then a friend brought me to a narrow driveway at the end of a dead-end street in Project 8, Quezon City. Right next to the driveway was an open lot where I saw my dream car – a 1971 Chevrolet Camaro Rallye Sport (RS).

The car’s owner had acquired it as collateral for a small loan. He didn’t have much use for it so he just parked it there on the lot. During the construction of a building nearby, some wet concrete fell on the car and hardened on its roof, hood, trunk, backlight and windshield. The tires eventually became flat and the entire car turned into a sad picture of neglect, its once glossy red paint turning faded orange. Fortunately, the interior remained dry and didn’t deteriorate much during the three years the car lay immobile.

I snapped up the Camaro despite its sad condition and stiff price. Several burly men had to literally carry it so we could fix the tires. After ensuring that it could be rolled safely, I had it towed to a friend’s garage where I started cleaning it.

Rare find

The 1971 Camaro is a 2-door coupe with a fastback design. It has four large round tail lights similar to those in its more expensive cousin, the Corvette. My car boasts of the collectible Rallye Sport option, which features a split-bumper front end, an "endura" nose section and round park lights mounted near the headlights. Car magazines in the ‘70s compared the gaping grille and the overall design execution to a contemporary Ferrari. Road & Track magazine likened its front-end design to a Jaguar’s, stating that the European-influenced overall design of the Camaro RS is "one of the best designs to come out of Detroit". Road & Track even voted the Camaro RS 350 one of the "Best Cars in the World" in 1971.

The engine installed in my car is a two-bolt main bearing, 350-cid, small block V-8. The previous owners must have added a pair of aluminum finned valve covers, chrome air cleaner and chrome radiator cover. It had a stock intake manifold, a four-barrel Quadrajet carburetor and the stock cast iron exhaust manifold connected to a rusty but still serviceable 2-inch dual exhaust system.

The engine hadn’t been fired up for three years so the mechanic and I removed the spark plugs and first cranked it slowly by hand. After ensuring that the internal parts weren’t stuck up, we changed the oil, connected a new battery, and cranked the engine up again with the starter. After coughing out some carbon deposits through the spark plug holes, the engine cranked nicely. Finally, after checking the valve train for proper lubrication, we installed the spark plugs, poured some premium gasoline down the carburetor throat, crossed our fingers and started the engine. It fired up on our first try and settled to a lumpy idle!

The first time I heard the engine roar, I had goosebumps all over. Its booming deep baritone, thinly muffled at idle, was sweet music to the ears of any Chevy enthusiast. The guttural growl from the internal combustion performed in eight cylinders was the sound of pure automotive muscle waiting to be unleashed.

I sat in the driver’s seat and revved the engine a little. Visions of NASCAR, Dukes of Hazzard, and Starsky and Hutch flashed through my mind. My spine tingled at the sound and vibration each time I stepped on the accelerator. The sound alone was worth the price of owning this marvelous machine. I reveled in knowing that I now owned this Camaro with all its virtues and vices. And I knew I had a long way to go.

Restoring an icon

Over the years, I’ve done several things to make the Camaro more reliable, run faster and be a more comfortable ride than when I first got it. I’ve had the engine overhauled, installed an aluminum Edelbrock Performer RPM intake manifold, replaced the old Quadrajet with a Holley 650-cfm vacuum-secondary carburetor, installed an Engle 270 "mild" cam (only to replace it later with a stock cam because of the increase in gasoline prices), and installed SMT 2.25-inch headers.

I’ve had the 3-speed Turbo-Hydramatic transmission overhauled twice; first to make the car run, and the second time to install a B&M Shift Improver Transkit. I’ve installed an A/C system to make the car comfortable during summer. And I found a company to sponsor the complete sheet metal restoration and repainting. I opted to have it sprayed with polyurethane paint in a Hugger Orange hue, and added black Z-28 stripes.

I’ve driven the car to a lot of places and in various races. It led a parade of American muscle cars during the second anniversary of Hard Rock Café in Makati, competed in the vintage car slalom in the 1997 Motorshow, served as the demo car of Audiovox-Prestige Mobile Electronics in the 1998 Transport Show, participated in a 1999 Car Club Meet in Marikina Riverside Mall organized by the Volkswagen Club, was featured in an episode of Auto Focus and is a regular member of the Everyday Holiday American Muscle Car Club. I’ve had my fill of drag races and stoplight grand prix competitions, and have taken the car to Laguna, Pampanga and other destinations outside Metro Manila.

Attention grabber

My Camaro has attracted attention and interest from both sexes, so much so that one may develop a sense of paranoia from driving it. Yet it shares daily driving duties with my other car, a 4-cylinder, 4-door Japanese sedan. My one-year-old daughter, Vette (Ed: He named her after the Corvette), loves riding in the Camaro and she gives a playful "Vvvrooomm...yehey!" each time an open road presents itself. Gas station attendants and fellow motorists ask me how much mileage I get out of my "Mustang" every time I fill up. (apparently, most Filipinos think all American pony cars are made by Ford). Relatives think I’ve been stricken with mad cow for driving a guzzler in times of sky-high gas prices. Sometimes, I’m inclined to believe them.

I’ve received generous offers for my Camaro, and at times, I find myself on the verge of giving in. But somehow, I am still able to say, "No, thank you. I’d rather keep the car." Because every time I slip inside the car and start the engine, my mind wanders to the future adventures I may still have with this beauty. I think of the things I still want to do to it like get a set of 15-inch American Racing Torque Thrust magwheels, find a real 360-bhp LT-1 350-cid V-8 to make it perform like a genuine Z-28, restore it (again) to concourse condition, and so on. Cars like this are getting rare, and this Camaro has become a sort of investment for me. I bask in the thought that among all the exotic, sexy and sporty cars in Metro Manila, this classic machine has a distinct feature that is very dear to me – it’s mine.