Inside
The beauty of Vinnie's Camaro is its simplicity. There's very little inside today that wasn't there 35 years ago. Every panel and stitch of upholstery is GM resto fare as applied by S/P Classics in Amity Village, New York, and the seats are stock but refurbished. To suppress the debilitating effects of noise and heat, S/P swathed the floor with Dynamat. MI Mike installed the Auto Meter gauges and rewired the car. There is no audio or air conditioning; steering and brakes are manual.
Performance
This is what the blue car is all about, of course, and Vinnie stapled a time slip to the tech sheet to prove it. He put a half-tank of 93 in it, drove to the track on street radials, and ran a 1.49-second 60-foot and the quarter-mile in 10.72 at 124.60 through the mufflers. To tell it another way, the 406 makes 525 hp at 6,700 rpm and 500 lb-ft of torque at 5,800 rpm, right there at the tarmac.
Body
It got the full slam. In preparation for the GM Code 71 Lemans Blue paint, Gene in Oceanside, New York, stripped down, sand-blasted, blocked off, and wet-sanded Vinnie's racer. The hockey-stick stripe is absolutely essential to the whole.
Chassis
Chassis preparation is the mainstay at MI Performance in West Babylon, New York. Mike Ingrossio builds 10-inch-tire killer cars, and not just Chevrolets. Things could have gotten out of hand here, but Vinnie's ride didn't need much in the way of preparation. Mike made the subframe connectors and installed the Cal Tracs bars beneath the 12-bolt. The front and rear springs, spindles, steering, brakes-all of it-are pure stock. The rear shock absorbers are gas-charged but the front dampers are stock. Ingrossio spent many hours trifling with the Camaro's suspension to produce a subtle, hard-working stance.
Rollers & Brakes
Vinnie's car doesn't need monster brakes, a full-on handling suspension, or shiny dubba-dub hoops. The disc/drum binders are stock and the Cragar S/S rims ply more than a little nostalgia, at least to this writer. In the fabled day, they were the wheels to spin. On the glide side, it's a 15x6 with a 215/60 BFG Touring T/A. On the punishment end, Vinnie put M/T 275/60R15 ET Street Radials on 8-inch rims.