The Middle East has officially obtained its first American Muscle cop-car, a Chevrolet Camaro SS. Buti Saeed Al Ghandi, Managing Director of Al Ghandi Auto and John Stadwick, President and Managing Director of GM Middle East, handed the keys of the Camaro SS to Dubai Deputy Police Chief Major General Khamis Mattar Al Mazeina. In return John Stadwick received a special engraved plaque from Dubai Police.

When your father builds the kind of quality hot rods you see in the following pages, how could you not get back into it? That was what we wondered with a slight smile on our face as we cruised down the boulevard toward the Pacific in Rob Saltarelli's '65 Chevelle Malibu SS. As a young man growing up in Huntington Beach, California, Rob admits to being preoccupied with life while his father churned out some killer rides in the last eight years, but after inheriting his dad's last great projects after he died in 2011, Rob seems to have caught the bug. You know the one that makes you swap water pumps the night before to make a photo shoot even though you have to "customize" it; the same bug that makes burning a tanker of SoCal winter blend trying to find the ideal shoot location no big deal.

Adrian Mancilla wasn't always into cars. The money he earned from his childhood paper route was destined for a dirt bike, but thanks to the wisdom of his older brothers, he bought a car. It was an all-original, one-owner '67 Nova SS, a big purchase for a 13-year-old. His brothers told him if he started working on it now, he would have the fastest car in high school. He had big ideas that involved a lot of cutting and welding but couldn't justify chopping up a numbers -matching SS. Smart kid. He sold that Nova but never got it out of his system.

Bob Littlefield's workday doesn't follow the typical 9 to 5 schedule. Bob takes advantage of Rhode Island's summer peak tourism season with two businesses. He runs a parasailing business as well as a car rental service on Block Island. These jobs keep him busy up to four months of the year, but Bob can't waste the rest of the year.

Todd Geisler is a fabricator by trade and at any other time is a racer because it feeds an addiction, pure and simple. The process invigorates him and makes him feel whole. While the racing part is good, that he has the skills and the forethought to create his own stuff from nothing is even better. It would stand that such circumstance would naturally deflate the cost of the project, wouldn't it? When asked the estimated cost of building his car his answer was succinct: "Too much!"

With horsepower seemingly growing on trees these days, picking a set of high-flow cylinder heads for your engine combination is the easy part. A mother load of rotating assemblies and aftermarket blocks means that building a big-cube short-block to take advantage of all that airflow isn't exactly difficult, either. With the top and bottom end of an engine build covered, the wild card in the horsepower equation often comes down to the camshaft. While it's true that manufacturers offer a diverse range of off-the-shelf camshafts for every conceivable combination, several important decisions must be made before you even narrow the field of part numbers down to a list of finalists.

Every summer we make a pilgrimage to Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Illinois, for the annual Nitto Tires Super Bowl of Street Legal Drag Racing that pits the NMCA-Flowmaster series against its rival, the NMRA-Keystone Ford Drag Racing sanctioning body. Both are owned by ProMedia Events and the idea is to bring both racing leagues together for a bonus runoff where the winners get additional prize money and the winning team walks away with Nitto Tire Diamond Tree championship rings (which look like a Super Bowl ring to go with the event's theme).

It wasn't long ago that the majority of muscle cars were either built as Pro Street machines or simply restored back to factory specs. These days, the word pro has evolved into Pro Touring and rather than idling through car shows, these gems can be seen cruising the highways and terrorizing the tracks against most modern-day sports cars.

In the hot rod world engine swaps are a big part of what we do. It can be a small-block V-8 to replace a straight six-banger, a big-block in place of a small-block, or any number of "this for that" combinations. These days one of the more popular gyrations is to drop a modern EFI-fed, computer-controlled mill underhood, and the most popular choice is GM's line of LS engines. After all, what's not to love? Great street manners, lightweight aluminum goodness, killer gas mileage, and a rock-solid EFI system wrapped up in an arguably affordable package.

Magnet Free

In the auto trans world, few transmissions can handle the type of power the TH400 can when it's upgraded from stock. Unlike the Powerglide, which is mainly a drag racing trans, the TH400 is a viable choice for both street cars and hard-core strip racers.

Late in the afternoon yesterday, I was taking a breather from releasing our February issue and started thinking about the upcoming Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) show in Sin City, or Las Vegas if you prefer. If this is new to you, it's an annual event that takes place over the course of a week, showcasing the latest and greatest components from the performance automotive aftermarket. This includes everything from aesthetic enhancing items to suspension and brake upgrades, along with our personal favorite: hard-core goodies to increase horsepower in our four-cycle powerplants.

Big-Block Brawler

The owner of a red 1967 Chevrolet Chevelle was recently reminded how important it is to stay up-to-date on all vehicle information, regardless vehicle status. In a rare situation, a lady removed her late-husband's name from an insurance policy after his death, but never switched his name from the '67 Chevelle's title. When an electrical short in the spare refrigerator caused a fire, the garage and all 4 cars inside were completely destroyed. After receiving a $25,000 check from Hagerty Insurance for the loss of the Chevelle, the wife was unable to cash the check due to proof she owned the car. Now, with the emotional devastation of the fire still on the family's mind, they're knee-deep in attorney fees and court costs attempting to obtain executor status of the title for the late-husband's son.

On May 7, 2013, Jack Reacher hops into a 1970 Chevelle for an exhilarating car chase on Blu-ray, DVD and On Demand from Paramount Pictures. Tom Cruise plays the lead character, Jack Reacher, performing all the stunt-driving himself. The film was adapted from best-selling author Lee Child's wildly popular series of novels, Jack Reacher.

Eastwood's Pottstown, PA, retail store is reveling a grand reopening celebration set to fire off on April 19th - 28th. During the event, Eastwood is hosting free hands-on training classes covering topics such as welding and automotive refinishing. All visitors to the retail store who bring out their collector vehicle during the grand reopening celebration will receive a free gift and exclusive discounts.

Chevrolet is bringing back the "Stingray" name with the all-new 2014 Corvette, and the price is affordable. Debuting the coupe in Detroit earlier this year, the company followed-up today announcing the 2014 Corvette Stingray coupe will start at $51,995, and the 2014 Corvette Stingray Convertible will start at $56,995.

The Chevy High Performance Nationals is the largest all-GM event of the year featuring a huge car show, bracket and True Street racing, LSX racing, a special autocross presented by JET-HOT and Wilwood Brakes, a world-class all-GM manufacturers' midway, a giant used parts swap meet, 300+ mph jet cars, and much more.

With its chrome-topped tail fins and chrome hood rockets, the '57 Chevy rolled off General Motors' assembly lines as a classic from the factory. Surprisingly enough, the '57 Chevy Bel Air is among the most sought after cars in America - for car thieves. In 2012 alone, forty-two '57 Chevys were stolen; a total of 23,250 Bel Airs have been stolen from 1958 through 2012.

It's been nine years since Art Morrison experimented with his own project '55 Chevy (Project GT55) at the Goodguys "Street Machine of the Year" competition. For the project he used his own chassis design, and has since assembled and sold 1,000 of the Tri-5 GT Sport chassis. Engineered in 2004 as a groundbreaking "bolt-on" high performance chassis for 1955-57 Chevrolets, Morrison has produced a product that's established a proven reputation for success.

Imagine owning the first assembled 2014 Chevy Corvette Stingray coupe, and then buying the first to-be-built 2014 Stingray convertible -- that's exactly what famed NASCAR team owner, Rick Hendrick, did this past weekend.

In December of last year, General Motors filed the paperwork to secure the "Chevelle" trademark, according to the GM news hounds over at GM Authority. Of course, this immediately leads us at Chevy High Performance and others to start wildly speculating that the Chevelle name could resurface on a car within the next few years. Consider the key requirement to file for such a trademark: a legal document known as a "Statement of Use" (SOU) has to be in order; this generally outlines the company's immediate plans for using the name. However, it can also be filed within three years of the application, pushing back the exact reasoning for use to a later date. If the proper math is done, three years just happens to coincide with the expected redesign of the Australian-built Chevy SS sedan that has just been introduced. We may be getting ahead of ourselves a bit though... so let's back up.

The Z/28 is back! During its press conference at the 2013 New York auto show, General Motors dropped a bombshell on the packed house with the formal announcement of the new 2014 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28, the centerpiece of its revamped 2014 Camaro lineup. With the lights dimmed and a soundtrack of an engine revving, the bright white Z/28 rolled on stage for the first time.