SCCA Camaro

Pro-Touring was just getting started and Stacy and Kyle Tucker’s Twister 1969 Camaro was only a few years old.  It debuted at the Detroit Autorama in 2000, and won the Goodguys Street Machine of the Year in 2000.  Kevin and Stacy founded Detroit Speed and Engineering and were at ground zero of the new G Machine or Pro Touring movement when I started putting a plan for the Camaro together in 2004.  They were located in Brighton, Michigan, and since Dad lived back in Bay City, I asked him if he’d go down to DSE and check the place out before I placed an order for some Pro-Touring goodies for the ’68.  Dad was impressed and the plan started forming—a road race capable Camaro, but with touring capabilities.  I started putting together a budget and plan, which took me several months.   

During this time I acquired a bunch of books that helped me make most of my decisions regarding putting the car together for SCCA autocrossing.  Among the most useful were the 1968 Camaro Factory Assembly Instruction Manual and the 1968 Chassis Service Manual.  “Original Camaro 1967-1969” (ISBN 0-7603-0925-6) and especially “Camaro Restoration Guide 1967-1969” (ISBN 0-7603-0160-3), both Jason Scott, were in my opinion the best restoration guides, but I also had “The Conclusive Camaro Recognition Guide” (ISBN 0-9633802-3-0) by John R. Hooper, and “Camaro Restoration Handbook” (ISBN 0-89586-375-8) by Tom Currao and Ron Sessions.  I poured over a couple of books about small block Chevys, “How to Rebuild Your Small-Block Chevy” (ISBN 1-55788-029-8) and “Budget Builiding Max Performance Chevy Small Blocks” (ISBN 1-884089-34-8), both my David Vizard, as well as “John Lingenfelter on Modifying Small-Block Chevy Engines” (ISBN 1-55788-238-X) by—well, the late John Lingenfelter.  All of these were great books, and each had something very useful in my information gathering stage, but the one that was most inspirational was Tony Huntimer’s book “How to Build and Modify GM Pro Touring Street Machines” (ISBN 1-884089-76-3), which was hot off the presses.  It had a lot of great information and quite a bit on Detroit Speed and Engineering, which was another indication that they were at the ground floor of the movement, and probably someplace I needed to visit.