69 Camaro BB w Baldwin Chevy Connection

[Tracker1]

I've been into/obsessed with factory-built American high-performance cars since the late '70s - early 80s... 12 years old.

During that time we've seen the restoration trend where a pretty good used car became a shiny show car (think Musclecar Review's resto of that LeMans Blue '69 Z28 in '82 or'83), accompanied by the boom in the re-pop parts biz. The same magazine spawned the term "restification" where subtle mods made your show car a nice driver with better brakes, better steering and a few more ponies, but nobody could see any of it just looking under the hood - the current F.A.S.T. race cars can trace their existence to that same term first coined in MCR. Then we started to see crazy, over-the-top restorations, e.g., guys like Roger Gibson where original paint runs and phosphate finishes on the heads of bolts were/are duplicated in almost obsessive compulsive detail, turning their nose up at the use of ANY re-pop parts. Then the term 'Survivor' was taken from the Corvette folks and applied to any muscle car retaining most of its original personality and identity under a sheen of "patina". Then, hot on the heels of that, discovering a "Barn Find" became all the rage...everything now has spent time in a GD barn, "comes with original rat poop in the glove box".

Now this "rat muscle" trend has taken hold: a barn find hauled from a shed or a backyard that looks like with a week's work it could actually run around the block - and that's what this Camaro represents to some people - Rat Muscle. (though I think a week's work for this particular Rod is a bit optimistic)

Now, that's four or five evolutions of stock musclecar (not including G-machines here) enjoyment, usage and associated terminology in just over 30 years. Trends are trends, you can't ignore them. Some people like a new trend, some people don't. There are definitely people who will salivate over this car because it looks crusty. And some who think it's a POS.

But if we all liked the same thing...