Photo:Reddit

Dwayne Klippert’s 1967 Camaro is something to behold. It’s no ornament in a rich guys driveway, It’s a car that was built to be driven and driven hard.

Way before Klippert was of age to own his dream car, he oggled them in the pages of magazines years before he could ever drive a car. By the time he was ready to own a car, the seed was planted and the man wanted to own the car he had been dreaming of, but that dream, as many are, was put on hold.

Klippert first crossed paths with the Camaro that would later be his in the ’90s when it was wasting away under a tarp, half-exposed in a shop’s yard. After he did some reconnaissance, he found the car was a fairly rust free 1967 Camaro with factory A/C, bucket seats, and a center console. The car was in the early stages of restoration and had been stripped of its engine, transmission, and front clip. He wanted it bad but, as is often the case, the timing just wasn’t right. The dream would have to wait a little longer.

Photo:Reddit

Skip ahead a few years and we find that Klippert made a decision to start his own business customizing and building cars. In the mid 2000’s, Street Creations was born. He soon started looking for a few cars to get the ball rolling and soon a friend mentioned he worked with a guy who had a 67′ Camaro for sale. In a twist of fate, Klippert soon contacted the car’s owner and sure as hell it was the same carfrom under the tarp from many years ago. Maybe some things are meant to be.

While viewing the car, Klippert felt as though we stepped into the Hot-Tub Time Machine. There it sat; the ’67 Camaro unchanged he last he saw it 8 years ago. Not one to pass up on something he wanted so bad for a second time, Klippert struck a deal and the car was soon on its way to its new home.

Photo:Reddit

Evenings and weekends were dominated by the Camaro for the next 5 years, as an incredibly in-depth rehab took place to restore her to a car worthy of representing Klippert’s shop. “I did this as the calling card for my company,” said Klippert. “Everything on the car was done by myself, bodywork, etc. You kind of have to get it done or people will look at you and say ‘can he ever get it done.”

Luckily, the car was in acceptable shape and to this day retains about 85 percent of its original sheetmetal. “The car was really a California car. The best I could figure, it was brought up to Canada in the mid-to-late ’80s,” added Klippert. “That’s where it sat for however many years until I bought it.”

Photo:Reddit

This car had to be something special, after all it was going to represent his skills and his business so Klippert knew that he had to create something unique and special. Something that would leave an indelible mark on the people who encountered her. To achieve that, Klippert knew that a full resto project was the only way to go, envisioning tasteful body mods and clean lines that would make any car guy do a double take. Klippert let function and form dictate much of the car’s reshaped linesas he got down to work in his backyard shop.

Upgrades

lowered the rocker panels by 1.5 inches to give the car the appearance of a lowered stance
lowered the front fenders to match.
Revised front valance to incorporate round ’69-style driving lights
Both front and rear bumpers have been smoothed and filled.
Customized VFN fiberglass hood
D-1SC ProCharged 416-cube, LS3 engine, built by Late Model Engines in Houston, Texas.
centrifugal blower adding 10 psi of boost on tap
Callies stroker crankshaft, pulling 8.75:1-compression Wiseco slugs
Cam Motion custom-ground camshaft
Holley Dominator EFI system
Aeromotive A1000 pump
Tremec TKO-600 transmission and RAM clutch
Currie 9-inch rearend with a polished Strange Engineering centersection
Wayne Due C4 Corvette front clip
Detroit Speed and Engineering QUADRALink rear suspension
QA1 shocks and springs
Baer six-piston calipers
splined Speedway Engineering sway bar
custom Boze forged 17×8 wheels up front and 17×11 wheels out back

Photo:Reddit

“I love the drive-by-wire [in the Holley EFI],” said Klippert. “I can’t ever see myself wanting to go back to a damn cable. You can dial in the curve with multiple tunes and bring in as much power as you want it to. It made the car much easier to drive.”

The Camaro has found its way onto autocross courses in Colorado and Del Mar. “There’s not much opportunity up here [in Canada] to autocross, but we do it as often as we can.” In pursuit of timeslips and trophies, such as the Best of Show award he earned at the Super Chevy show in Edmonton, Ontario, Canada, Klippert has taken the Camaro all over North America.

“We took the car down to Wisconsin for Optima Road America in 2013 but we didn’t make it onto the track. We blew up the motor a little,” said Klippert. “Near as we could tell, we broke an exhaust rocker arm driving around and filled the number three cylinder full of fuel. We went to fire it up and it went BOOM. It blew the top of the intake right off the car and made a hell of mess.”

The Camaro came home a wreck and the engine received full teardown but fortunately was found to be good as new. Klippert added a new set of rocker arms as well as a fresh set of pushrods as a precaution.
What could have been a catastrophic fix turned out to be nothing but a minor setback. The car is back on the road and Klippert has plans to continue showing off his creation’s capabilities and good looks to would-be customers.

Photo:Reddit

Photo:Reddit