A huge variety of cars displaying both incredible craftsmanship and styling covered the grounds at Beech Bend Raceway for this year’s Car Craft Summer Nationals in Bowling Green, KY. With so many high quality machines it made the decision for best of show a difficult one, but upon seeing the design and execution that Matthew Goins of Nashville, TN put into his beautiful 1971 Camaro we knew we had a winner.
The car was only a shell when he bought it, the first thing Matthew did was drop a small block Chevy in it. It didn’t take long for him to realize he wanted more for the car, WAY more. He then embarked on a 12-year journey building his car with the help of two good friends using only the best of parts.
In place of the small block, Matthew opted for a 540 cubic-inch Keith Black big block built to the teeth, added a dry sump oiling system, and bolted a Lenco trans to the back of it. Even after all that he wanted more, so adorned the top of the motor with a massive roots supercharger from PSI Superchargers and equipped it with Big Stuff 3 electronics to manage all that power.
All of the body work on the car is crafted out of steel other than a fiberglass hood, and with all the modifications that was quite a serious undertaking. They widened the rear fenders to make room for some serious meats in the back, but somehow managed to do it in a subtle manner while still retaining the appearance of the factory body lines. To give this Camaro a better appearance while at ride height the rockers were stretched and the side exit exhaust incorporated into them making this thing look just right on the ground.
It can be hard to build a car this extreme and do it tastefully, but we think Matthew and his friends did a fantastic job combining both insanity and beauty with this beast. The best part is that he actually drives this thing regularly and even added A/C to it when building it. When we asked him how it drove he was quick to say it goes down the road smoother than his wife’s new Tahoe, and we think that’s the best part.
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