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From The Pages Of PHRJames Greenwell of Louisville, Ky., got quite a surprise while flipping the pages of the October issue of PHR. In his words, "I loved your article, '9 Cars You Need to Build.' As I was avidly reading and flipping the pages, I almost dropped the magazine when I saw the car you listed last. The 1982 Camaro concept you showed looks very similar to what I'm currently building."
At first James had an '89 IROC convertible but after attending the National F-body gathering and running his first track event, he was hooked and decided to take it up a notch. The 'vert was sold and James picked up a pretty clean '91 Z28 hardtop in 2003 for the sole purpose of being a track day car and weekend cruiser. For bodywork, the antenna, drip rails and front emblem were all shaved and the door handles from a '94 Grand Am were grafted in place.
A three-inch cowl hood was installed and the whole car got a coat of Tangerine pearl paint (the same as used on '03 PT Cruisers) with a set of flamed black rally stripes.
For the drivetrain, James has only done a few minor tweaks to the 350 TPI, but the Z28 does have a T56 six-speed gearbox from a '97 Trans Am, a Flowmaster exhaust and a set of Edelbrock headers.
Handling has been upgraded with Eibach springs, Koni shocks/struts and all new poly bushings. The transplanted C5 Z06 brakes are wrapped inside '00 Camaro 17-inch wheels and tires. For the interior, the seats were upgrades and for safety a harness bar and 5-point restraint system were added.
To date, James has about $12K in the car with the biggest part of that being the paint. Over the winter, he plans on swapping in an LS1 engine and retiring the 230,000-mile 350.