1973 Camaro
High School Sweetheart
Brett Anderson of Port Orchard, Washington, had the coolest car in high school. When he turned 16, his parents helped him fork over $2,500 to get this '73 Camaro. At this point it was a limp-wristed two-barrel small-block with the body lines of an agitated lake. Back in those days, it was still in the top tier of cool kids' cars. Lucky for him, Brett met a couple of older kids who helped him make the car into something more impressive. He traded that puny small-block for a 472-inch big-block Chevy that made 610 horsepower and 651 lb-ft of torque on pump gas. Once the motor was taken care of, Brett switched over to the bodywork that needed to be done. He spent quite a while blocking out those wavy panels, and then covered them in Hugger Orange paint.
With the high-impact orange paint and earth-shaking idle, Brett took pleasure in terrorizing his fellow classmates who sat in the passenger seat. This was all fun and games for him growing up, but that kind of behavior can't last forever. When Brett married, his wife, Christine, convinced him to tone it down a bit. The Hugger Orange paint was traded for a custom blend of PPG silver, and the vicious 10-second big-block made way for a street-friendly LS1. The changes didn't stop there. With a smooth, mild-mannered powerplant, Brett was able explore a whole new way of driving. He began swapping his factory parts for road-race-inspired alternatives. He got hold of one of the first G-Bar systems for second-generation Camaros from Chassisworks.
With some updated suspension parts in place, Brett experimented with autocross. He signed up in the novice class just to get his feet wet and see how it works. He was pleased when the other drivers came to him with praise. Brett tells us: "There weren't a lot of other muscle cars out there--a couple late-model Corvettes--but that's it. It felt really good to score lower times than some of the race-prepped imports."
Aside from the autocross events, Brett has attended a couple of car shows, and while it seems to get a great response, he has much more fun with the car on the street and on the course.