Gilles 1967 RS Camaro from France!

"I've always been a great Mustang fan. Like just about anybody in France, I wanted to find a clean 'Stang and turn it into yet another Bullit clone. I live in France, in Lyon, which is this very old city built by the Romans, and where the Beaujolais wine is made. For you to locate, it's 300 mi south of Paris, roughly 250 mi north of the Mediterranean sea. One day in 1989 (a long time ago), while I was spending a week end on the beach in the French Riviera (Sainte Maxime, in the Gulf of Saint Tropez), I came across a black coupé parked in a street. I thought it was the Mustang I had been waiting for...Since it was 4 am, and that me and the gang were drunk anyway, I just noted the phone number and called the next day. It turned up that the owner had inherited the car from his father, who had bought the car from a movie car rental company in 1968. It also turned up that the car was NOT a Mustang (!), and that I was seeing my first 1st gen ever! By the way, this Camaro appears in a 1968 movie with Alain Delon in it.

And here we go. I got the car for a cheap price. All it had was a good looking body, a weak 327-275hp, and a bad leaking powerglide tranny. I drove the 270 mi from Sainte Maxime to Lyon all by myself with no exhaust on the car apart from the factory iron collectors. The small block literrally breathed into the car ! I inhaled the fumes for 5 hours and almost went deaf. After I got home, I became seriously addicted to Aspirine and Tylenol for a little more than a week. I'm doing better now. Thank you for asking.

Real work started in 93. Of course, For some reason, I got carried away in the process. When my friends in charge of the bodywork discovered that the rear quarters were gone, and that most of the undercarriage needed some serious work, I decided to go the full frame-off boogie. The usual suspects and I disassembled the car, and I took away the engine and trans, the rear end and the front frame. With the wheels on, it's a pretty nice wheelbarrow that can be handled by two normally aspirated young men...

Then I bought another White 67 Camaro, which had a nice brand new 350 engine with a strong forged bottom end a good TH 350 trans.The 67 also served as a donor for missing small items, such as the windshield that I broke during reassembly (That's NOT my job...) In the mean time, the body went straight ,received new panels from Classic Industries and many other pieces, was covered by several layers of black matte paint, and 6 or 7 layers of clearcoat. I tested many wheels and tires overtime, including American Racing 200 (the "daisy") , torq thrusts, and finally elected the 16" Rallies from Wheel Vintiques.

I kept the 350 mild for several years, it had simple and affective GM 041 heads with an Edelbrock Perfomer 2101 intake and matching cam. My elder son, Mathieu, was born in June 1996, followed in December 1997 by his brother Robin. I somewhat let go on the Camaro, and put the focus on my family. I woke up in 2000, and decided to got back on the car and redid the engine yet again, went to see the folks at NPD in Ocala, FL, to purchase a new interior, and finally had the interior refurbished in 2003. A new exhaust from Flowmaster replaced the old Flowmaster piece (it was 8 years old, not too bad for a steel thing).

Even though it may look finished, I'm still considering some things I would like to change. A hot rodder is never at rest. Future plans call for a big Mouse and an overdrive transmission. I already have a good 4 bolt 400 block and recently came across a rebuildable TH 700R4. Gimme another 10 years.... "

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