Carl Casanova offered us a ride in his '68 Camaro on the day of the photo shoot. Because he had arrived early to avoid traffic, we had some time to kill, so we decided to take it to get an early dinner.
Driving there, the car gave no indication that it made more than 500 hp at the crank. It fired instantly, idled quietly, and pulled away from a stop smoothly and without drama. If you could somehow ignore the old-school red interior and beautiful, rally-striped cowl hood visible through the windshield, you'd think you were in a new car-some late-model appliance you'd take grocery shopping.
Carl jolted us to reality on the way back from grabbing a sandwich, however. He rolled away from a stop sign and matted the throttle on a deserted stretch of road in an industrial section of south Los Angeles. Caught unsuspecting, we flailed for the "Oh s**t!" handle on the roof but never found one-old car, remember? With the supercharger shrieking, the Camaro's LS1 engine summoned all its ponies in an instant and absolutely destroyed the rear tires through the first three gears.
We had first seen Carl's Camaro at Bob's Big Boy in Burbank, California, last January, where Carl told us he had just finished putting the Magnuson-supercharged LS1 in it. When he showed up for the shoot, it looked even better than we remembered, and it's one of the nicest '68s we've seen. Carl's a product manager for NSK bearings, so he pays close attention to the details. Plus, he's owned the car since 1982-plenty of time to get it right.