The ‘69 Camaro has been built a million ways in a thousand different styles. First, the drag look was huge and then Mark Sieilow pretty much created the Camaro Pro Touring movement. But one look that continues to be built and shown is Pro Street and this ‘69 Camaro is pretty much the epitome of that genre.
Pro Street exploded in the mid 1970s, when enthusiasts wanted their street freaks to mimic what was then the most popular class in drag racing: Pro Stock. Whether you had a Mopar, a Mustang or a Bowtie, the back was stuffed with as much rubber as possible, the front tires got skinnier, and a large scoop mimicking those popularized by Bill Jenkins, Bob Glidden, and Ronnie Sox.
By the 1980s, things got wackier. Cars were back-halved, Roots-style blowers began replacing dual quads on tunnel ram intakes, and the paint jobs went wild. Mark Robbins has owned this particular ‘69 Camaro Pro Street monster since 1979, dating back to his high school years. It’s gone from a small-block-powered daily driver to Pro Streeter to big-block drag car and back to its current iteration.
What is remarkable is that the paint job goes back to the ’80s (and looks like new) and the tri-color custom graphics each represent someone’s car.
High School Hot Rod
The Camaro (originally a small-block car) served as Mark’s daily driver for 12 years. It was definitely rough when he got it, but a friend of his was a body and fender guy, so together they ”piddled with it.” The quarters were fairly good, so the car was sprayed black with silver Z/28 stripes. That was the first phase.
He drove it like that until the early 1980s, when the F-body was tubbed and got a roll bar. Then came big-block number one, a 444-incher, to be followed by big-block number two. In the mid-‘80s, the decision was made to redo the entire build. He was able to replace every piece of sheetmetal from the local Chevrolet dealership — quarter skins, fenders, the taillight filler panel, etc. Only the original roof and doors remain. Even the front spoiler was purchased at the dealer.
One often overlooked trick was the quarter-panel indentations. When the back of the car was stretched 10 inches for the 33-inch tall tires, one of the three scallops was deleted.
All the paint is House of Kolor with Kandy stripes, which was laid down when the sheetmetal was replaced. The red stripe is for one friend’s car, the yellow is another guy who raced with them, and the pink is for the first race Beretta that ever came to Shuffle Town Dragway in Charlotte. The graphics themselves are a tribute to a car Mark saw at the Street Machine Nationals in Illinois.
Making It Insanely Fast
There have been a number of Rat motors between the fenders over the years, including a nitrous-fed beast when he was running 10.50-inch tire classes, but for this go-round it got an 8-71 BDS blown 632, which he feels is the ideal displacement. Believe it or not, he did purchase a lot of used parts when he was assembling it, including the tall-deck Merlin block (it came out of a boat and only cost him $300!). The Bryant crank came from RacingJunk.com and it, too, was out of a race boat. It set him back $3,000, but it was in perfect shape. The bore is 4.600 and the stroke is 4.75-inches. It has billet rods and Brodix Big Brodie-2 cylinder heads, which he already had.
Compression is 10:1, which means with that supercharger it is race gas only. The solid-lifter cam is from his nitrous motor: It has .801 lift/.790. He adjusts the valves once a year in the winter as part of his routine maintenance. It’s topped with a pair of 850 cfm Quick Fuel carburetors.
The transmission is a Turbo 400 with a trans brake that’s been in the car for 35 years. It sends power to a 9-inch rear with 4.88 gears and a spool with 40 spline axles. It’s a ladder bar rear suspension with Strange coilovers. Mark thinks it should go 4.90s in the eighth-mile, if and when he decides to take it back to the track.
An aluminum radiator with dual fans keeps it cool — it never runs hot. A 10-gallon fuel cell keeps the big-block fed.
Recent Upgrades & The Future
Of course, no car is ever finished. Recent changes include TRZ chromoly tubular upper and lower control arms with QA1 coilovers. It now uses Wilwood four-wheel disc brakes for stopping. “The best part of it is when I raced it people told me to take the heater core and radio out to lighten it up,” recalls Mark. “But I said I didn’t want to because when I put it back on the street I won’t have any problems. It still has turn signals, a horn — it’s just like it was in 1969.”
The Weld wheels up front are new, but the rear Cragar Drag Star Bob Glidden wheels have been on since Hurricane Hugo was blowing through town in 1989! The rear tires are 33×18.5×15-inch Hoosiers, with Mickey Thompsons up front.
“My wife screamed, ‘You need to come in!’ But I said, ‘I’m not coming in. I’m gonna put these wheels on here because it might not be here tomorrow!”
That’s dedication to a car.
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