When you have a car at SEMA, it’s usually to showcase a vendor’s products so people can see what they look like in a real car instead of a on a display panel. But this 1971 Camaro built by Roger Burman of Lakeside Rods and Rides in Iowa isn’t only a showcase for Dakota Digital, it’s actually a show winner, taking home the Street Machine of the Year at Goodguys in 2010, and the Mother’s Shine Award at SEMA this year.

If it looks a little familiar to you, we have covered the car briefly before as well as many other sites. But this time we got to see it up close and talk to the owners, Dave and Karen Leisinger, who share this car with their kids Jared and Josh.

The car started life as a 1971 Camaro, but it’s so custom now that it’s become the epitome of what a 1971 Camaro can become. The clean lines, the awesome paint, the wide tires and custom wheels, the Warren Johnson built 500 cubic inch LSR engine, the helmet in it’s resting spot behind the rear seats. Yes, the helmet. Because this car gets driven, and we don’t mean on and off of a trailer or to a local car show.

You see, Karen is a bit of an autocrosser, and she loves to take this car out on the track, drive it hard, and throw it around in the turns. She told us, “You don’t have Warren Johnson build you an engine if you’re not going to drive it.” Her husband, Dave, nodded in approval as he expressed his own desire to drive the cars that he owns. The Camaro has the nickname “The ProfeSSor” in honor of Warren Johnson, who won so many Pro Stock races that he had earned the nickname himself.

While we don’t always see cars of this caliber that get driven very often, what’s even more interesting is that this car isn’t all about the show, either. Burman told us, “There are some things you just can’t do with a driver. We have to weld things together for support because this car wouldn’t last if it was built just for showing.”

Many show cars are put together for explicitly that purpose, and while they can be driven on and off a trailer, regular duty on a road would be detrimental to the car’s overall quality, let alone slicing through orange cones on weekend. But since Dave and Karen love to drive this car and put the pedal down, it needed to be built to drive.

About that engine, the one that looks just as great under the hood as any other part of the car looks. It’s hard to believe that an engine that looks that great can possibly be built to perform, but it does. With over 900 horsepower on tap and 720 ft/lbs of torque. Handling the gear changing is a 4L85E trans built by Gearstar, and delivering the fuel to this beast is a FAST EFI system.

If the 18×8 wheels up front aren’t big enough for you, try on the 20×12 steamroller wheels out back made by Boze. The aluminum driveshaft was built by Driveline Services in Sioux Falls, and a Strange nine-inch rear end with 4.11:1 gears gets the Michellin Pilot tires rolling.

For handling, the Art Morrison chassis has been modified a little, and Baer Brakes slow the ProfeSSor down when approaching the cones. We haven’t seen the car in action, but with that kind of power, meats that wide, and nothing but cones to navigate around, we’re sure this car is a blast. As Roger said, “It’s got plenty of power, if you’re not careful you’ll end up in a ditch.”

If it wasn’t blatantly obvious that the body was modified, it’s likely because the modifications were done so well by Burman, no stranger to custom builds with numerous high profile cars to his credit. The build took about a year-and-a-half, and body mods consisted of stretching the fenders and quarters, widening the rear window, narrowing the carbon fiber hood, chopping the roof and reshaping the curve of the fenders. Brake cooling ducts are fully functional, the glass is flush with the body, and the rear deck was raised.

The silver and charcoal paint finish out the look, and all this was built from drawings made by Eric Brockmeyer, a noted automotive artist. While sometimes a custom build from scratch can turn out to be a winner, Burman told us, “I love to build cars from sketches and drawings, that way I know what the customer expects.”

The interior, or should we say “Karen’s office” is nothing less than impressive, and the Dakota Digital gauges complete the look. The car was brought to Dakota Digital with gauge pods and a request to install something from their VHX line of digital instruments. With all the blue highlights around the car, the blue VHX gauges were a perfect match. The blue highlights continued inside and custom console is all business with a touch of class.

We talked to Karen about people who build cars like this and then not drive them. She said, “Having a car like this and not driving it is like having a lake home that you never get to visit.” That about sums it up for us, too. When we see cars like this, it’s great to know that Dave and Karen agree on driving them, because the view from the outside starts to lose its appeal if you never get to see the view from the inside. It’s hard to tell whether it was Dakota Digital or The ProfeSSor that made this booth spectacular, but we think it was a lot of both.