Readers’ Rods

READERS’ RODS

Email photos and details of your car to alan.kidd@assignment-media.co.uk, or post to Custom Car, Assignment Media Ltd, Repton House 1.08, Bretby Business Park, Bretby, Derbyshire DE15 0YZ. Please include your contact details – and when sending digital pictures, use the largest fi le size you have available

Jon Buss has a relationship with Camaros that goes back a long way. Several years and, indeed, several Camaros. is fi rst e am le of this articular form of all merican icon was a third generation ersion, with the uni uely free of soft edges styling of the s. efi nitely not a look for e eryone, though a amaro s a amaro for all that. nyway,

Which is what you see here. amaro may indeed be a amaro for all that, but this one s a amaro so it s a amaro and then some. Jon had always wanted one of these so, ha ing trousered a wad of the folding for his , he took out a small loan to bridge the ga and made tracks to ewcas tle to make it his own. Jon lives in Devon, so the journey home was always going to be, let s say, an edu The engine rebuild was a chance to stuff it full of cool bits

he swa ed it for a which he went on to restore, gi ing him a toe on the fi rst rung of serial ownershi and utting him in the mood for more. cation. But you know what? The lesson he learned was that he’d bought a pretty good one. e remembers it as ha ing taken ‘fi e and a bit’ hours, which is pretty impressive as shakedown runs go, but as well as being a test of his faith it demonstrated that the Camaro wasn’t a basket case. It did still need a lot of work but it wasn t a shed, which you’ve got to see as a win.

hat was in the summer of and since then a lot of work has indeed been done. ot all of it was scheduled – most notably, the engine let go last s ring, rom t ing a to end rebuild which on took as an o ortunity to stuff it full of cool bits – but in the main it s been a case of getting the the way he wants it.

In particular, when he bought it the amaro was brown. nd on the inside it was beige. Just what you want when you’ve landed an , with its cooler than cool long

The 350 small-block V8 had its top end rebuilt shortly before these pictures were taken, having let go in rather a big way on a cruise out to the beach. Doing all the wor himsel on ed it up with a ni ty pair o twin side pipes which e it ust ahead of the nearside rear wheel. Talking of wheels, a set if 17” Torq Thrusts is possible the most isi ly non standard thin a out it ot that the e tended nose and true split bumper of an RS needs a lot in the way of adornments to make it cool. Even in its original coat of brown paint, this car would have been a looker from the word go, though the black interior Jon added could hardly help but be an improvement over the factory beige

nose and s lit bum er – who needs to stand out when you could instead look like a anda uid salesman dri ing an llegro o that was near the to of the list and the amaro now stands loud and roud in a coat of ugger range, com lemented by a black inyl interior. uch cooler.

We mentioned the engine a moment ago, and it deser es to be mentioned again as it s the original, matching numbers . he arts in the to end might not all be original but the engine itself is the one with which the left the orwood, hio factory.

ou might ask if this is a custom motor as such, or more of a classic, but it s certain ly not standard. Whether it s uite into ro ouring territory is another matter, but while kee ing it looking retty standard on u graded its sus ension using erfor mance shocks and anti sway bars. e stri ed and rebuilt the brakes, too, both front and rear. oing back to the engine, again, it s its out lyrics ia a de ilishly cool twin side e it e haust. ut e en with this to grab your attention, the most ob ious sign that this is not your ty ical amaro has got to be that it s rolling on or hrust wheels. hese are shod with tyres u front and s at the back. here s another modifi cation on the car too, and it s one you re unlikely to ha e seen before. ow does an electric boot release sound on created it out of ontiac and e us arts, and it s o erated by a s are button in the dash. es ite a earances, on s amaro is not erfect, nor is it a show ueen. e regularly gets behind the wheel and en oys cruising out to local runs and e ents – and when we s oke to him, he was ust waiting to get some confi dence in its freshly rebuilt engine before enturing further afi eld. a ing done all the work himself, on is uick to thank his wife isa and daughters amie and mma for utting u with him being in the garage at all hours. t might be more car than custom – but with a such a cool in the family, we doubt they mind

AS_2022_12Dec_Abas Engineering_HP.indd 1 Custom Car_2023_02_Feb_Abas Engineering_HP.indd 1

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28/11/2022 16:25 15/12/2022 12:05