Meet the Fleet – Muscle Cars: ’67 Camaro RS

• BODY: Aurora Model Motoring
• WHEELS & TIRES: Road Race Replicas

In my recent post about 2 new additions to the muscle car racing fleet in the form of the Auto World ’68 Camaros, I mentioned the inevitable comparison of that body to the one you see here: the original Model Motoring version of the ’67 Camaro. The difference in years is a simple matter of the triangular vent windows: the ’67 has them, the ’68 does not. Note, however, that unlike the Auto World rendition with its more common open headlights, the MM version has the sleek Rally Sport option featuring the fine-pattern grill with headlights hidden behind electric doors, a styling feature that really dressed up an already classy looking car.

As a couple of the accompanying photos will show, this particular car has quite a bit of history now and has been with me since the early days of my slot car hobby, having been put on the original Drag City Mk 1 Tyco track before I even had a timer! This was the very first of these bodies I bought, and it was a rough learning experience! That’s because, being a small and compact body, there is barely enough room for it to mount on the original Aurora Thunderjet chassis; mounting in on the Auto World Ultra-G, which is around 3-5% larger, was a brutal task that involved a LOT of cutting and carving with the Dremel; there was a lot of test fitting, a lot of false starts, and a lot of cussing! There was also a lot of learning, since my experience previously with the RRR Mustang fastbacks had taught me what to do and what not too; carving out indentions in the front radiator support to make room for the pickup shoes to compress, shaving the front screw post, “thinning” the front axle in the center, and “abrading” the area just below the rear window and removing some material from the bottom edge of the rear window insert were all tricks that had to be brought to bear to get this body to fit, and on top of that I needed a shim on the rear post to clear the rear tires…but when it was finally done, I had a little rocket in my hand! The small and light body is no hindrance for that high performance chassis to fly! Fitted with a set of RRR “Stones” wheels, my choice of lime green with a white RS nose stripe couldn’t look better; it was frustrating to get it there, but the end result was totally worth it!

This lime green flash is called “Magneto,” and is owned and raced by Mick “Maverick” McCallum of Mission Viejo, CA, the 5^th inductee into the vaunted and exclusive club of racers called “Team ’67 Heaven.” Originally a somewhat sedate factory RS in “Granada Gold” with an automatic, McCallum restored the car to his own tastes from a junkyard wreck, changing the color to a Mopar-like lime and installing an original-style black and white interior. The superlative 327 small block is actually original to the car but there’s nothing original about it, having been built to full race spec with aluminum heads, roller rockers, an aluminum high-rise manifold for the 780cfm Holley carb, a widened radiator, high volume oil pump, and fully transistorized ignition, amongst many other upgrades. This built-to-the-hilt “mouse motor” is pushing 380 horsepower through a Muncie M22 “Rock Crusher” 4-speed to a 3.55:1 locker 12 bolt, true sports car stuff in a pony car capable of nearly 150 MPH on the long front straightaway at Drag City, speed usually only seen in the sports car class. Obviously that kind of performance in a Detroit-bred street car takes a lot of skill to handle, but McCallum has proven his mettle. It took many months of practicing, many victories, and even more disappointments, but after nearly 8 months of trying, “Maverick” McCallum and “Magneto” made the grade, which tells you that this is a fast and formidable car on the road course! He’s still chasing a full tournament win, but that room full of trophies stacked on top of one another isn’t a bad way to get there!