Vision Retro Designs has gotten its hands on a fifth-gen Chevrolet Camaro and turned it into a semblance of the 1969 Chevrolet Chevelle SS. It’s currently slated for the Mecum auction in Kansas City in December.
The exterior looks all-new, but we’ll leave it up to you to decide whether that’s a good thing. The Chevelle-style parts and body panels make a decent impression, but the raked windshield immediately exposes the replica for what it is. The same can be said about excessively wide a-pillars and power-dome hood – Chevrolet didn’t start offering these for the SS convertible until 1970, and even then it was a paid option.
A 76-mm (3-inch) reduction in ride height lets the body look slightly longer than it actually is, which is a plus. The 6.2-liter LS3 V8 and the automatic gearbox are stock, and the tuner stopped caring completely when it came to the cabin. It’s not just all stock, but actually has Camaro-branded mats in full view. That sounds cheap to us.
A few years ago, this car apparently went on sale and fetched a cool $187,000. It currently has around 55,000 km (34,000 miles) on the odometer, though, and the market situation is no longer the same. We wouldn’t be surprised to see it go for a fraction of that amount.
