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Meet our Project ’55! 1955 Chevy Bel Air, 2-door hardtop

Thought we’d give you a sneak peek at what’s coming down the pike here at Eckler’s. This “seen better days” Bel Air will be undergoing a complete body-off restoration. It will be rebuilt to keep that classic Tri-5 look, but will include the following modifications:

Tim Allen's 1968 427 COPO Camaro featured on Jay Leno's Garage: Video

Some of you may not know this, but Michigan native and Home Improvement star Tim Allen is a huge car guy. He has a sizeable car collection, consisting of many General Motors classics, including a 1968 427 COPO Camaro.

When you look over the field of candidates competing for the 2014 Detroit Autorama Ridler Award you have to consider John Sadler’s 1957 Chevy Bel Air Hardtop as a spoiler. It’s good enough to win the award, but Sadler is presenting a car here for the first time. The plus that he has going for him is that the car presents itself well.

irst of all, every inch of the car has been refabricated with hundreds of modifications from stock condition. The front valance has a completely custom look but is so perfect done that it could be mistaken for factory made. The top was chopped 1.5 inches with all stainless cut to fit to hide the chop. It has a smoothed firewall, drip rails were removed, custom hood with top and bottom smoothed with bullets removed, plus the bottom pan is rolled. The front headlights are made by Hagen and they have been frenched, grille is modified. Notice the smoothed one-piece front bumper with bullets removed. The special leather custom interior is by Chuck Rowland of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. The 2.5 inch custom exhaust was done by Juliano’s.

The new 2014 Camaro Z/28 is so fast, it outran its own tires. Here's how Chevy fixed it.

It's well known that the Chevy Camaro Z/28 has the widest front tires of any production car. At 305 mm wide, those tires produce tremendous grip--especially since they're Pirelli P Zero Trofeo Rs. In fact, they make so much grip, the Z/28 was spinning the tire around the wheel under braking--the Z/28 was, in effect, outrunning its tires, or at least their ability to grip the wheels.

Now here was a true-blue American race car. This 1968 Corvette raced at Daytona’s IMSA (International Motor Sport Association) 24-hour race in 1973 and then again in 1975. It was produced as a “standard production” automobile and was driven as such until 1972, when it was involved in an accident.

In 1973, Jerry Thompson purchased the car from Jerry Pennington. Mr. Thompson was a widely recognized race car engineer and national championship race car driver. Thompson set out to redesign and rebuild the Corvette to IMSA race car standards. He chose a 454 cubic inch engine bored .60 over to power this beast. Upon completion, the engine dyno’d out at over 640 hp. Late in the 1973 season, the car was ready for its first race in the G.T. class. What better place to test a “new” car than the 24-hours race in Daytona?

An all-new Chevrolet Camaro is due out next year as a 2016 model, and it is expected to ditch its aging Zeta platform for a newer, lighter one that underpins the Cadillac CTS and ATS. Just don't expect the exterior to change all that much. Below is the current 2014 model.

A new report in Edmunds says the 2016 Camaro will hardly sport the radical redesign that its chief competitor the 2015 Ford Mustang received. Instead, will sport an exterior design that is "evolutionary, not revolutionary," according to an industry source who has seen the new Camaro.

In the wake of the sinkhole at the National Corvette Museum, Fastlane has taken the time to reflect on the iconic cars damaged in the destruction. The latest article spotlights the 1 millionth and 1.5 millionth Corvettes.

The 1-millionth Corvette is a 1992 convertible born around 2pm on July 2nd. This vehicle was modeled after the first Corvette built in 1953 – a convertible clothed in white and stitched with a red interior. Prior to birth, the decision was made was to give it to the Corvette Museum Foundation, with the sale of the “one-millionth plus one” Corvette to be auctioned with the proceeds going to the National Corvette Museum.

My first memory of a classic was in the fall of late 1954. My dad bought a 1955 Pontiac two-door sedan and my uncle Ted bought a 1955 Sport Coupe with Power Pack. The first thing Uncle Ted did was put Smithy’s on his Chevy. For the younger classic lovers, Smithy’s are 50s style glass packs, I’ll never forget that sound!  Every time these two cars were in the same town of Burlington, Washington, the race was on.

Tom Panaseny grew up on Long Island, NY helping his Dad work on the family cars. In 1969, his neighbor drove home in a new 1969 Camaro Indy Pace Car - white with orange stripes and orange interior. Tom thought it was the coolest car he’d ever seen. It made a lasting impression, and started his love of Camaros.

Money was tight in the early ’70s, so Tom’s first cruiser ended up being a tired old ’64 Mustang, beat up from many years enduring NY winters. It did not take long though, before Tom joined his Chevelle and ’Cuda driving friends and built a total performance 1923 T-bucket with blown 350, and “all of the good stuff.” Talk about one extreme to another!