This month the hot rodding world was all-abuzz when we scooped the story of Bill Rombauts and his purposely-patina’d 2010 Camaro SS. Besides the astronomical price tag of over $150,000 and the 1,000+ horsepower engine, this ugly-on-purpose Camaro generated a lot of Haterade from those who have cars with real patina. Really, who pays to make their car look like crap?

Not these guys, that’s for sure. We stumbled across two videos from YouTube that show us a pair of classic, true renditions of how patina is supposed to look and occur; naturally. And as a bonus, both this 1966 Chevy Nova and 1967 Camaro have had LSx engines swapped in, turning them into next-level rat rod sleepers.

The 1966 Chevy Nova is such an underwhelming car that it still amazes us that they have such a large devoted following. Many of these cars were simple commuters, ferrying their owners back and forth to work until something inevitably broke, at which point they were cast aside. That any of these even survive is something of a small miracle. This particular car looks to have endured with most of its original paint intact, albeit greatly faded. The interior bench seat isn’t in much better shape either, but none of that matters because under the hood is an LS2 engine fitted with L92 heads, a six-speed manual transmission, and about 505 horsepower to the wheels. Keep in mind that the rat rod 2010 Camaro only put 804 horsepower down at the wheels, and we’d be willing to bet that this guy has a lot less money invested into this Nova.

But that’s not all! The same YouTuber also brings us this all original 1967 Camaro, a 2-owner, rust free example from Las Vegas. Well mostly rust free, save for some light surface corrosion that gives this old Camaro a nice beat up look. Just like the Nova, there is more than meets the eye, as under the hood is an LS1 engine, also mated to a six-speed transmission. Now, if you ask us (and you are, right?) we’d rather have either of these real rat rods over that expensive fake any day.