Photos by Kamdon Shaw
It’s been just over 20 years since we last checked in with David Owsley of Louisville, Kentucky, who at the time had a quite respectable 1980 El Camino. Respectable enough, in fact, that it was featured in the print pages (remember those?) of the March 1996 issue of Car Craft magazine.
Powered by a TPI (Tuned Port Injection, remember those?) 355-cubic inch small-block, the car was a super-clean build and this humble author had the privilege of writing that story. David was trying to build something that was suggested as a good first car. The mix included ’84-’88 (Fox-body) Ford Thunderbirds, ’68-’74 Chevy Novas, ’78-’81 Camaros and Firebirds, and, of course, ’78-’87 G-body El Caminos. David went with the El Camino as a project and, as you can see in the picture below, it turned out to be a very nice finished car.
Two decades later, we reunited with David for a look at his 2013 Camaro SS he now owns, and says he enjoys the local car scene and participating in events around Louisville with the Derby City Camaro Club.
I turned that misfortune into a good thing and took it as an opportunity to make the car into a modern interpretation of what a ’69 Camaro Indy pace car convertible would look like in 2013. -David Owsley
Owsley had Rapp’s Auto Body do a full repaint with Summit White paint and 1969-era Hugger Orange graphics. The car was disassembled for the paint work and the shop put the graphics under the clearcoat finish.
Other specialized exterior pieces include an MPD1 ram air hood and rear spoiler. A GM Heritage grille and an SLP splitter are also up front. Color-matched fog and taillamp surrounds add a further unique look at both ends of the car. The front, side, and rear emblems are from a ’69 Camaro.
To wake up the flavor a bit in the car’s 6.2-liter LS3 engine, an NOS 150-horsepower nitrous system was added along with a set of Stainless Works headers and a Borla exhaust system. David also did extensive detail work under the hood, with more than 100 hours put into the effort by David and his shop PIE Customs. Behind the LS3 is the car’s stock TR6060 six-speed manual with the skip-shift function eliminated and 3.73 gears in the rearend center section.
To continue the ’69 Camaro Indy pace car vibe inside, Larry Snead Upholstery stitched up unique leather seat covers with a houndstooth pattern front and rear. The seat headrests also have a ’69 Camaro SS logo embroidered into them. Also inside the car, David added a 1,000-watt JL Audio sound system.
As we said at the beginning, it has been quite a while since we have seen David or spoken to him. But we are confident that he is much like us, given that more than 20 years later he is still involved with Chevrolets. We hope to visit another one of David’s creations in the future since he is so good at building them. We can almost certainly guarantee it will be sooner than 20 years from now.