C5 Corvette Plus ’69 Camaro: Be My Frankenstein?
C5 Corvette Plus ’69 Camaro: Be My Frankenstein?
Sure, you can slap a first-gen Camaro body on a C5 Corvette chassis. But why go to all that trouble?
In the vast world of the automobile, we’ve seen our fair share of atrocities over the years. Many of them come from the undying efforts of those who seek to marry two very different cars into one functional thing. But there’s just one problem with this type of effort, of course. These two things are usually not like each other, and they were never designed to go together. That certainly applies to cars like this unholy C5 Corvette and 1969 Camaro mashup we spotted recently on Craigslist.
We’ll readily admit that this isn’t the ugliest mashup of two cars we’ve ever seen. But at the end of the day, it just doesn’t make a lot of sense. After all, most consider the 1969 Camaro to be one of the quintessential muscle cars of all time. So why ruin one by modifying its gorgeous sheetmetal to fit a C5 Corvette convertible chassis? Apparently, because you can.
The end result isn’t quite as terrible as you might think, however. Somehow, this car mostly retains the original look and is immediately identifiable as a ’69 Camaro. But underneath and inside, it’s all C5 Corvette. That includes the chassis, drivetrain, interior, and even rolling stock. Which means that it probably performs a lot better than a stock first-gen Camaro. But there are obviously easier ways to accomplish that goal.
The aftermarket for first-gen Camaros is so strong these days that making one handle, go, and stop like a new muscle car is as easy as firing up your credit card. And yet, the builder of this “Cormaro” chose to do things the hard (and controversial) way. Sure, we’ll give him credit for daring to be different. And for at least somewhat pulling off a seemingly impossible task. But at the end of the day, we’re still left asking why someone would bother to do such a thing.
