Camaros of Michigan

Quality Custom Rides’ V12-Powered 1967 Camaro Steals The SEMA Show

When it comes to crazy, custom builds, they all have one thing in common. The engines that power them are more often than not either factory engines—produced en mass by huge companies—or they are blocks based on those same designs that are a little more custom (i.e. billet blocks, improved castings, etc.). But rarely do you come across a build that has a custom-built bespoke engine sitting between the fenders. Enter Quality Customs’ 1967 Chevrolet Camaro, a build that centers around the use of an LS-based V12 produced by the appropriately named V12LS.com.

It’s not everyday that you come across an engine that is completely outside the normal but when you do, it’s a show stopper. For us, we heard that this build was going down long before we even headed out to SEMA and immediately put it on our hit list of cars to have a gander at before we left the arid, desert oasis that is Las Vegas.

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While we were expecting it to be crazy—obviously just the use of the V12 engine puts it into an entirely different category in and of itself—we were not prepared for the amount of insanity that would be wrapped around the engine as well.

Not only is this first-gen Camaro sporting one of the most unique mills at SEMA, it is also quite possibly the lowest we’ve ever seen. The car has been chopped and, in essence, channeled—the rockers have been shortened by 4 inches and the floor has been moved up by 3 inches. Mike Heim, the owner and operator of Quality Custom Rides, took over an inch out of the roof to give the car a look unlike we’ve ever seen on an F-body car.

You would think that taking that much metal out of a car would require a certain detachment from the actual car to do, but we were surprised to find out that this car is, in fact, Heim’s personal ride. Not only that, but he has owned the car since he was just 19 years old—making it one of his oldest family members.

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Most would consider the LS V12 wild enough for any build, but Heim and the guys at Quality Custom Rides had a little more in store for the unique bullet. They started by getting rid of the “standard” throttle body injection system that normal feeds this beast. They opted instead for a set of individual throttle bodies (ITBs) complete with velocity stacks to modulate the incoming atmosphere.

A gorgeous set of six-into-one stainless steel headers whisk away spent exhaust gases while an un-earthly green paint job on the engine grabs even more attention and brings new meaning to the saying “green with jealous rage.” With the modifications to the engine, it should be capable of easily besting the 717 horsepower test runs that the guys over at V12LS.com completed several months ago.

An Air Ride suspension allows the car to basically sit on the ground making this, as we mentioned before, one of the lowest slung F-bodies we have ever laid eyes on. A cantilever style suspension out back allows the car to retain decent suspension travel at everything but it’s most slammed ride height.

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Apart from the insane engine and stance, the most noticed aspect of the build is the suicide doors—again, not a feature you frequently see on first-gen Camaros. However, these aren’t just your standard set of suicide doors. Heim has hidden the door handles in the side view mirrors, which you pull on to pop the door open.

Everything else on the car has been massaged in some way, including flush mounting the tail lights and all of the glass around the car—which had to be custom made as well due to the chop on the roof. It is all almost enough to distract you from the fact that the car isn’t quite completely finished. The interior of the car is still yet to be complete, as well as a few minor details throughout. We’re sure, though, that QCR has big things planned for the interior of this car to match the striking engine bay and exterior modifications.

Matt and Shane Corish, brothers from Australia and the creators of the V12 LS, were also honored at SEMA as they walked away with the Runner Up spot in the Best Engineered New Product Award category—which is nothing to sneeze at considering how many massive companies with new products they were competing against.

We’ll be on the look out for the QCR ’67 Camaro to take home even more awards at next year’s SEMA Show.

Author: Chase Christensen

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