I’ve yet to meet an enthusiast looking to grab a fast car who wouldn’t wish to take the C8 Corvette for a spin. And yet only a fraction of these people will also buy such a Chevy, not because of the driving experience (this is excellent), but since the affordable nature of the ‘Vette means you’ll see this everywhere. So, how about a Chevrolet that keeps the C8’s LT2 V8 in the middle, but wraps this in a standout package? Welcome to the 1969 Chevy “Camaero” digital build.
Relocating the engine and receiving a C8 heart transplant is just part of what makes this first-gen Camaro special—by the way, the muscle car received a major revamp for the 1969 model year, so it’s no surprise this was selected as a starting point for the work.
And while many builds of the sort, be they real or virtual, go with the RS appearance package that brings those badass concealed headlights, this rendering keeps the standard, big, round front lights—when most of the body panels have been retouched, it makes full sense to maintain these headlights, which perhaps better define the identity of the iconic muscle car.
The machine has been renamed “Camaero” due to the complex way in which it handles the airflow. For one, now that the front end no longer houses a motor, the nose of the vehicle is the home of complex aero (think: channel running through the hood), the kind of stuff we see on supercars.
Chevrolet CAMAERO vs. Hoonicorn Mustang?
However, the mid-engined Camaro has another nemesis—this thing is more of a Hoonicorn Mustang rival, since we’re talking about builds that completely overhaul OG muscle cars.
Ken Block no longer drives the 1,400 horsepower, AWD 1965 ‘Stang these days, having handed the keys to his 14-year old daughter Lia. However, while the vented, composite rear window allows us to take a peek at the said 6.2L V8, this would need some form of power adder (twin-turbos would naturally be the most efficient) for the project to truly rival the Hoonicorn, but that can probably be arranged.
Now, some of you might be familiar with the Camaero, since Karan Adivi, the artist behind the proposal, first released this last summer (I also wrote a piece on it, which you can find by Googling “Dirty Martini Rendering” and my name).
However, the pixel master has now taken the project to the next level on his Behance page. The updates to the vehicle itself are limited to elements such as the slightly reworked front apron details or the Chevy bow tie adorning the back of the full carbon version, but while this is portrayed in a studio, the white incarnation has been augmented with a complex 3D scene.
You might just think this 69 Camaro was photographed inside a junkyard (it wasn’t), with Karan thanking fellow digital artist Carlos “Colorsponge” (here’s a sample of the latter’s work) for the inspiration.
The RPM (real project in the making) Potential is high with this ’69, probably an 8/10, and with tuners still working to crack the ECU of the C8 Corvette, it should only be a matter of time until those twin-turbo kits they’ve already strapped to the LT2 can be put to proper use.