THE LONG ROAD

A 20-YEAR ODYSSEY SAW JASON MACKENZIE’S CAMARO TRANSFIGURED FROM BURNOUTBRUISER TO SHOWSTOPPING BOULEVARD CRUISER

- CRAIG PARKER

THE 2005 Kandos Street Machine & Hot Rod Show was a heartbreaker for Jason MacKenzie. Having been subjected to a 7500rpm limiter over 30-odd burnout comps, a rod in his '67 Camaro's 350 Chev finally called it a day. "It didn't come out the side,' Jason says. "It went inwards - it smashed the cam into three pieces and destroyed everything!" To rub salt into the wound, he copped jeers from the crowd as he pushed his broken car off the pad. Shattered, and with all available funds supporting his young family, he placed the wounded SIXTY7 into hibernation.

During the eight years it sat untouched, some expressions of interest were put forward. "[My wife] Monique forbade me to sell it," Jason recounts. "She said, 'You've owned that car since you were 18, and I don't want have to put up with your regrets."" finances and Around 2013, Jason's motivation were finally reawakened.

Off came the covers, and in went a pair of Andrews Race Cars chassis rails and 18-inch wheel tubs, but Monique again stepped in with some sage advice. "If you're going to do it, do it once and do it right," she told Jason. "And it's not going to be a family car!" Out came the grinder and so did the rear clip and gargantuan tubs, which led to another problem - heaps of the floor and boot were now missing. Add some rust in other areas, and Jason was looking at reproduction versions of pretty much everything! An extensive shopping list was dispatched forthwith to Ponti-World and All Muscle Car Parts.

"The entire floor from the firewall back was replaced; so too were the rear rails, boot floor and rear beaver panel," Jason says. "It also received new door shells, new guards and a new bonnet. The only original stuff left was the front pillars, sills, turret and rear pillars!" The immense replacement program enabled Jason to move a few things around.