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Steve Demarco Builds the Camaro of His Dreams, With a Twist

- Jesse Kiser

What’s your dream car?

For Steve DeMarco, he longed for an original Yenko Camaro—a car many aspire to own. But, let’s put things into perspective. In 2014, an original Yenko sold for $220,000 at Barrett-Jackson, when the median home price in America was $188,900. The poster of your dream car hanging idle on your wall is often as close as it gets for most of us—the reality we succumb to, even as adults. But when a true hot rodder can’t afford one, he simply builds it all his own. Enter the 1967 DeMarco Supercar.

Even from afar it doesn’t closely resemble an original Yenko, and Steve certainly wasn’t attempting to pass it off as a Sunday-cruise-in clone. The badges hidden in the paint are hard to spot unless the sunlight hits the hood just right. The famous headrest letters are missing, the stance is all wrong,and the chrome wheels don’t scream Yenko—but that’s what makes it a DeMarco Supercar (D/SC).

The plan was simple, even if the execution became long and complicated. “I decided to build a Yenko as though it were built today, but with some added custom touches,” said Steve. Despite being the wrong color and having a too-low stance, there are two primary traits that resemble a Yenko: the name of a man who wanted to build a badass Chevy and a big-block.

Steve bought the Camaro, minus the engine and transmission, back in 1987. “I planned to build it for my daughter April’s 16th birthday.” But when April first saw the car she said, “I hope you don’t think I want that.” Sadly, Steve then rolled the car to the end of the line of others projects, where it sat dormant for the next 23 years.