A RADICAL SHIFT

When you're a teenager and the police know you by name, it's not usually because of your volunteer work or class-topping GPA. Not at all. That was especially true for Jeff Kainz when he was behind the wheel of his 1975 Camaro. In the '80s, while cruising his hometown in North Dakota, his buddies with police scanners often heard the police tell one another: "Kainz is out on Main Street." 

"Yeah, I did some dumb things," says an older and supposedly wiser Jeff. "I was on a first-name basis with all the cops in town, but I like to think I've matured" 

By all appearances he has. Jeff went to college and found work as an automotive engineer, relocating to the Detroit area to take a job with Ford. He has also worked for General Motors and one of the larger OEM suppliers in the area. This was a big change from those rebellious days when he'd drive the Camaro onto frozen lakes, but one thing that hasn't changed in more than 40 years is his ownership of the car. It has undergone countless changes-and, by Jeff's estimate, around 10 engine swaps-but the keys have never left his pocket since he bought the Camaro in 1982 at age 15.

Even that event was tinged with rebellion. "My mother insisted I couldn't buy a car with a V8 engine," says Jeff. "I didn't. The Camaro had a six-cylinder, so I kept my promise. But two weeks later, I pulled a small-block out of the junkyard and swapped the engine."" Not surprisingly, Mom wasn't thrilled. "That was a long time ago," says Jeff. "She got past it and saw that things worked out just fine." Through the '80s and '90s, different engines came and went, and so did popular automotive styling trends. "The car had it all during those days," says Jeff. "I had the louvers on the rear window for a while and a snorkel scoop on the hood-all the popular stuff."