GRAND SLAM

BUILT IN JUST TWO YEARS BECAUSE HIS OTHER PROJECT WAS TAKING TOO LONG, MITCHELL RANDO'S '69 CAMARO WENT ON TO BE CROWNED MOTORVATION 37 GRAND CHAMPION

- BORIS VISKOVIC

MITCHELL Rando's first automotive love was an HZ Holden ute, and he's had a few of them over the years, including one he's building for Drag Challenge with a turbo LS. His dad turned him onto EHs, too, and Mitchell eventually ended up with a pretty tidy V8-powered one. It's been off the road for almost 10 years now getting a complete rebuild, and Mitchell got sick of not having something cool to cruise around in, so he did what any proper street machiner would and bought another project.

"I bought the Camaro off a mate, Dave Preedy, who has had some pretty cool cars over the years, including a really nice orange Camaro," Mitchell begins. "Then he brought in this Camaro with all-new panels and all the components brand new in a container, unassembled. He did a right-hand-drive conversion but never quite got it finished, and then it went to Melbourne to get the body gapped. That didn't get done, so it sat on the hoist in Dave's workshop for almost eight years."

While chatting with Dave one day, Mitchell rued the fact that he hadn't bought the former's old orange Camaro: "Dave said, 'I'll sell you the primered one if you want.' That's where it all started."

Amazingly, once Mitchell got his hands on the Camaro, the build was done in just two years. It had pretty good bones to start with - there was no rust as Dave had bought all-new panels as well as all of the chrome work for the car - but unlike many builds, everything just seemed to line up and there weren't any delays getting work done.

Mitchell still had plenty to do though, as he planned to take the car in a completely different direction. Dave's plan had been chromed bumpers and 15-inch wheels for more of a tough streeter look, but Mitchell wanted to build a pro tourer. "I bought the RS front, painted the bumpers and got the 20-inch wheels," he says.