A Stout LS3 Engine Powers This Sweet Pro Touring 1970 Camaro
Getting relatives and friends involved in this 1970 Camaro build made all the difference0:00 / 0:00
If it takes a village to raise a child, as the old African proverb goes, what does it take to build up a 1970 Camaro? In Bryan Battaglini’s case, it took some help from his family. That and a stroke of good fortune in coming across a rompin’, stompin’ LS3 good for 505 horses at the wheels. How he got a screamin’ deal on that engine is something every CHP reader dreams about, and we’ll get to that shortly. First, what led up to this project?
Bryan has owned many first-gen and a few second-gen Camaros over the years, along with a slew of other projects, so he wasn’t shy about tackling yet another Camaro that he came across in Washington state. But Bryan discovered that the owner’s daughter was driving the car regularly and she had become very attached to it. Upon finding out that he planned to take it home, her reaction was not entirely unexpected.
“I thought she was going to cry,” he relates. To soften the blow of her impending loss, “I told her it was going to a good home,” he notes. Indeed it was, but she probably didn’t realize just how much lavish attention it would receive.
At first, Bryan drove it stock for a few months. Upon going to the SEMA “candy store,” as he calls it, everything changed. That’s when the first family member got involved. “My cousin and I went and saw lots of custom stuff I could do,” he recalls. “We came home and tore the car apart.” (Good thing the previous owner’s daughter didn’t see this phase of the build, though). They fitted in coilover shocks, new control arms, a four-link rear suspension, disc brakes, billet rims, a five-speed transmission, and a 383ci engine. “Now it’s really fun to drive,” Bryan enthused. “We went to shows and had lots of fun. I emailed the old owner’s daughter and sent her pictures to show the changes I had made and she was pleased.”
The next year at SEMA, Bryan was introduced to Optima’s Search for the Ultimate Street Car series. “Now we’re talking,” he said to himself. And then asking, “Why not run my car and see what it will do?” He entered the series at Laguna Seca, Thunderhill, and Fontana. He had a lot of fun but got beat pretty bad. The other cars had better everything; so back into his garage shop it went.
For a tighter chassis, Bryan ordered a Speedtech subframe and torque arm. “My son Dylan and I assembled the subframe and pulled the old one out and installed all the new components,” he notes. “Next, I had Kurt from Hill’s Rod and Custom in Pleasant Hill, California, do a full trans tunnel for a T-56 six-speed and mini-tub the car for big tires.”
