Our buddy Steven Rupp from Camaro Performers owns a ’68 Camaro that he calls “Bad Penny.” He bought the car initially because it was a great foundation to start from; the body was solid, a lot of work had been done already, and the bronze-copper colored paint job was nice.

His goal with the Camaro was to build an all out track car. It would not be a comfortable car to cruise his kids to and from car shows in, but, as Steven put it, something that you’d have to strap into and wear. He won the inaugural 2009 Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational with it. The video you see here is from his road course run in the 2010 event.

We attended the Optima event last year, and it is an impressive event to say the least. It’s broken into 4 separate categories, each of which factors in to the overall winner. The 4 categories are: 1) Autocross, 2) Speed Stop Challenge, 3) Road Course, and 4) Fit/Finish/Design. 52 cars entered the 2010 event, and 51 were still running at the end!

Mark Stielow won the 2010 event with his LS9 powered and Detroit Speed equipped ’69 Camaro, Red Devil. A GM Vehicle Dynamics Engineer by trade, Stielow understands well how to make cars handle well and go fast.