Stance is everything, and Mike nailed it.

Mike Bardosson of Sweden, figured out how to get his car featured on the website. As he put it, “Since I’m a great fan of your website, visiting it on a daily basis, I felt I should contribute some material for the Homebuilt Hero, as you are encouraging your followers to do so.”

Mike tells us that his ’67 Camaro didn’t always look this good, “It all started many years ago, with a rundown ’67 Camaro. With almost no knowledge about wrenching or welding, I started a basic renovation of the car by changing the suspension bushings. I soon built a 350 small-block, and installed it in the car.” Things progressed from there, and eventually, he had a full-fledged rebuilt classic that he could drive and enjoy.

This picture was taken in the early ’90s, and shows Mike’s first attempt to make the car a bit different from the crowd.

With the car drivable, Mike enjoyed the Camaro for a couple of years by driving it whenever he could. Eventually, he got the itch to improve the car’s performance, so he started to research handling and braking theory, and made sure he had the knowledge he needed to complete his now, all-consuming vision of building a race car. The first task that he completed was to buy the required material to build and install a four-link rear suspension with a Panhard bar.

Although he had built a top-notch rear suspension, he felt the car could use more power, but he first needed to get the knowledge he needed about engine rebuilding and modifying. Like he said, he started this project with no automotive knowledge. Mike says, “I kept ordering books from the U.S., and continued to read about suspension upgrades for old, American cars. After feeling a bit more confident about the chassis part of the equation, I was eager to learn more about turbo engines, particularly the Chevy small-block of course.”

A twin-turbo-fed small-block will definitely motivate anything down the road.

Since Mike was a novice at engine building, he had a friend supervise the assembly of his next LS-based powerplant. Choosing an iron block, Mike built a 383 cubic-inch small-block, using parts like Eagle Products’ crankshaft and connecting rods, Mahle pistons, Comp Cams camshaft, rocker arms, and lifters. He also gave the factory aluminum heads a good working over, and finally, topped the engine with an LM7 truck intake.

The transmission is a Turbo 400 with a manually-shifted valvebody, mated to a Gear Vendors under/overdrive unit. The rearend is a 12-bolt with a 3.07 gear ratio, Autotech Wavetrac, 35-spline differential, Moser floater hubs, and Sellholm Tuning axles.

The front suspension has come a long way since the simple bushing replacement, and now sports Detroit Speed Engineering tubular upper control arms, GAZ adjustable coilover shocks, modified lower control arms, Hellwig sway bar, and a Unisteer rack-and-pinion steering system. Bringing the car to a very abrupt halt at will, is a set of Wilwood six and four-piston calipers with drilled and slotted rotors.

Although the body looks mostly stock, the rear quarter-panels have been widened 2 inches, the front sheetmetal has been replaced with fiberglass components, and the doors and trunk lid even benefit from lightweight fiberglass construction.

Like many car guys, Mike acknowledges that he couldn’t have built the car without the help he received from a lot of friends, He also realizes, “There’s no substitute for the feeling of looking at what you have accomplished, and realizing the knowledge you have gained at the same time.”

This car will be no show pony, as he plans to participate in Sweden’s high speed events, both on asphalt and ice. Mike says, “I had plans to go racing on ice with the Camaro this winter, but I figured I would let it pass this year and do the asphalt event first. It might be best if I take the time to sort things out with the car before I hit the ice.” That sounds like a solid plan of attack to us Mike.

A pair of Holeset turbos will definitely add enough boost for his racing endeavor.

Do you own a Homebuilt Hero? Since we’ve started the Homebuilt Heros series, we have received a few candidates, but we still need more. If you want to see more cars built by you the readers, send us a few pictures of your car with all of the pertinent information, and we’ll make you Internet famous. You can send your submissions to [email protected].