We recently came across a letter in Greg Zyla’s column in the Kiowa County Signal newspaper from Gary Keyes, a life long fan of fast Camaros. Gary shared that while he is now in his mid 50’s, he’d been a car guy since the age of 9 when his older sisters boyfriend introduced him to cool hot rods. He had a ’48 Plymouth with a Cadillac engine backed by a 4-speed, and the sights, sounds, and smells of fast cool cars stuck with Gary forever.

Fast forwarding to today, and Gary shared pictures of his ’68 Dana 427 Camaro clone with the newspaper following the culmination of a 5-year restoration. Dana only build around 50 427ci Camaros in 1968, and while Gary always appreciated those cars he didn’t appreciate the $500,000 price that goes along with them!

This car was his chance to have a Dana 427 Camaro at an affordable price. The build took a lot of hard work and scrounging, as little details like the correct triangular air cleaner and hand-built Dana hood were not overlooked.

It should be noted that the Dana Camaro was the first of the “dealer” 427 Camaro’s. Yenko, Baldwin Motion, and Nickey all followed suit after Dana introduced their own versions as well. Today original cars are all worth 6-figure sums and are highly sought after by collectors.