The Path Less Taken – A ’67 Camaro That Employs Old School Methods to Get the Job Done
When the fastest street car movement got its first big event in 1992, the majority of the cars on property employed nitrous as their power adder of choice.
There was likely a shortage of nitrous around the Memphis, Tennessee area when the event had concluded, as competitors vied for 8-10 second timeslips and a chance to make history.
Over 30 years later, nitrous is still looked at as a viable bolt-on to increase performance. But similar to some old school powerplants being removed in favor of modern engines, nitrous can sometimes get bypassed for a turbocharger or supercharger for the extra ponies instead.
One of the competitors keeping the nitrous flag waving is Keven Neu, and he’s owned this 1967 Chevrolet Camaro for over a quarter of-a-century.
A jack of many trades, Keven has performed almost all the work to the first-year Camaro, and it sports lots of old school touches.
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One of the first things that grabs you on this classic Chevy is the Molten Orange paint, and it adorns nearly every exterior inch of paintable surface, including the grille, moldings, door handles and more.
A nod to the 1980s Pro Street movement when polished and chrome was shelved in favor of paint, we think it’s a welcome change that makes Keven’s ride stand out a bit.
Kevin also kept things old school under the hood, with a Gen 1 427 cubic inch small block Chevrolet engine that gets a healthy dose of the laughing gas from an Induction Solutions nitrous plate system.
A Turbo 400 transmission passes the ponies to a Ford 9-inch rear end, packing 3.70 gears.
The Camaro known as ‘Stella’ got her first taste of a drag-and-drive at Hot Rod’s Drag Week event. “After spectating at a few Drag Weeks, I decided it was a bucket list item I just had to do,” said Keven.
He pulled the trigger on the 2021 edition of the event, participating in the Modified class. Keven completed the week with an 8.73 average, enough to place fourth in a competitive top five finishers in Modified.
That first event was all the influence Keven needed. “Needless to say, the bug bit me and now I intend to do a lot more events,” Keven said, and his most recent one came close to home.
“Sick Summer Presented by TBM Brakes came around, and it was right in my backyard. I'm 20 minutes from Great Lakes Dragaway, so I had to do it.”
Committing to Sick Summer turned out to be the easy part for Keven, as “Stella just plain refused to work this year,” he said. “I had to think of something fast. Shocks and suspension were just plain worn out, and I made a bunch of changes three days before loading up for Cordova Dragway.”
Once Keven got through tech and ready for on track action, he laid out the basics. “Nitrous cars aren’t fast, so we got to get it all done in the 60 foot and pretty much coast the rest of the way,” he said. “So, to make my goal of running 8.50s all week with an untested suspension was going to be hard.”
The first few days according to Keven were “not too bad; not great, but not bad.”
Stella produced an 8.68 on day one at Cordova, 8.66 on day three at Great Lakes, and an 8.77 at Tri-State Raceway, giving Keven a solid 8-second average and a possible top five finish with one more good day.
But things changed after racing action was complete at Tri-State, and Keven made that final drive of the week. “I lost a roller lifter 35 miles from the biggest party stop of the trip, Motion Raceworks,” Keven said. “I went from nodding off behind the wheel, to turned up to eleven, ripping my engine apart on the side of a highway in the parking lot of a sleepy gas station.”
“I told the guys I was traveling with to go ahead and enjoy the party and I'd catch up later, but even though getting to that party was important to them, those bastards refused to leave me behind!”
Keven had the company of fellow competitors Keith Lancour, Kevin Koloen, Keith Carr and Jim Borden while he fixed the lifter issue, thanks to the efforts of Cameron Alley. “He wouldn't take a dime for it, just a thank you and I told him hopefully I'll see you guys tomorrow at the track,” Keven said. “Cameron looked at me and said, ‘no, you will see us tomorrow.’”
The group did finally make it to Motion Raceworks, and although the party had ended, Keven and crew enjoyed a beer in the parking lot “just to say we did.”
Keven staged up for the final day on Friday June 9th, clocking an 8.71 to result in an 8.70 average and his second fourth-place finish in Modified.
“I've been racing since I was sixteen, and this style is by far the most fun and challenging,” said Keven. “You feel a huge sense of accomplishment afterwards, no matter how you do.”
“Everything happened just how it probably should have,” Keven said of his Sick Summer results. “It made us a little stronger, smarter and hardened because of it. And ready for the challenges of the next drag and drive.”
Keven Neu takes a break after starting the driver from Cordova Dragway on day one with (from left): Keith Lancour, Kevin Koloen and Jim Borden (far right).
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of Sick the Magazine, Keven Neu and the author.
If you have thoughts / feedback / ideas, please e-mail us at derek@sickthemagazine.com