John Schiavone has always been interested in cars back when he was in high school. His first car was a 1967 Chevelle with a 283 where he would make some personal changes to it giving him a great feeling while daily driving one to school. Throughout his earlier years, he bought and sold various hot rods and also began showing dogs and horses. During that time, John had owned and sold a 1969 Corvette Pro-Street car that he later regretted selling.
For three years, John has been searching for a Corvette but never seemed to find another one quite like the one he owned. In 2017 he found a 1969 Chevy Camaro online that was located in New York. He saw so much potential in this car and was waiting anxiously to see it in person and delivered to his location.
When it was trucked in, it was upsetting to John to see that his car was sitting in a dark semi-box trailer. While the car was running inside, it sounded angry. The truck driver expressed that he could not get the Camaro out from reverse. That’s when John climbed up in the trailer to see what he can do. As soon as he opened the door to his car, he noticed fresh paint chips on the door jam. When he found the damage, he said to his car, “now I know why you’re so crabby, they haven’t been treating you very well. I will never let that happen to you again.” Unloading the Camaro was not easy. After they fixed the problem with the shifter, the only option was to use sketchy ramps that were about ready to fall off, making the delivery experience overwhelming.
Once the Camaro was finally off the trailer, he began making minor changes to it to make it more drivable. John’s Pro-Street car has been painted and partially restored from the previous owner, earning him over 30 best of show trophies. Even though it was an award-winning car as is, he saw that there was room for improvement. During the shutdown from COVID-19 in early 2020, he began to take the time to do a full restoration to the car. He kept the purple color but added his style by customizing the motor for more power, had custom embroidery done on the interior by Red Thread, along with adding a purple roll cage. He added everything he wished to have in a pro-street race car and with that said; it needed big, fat tires.
Once it was all finished, this is when the “Hitman” was ready to fire away with its V8 engine producing 1000 HP. With over 70 car show trophies and winning #1 street machine for ISCA World of Wheels for the 2021 season, this car proves that this 1969 Camaro is built like no other.
1969 Chevy Camaro
- 498 Big Block with ARF Heads
- NOS Pro Shot Fogger Nitrous System
- Built turbo 400 automatic with a reverse manual valve body Stall Torque Converter
- Fab 9” Strange rear end with 4.88 gears
- 4 link system
- Front: 8” wide x 28” tall tire; 7” wide x 18” tall rim
- Rear: 22” wide x 33” tall tire; 15” wide x 20” tall rim
- Billet Specialty Rims
- Cruises at about 2700 RPM at 60mph
- Shine by Chicago Jack’s wax
- AutoMeter Carbon Fiber Series Gauges
Other Show Pictures:
