Pro-touring is one of the fastest-growing segments in the muscle car hobby today. For those of you not familiar with the concept, pro-touring embraces taking a vintage muscle car and upgrading its mechanicals so that it can brake, corner, and accelerate like a modern sports car, and still maintain creature comforts such as A/C, audio and all the other good stuff we take for granted in our new cars. Essentially, a pro-touring car is the best of all worlds: looks, comfort, and performance.

This ‘67 Camaro is an outstanding example of the pro-touring concept in its highest form. A take-no-prisoners, cost-no-object build, it retains the timeless good looks of the first-year Chevy pony car and updates the 40-year-old mechanicals with 21st century performance. Every aspect of the car has been honed and polished to a razor’s edge, from the subtle body modifications to the 572 cubic-inch big block under the hood to the killer stance of the 17- and 18-inch wheel/tire combination. There’s so much work in this car that it would take days to describe all of it. I’ll try to cover the major items, but until you see this car in the flesh, you won’t be able to fully appreciate how truly spectacular it is.

The first thing you notice is how slick and smooth it looks. That early Camaro shape is about as timeless as you can get, and this car shows you why. With nothing but a subtle de-chroming and removal of a few trim pieces, the car takes on a sophisticated aero appearance that looks right at home with today’s more rounded hardware. Adding to the updated look are LED taillights, a smoothed firewall and a stainless steel gas tank. Of course, that PPG Mercedes Brilliant Silver paint doesn’t hurt, putting high-tech a 21st century glow on that shapely vintage sheet-metal. Well, actually, it’s not vintage at all – most of the body panels on this car are brand-new and fit way better than the factory stuff ever did. 40 years of technology doesn’t just help improve a pro-touring car’s performance, you know.

Pro-touring isn’t merely about big wheels and low-profile tires, it’s about getting a combination that delivers sports car levels of performance and still looks killer on the car. Make no mistake – this car is low. Its roof is about the same height as the Dodge Viper we have parked next to it in the showroom, and that’s one low, wide car.

Because pro-touring is about making the car work better, it isn’t just a cut-down stock suspension that gives it that stance. Instead, the front end uses a custom K-member, polished tubular A-arms, TCI coil-over shocks, and a fat sway bar. Steering is through a modified power rack-and-pinion system that makes the original Camaro re-circulating-ball setup feel like a cruise ship’s rudder. Out back, there are offset DSE leaf springs locating the Currie Enterprises polished rear differential stuffed with 4.11 gears. The wheels are from Billet Specialties, 17s up front and 18s out back, wearing 215/45/17 front and 335/30/18 rear Michelin Pilot Sport performance tires, respectively.

You’re going to need all that tire, too, because under that steel cowl-induction hood are 572 cubic inches of Chevrolet big block power. Rated at 620 horsepower and 650 lb-ft. of torque, this monster launches this Camaro like the catapult on the USS Nimitz launches F/A-18 Hornets. The entire engine was cleaned and prepped for a coat of matching silver paint, and it features a ton of polished and plated hardware, from the intake manifold to the accessory drive to the polished AFCO aluminum radiator. People line up 3 deep to get a look at this engine compartment. Lots of go, lots of show.

You need to be fast with the shifter on top of the Tremec TKO 600 5-speed transmission, because 1st gear is over before you can get your foot on the floor, the tires are going up in smoke, and the car is lunging ahead. Go ahead and power-shift second; the big TKO can handle it, and the Hurst shifter makes it easy to find the right slot. By the time you’re in third, you’re grinning like a mental patient and the car is closing in on triple digits. Not even the hairiest Camaros of the ‘60s – Yenkos, COPOs, whatever – were this scary fast, and none did it with so much control. Pro-touring is still all about speed, but it’s also about precision, and this car has both bases completely covered.

Of course, the performance equation wouldn’t be complete without big brakes, and this car has ‘em. There are huge Wilwood vented and drilled rotors at all 4 corners. Up front, there are 6-piston polished aluminum calipers, with a set of 4-piston calipers out back. A new billet aluminum master cylinder pressurizes the system and looks great under the hood next to that perfectly detailed big-block engine.

No car can be respectfully called pro-touring without an interior upgrade, and this car showcases what can be done with a little imagination and a lot of cash. Interiors have certainly come a long way in the past 40 years, giving this car’s builder a lot of freedom to modernize. The front seats are new Recaro buckets covered in top-grain black leather. The rear bench was custom made to match those Recaros, and looks like the factory made it that way. The dash is full of Autometer carbon fiber gauges around an Ididit tilt steering column topped with a Camaro SS steering wheel.

So if people want to talk pro-touring, use this car as your guide to how to do it right. It’s about the total package and reengineering every system in the car to make it accelerate quicker, turn sharper, stop harder, and do it all while being more comfortable to drive than any stock muscle car ever could be. Judging by the amount of work on this car and its incredible performance, there’s just no way you could build this car yourself for what we’re asking. The fact that someone else has already made the investment and done the heavy lifting for you means all you have to do is come and drive it. I guarantee that’s all you need.