1968 Camaro with Pro Street Power and Pro Touring Driveability

When you build high-performance cars for a living, the majority of your time is focused on completing the projects for your customers. Many times, it's rare to get enough free time on the clock to take on a build of your own. Peter Newell's roots lie in hard-core Pro Street cars that can be driven ... not just locally to your average cruise night, but cross-country where performance demands require them to be completely functional to endure a beating. As owner of Competition Specialties in Walpole, Massachusetts, he lives and breathes these cars as his personal church.

Starting back with his first build, an '86 Trans Am was cut up to create a 6-71 blown small-block car running mile-wide rear rubber. The car set the local scene on fire since it was driven year round in New England ... without a hood—even through snowstorms! Over 20 years ago it was a "Long Hauler" on the Hot Rod Power Tour.

This brings us to Project Leftover. As time went on, many people shrugged off Pro Street cars as a passing fancy, but dedicated builders of these cars kept them very much alive. Newell took on a derelict roller project in 2011 and deemed it Leftover. The concept was to take the shell to completion utilizing the many scraps in the shop for a new daily driver.

In its first iteration, the car was finished with a stroked small-block Chevy and coated in blue suede paint. As promised, it took a daily beating 12 months a year through all types of weather, enduring literally tens of thousands of miles. Wanting to inject more style, the car was torn down to create Leftover 2.0, bathed in blue candy gloss with a myriad of custom body modifications and an injection of carbon fiber. Again on the road and thousands of miles later the revisions continued to Leftover 3.0, adding a fresh twin-turbo mill to the equation to up the ante on the street.

In its latest form, conceived over the past 12 months, the car has evolved to an entirely new level. Raising the bar and incorporating a myriad of high-performance parts from many of our industry leaders, Peter has already laid down over 10,000 miles since the project update was completed. The base for any true Pro Street build relies on the ability to put the power to the street.

To start, DMC Racing in Halifax, Massachusetts, back-halfed the car, suspending a narrowed Dana 60 rear packed with 4.11 gears spinning 35-spline Strange Engineering axles with their adjustable four-link and Panhard bar and QA1 Quad Adjust remote reservoir coilover shocks. For excellent handling, a Fatman Fabrications front subframe incorporates their Sportalign IFS system with exclusive tuning capabilities. To set the stance even deeper, Peter channeled the subframe 1 inch into the body.

If you're pushing big horsepower numbers you'd better be able to stop. A Wilwood Engineering dual master pushes juice through steel lines to a forged Superlite 6R big-brake package, 14-inch drilled and slotted rotors with six-piston calipers up front with Dynalite 12.88-inch drilled and slotted rotors and four-piston calipers out back. Connecting it to the street are custom 18-inch front and 20-inch rear Boze Vortex three-piece concave wheels wearing Hankooks up front and Mickey Thompson Sportsman S/R radials out back.

When it came time to build a mill that could take an all-out beating and maintain dependability, Peter contacted C3 Automotive Machine in Foxboro, Massachusetts, to build the short-block. A Chevrolet Performance 350ci Bow Tie Sportsman block with four-bolt nodular mains was packed with a GM forged steel crank linked to H-beam rods capped with Ross Racing forged aluminum slugs getting a hefty bump from a Nelson Racing stick. Peter assembled the rest with ample power coming from Dart Pro 1 aluminum heads. An Edelbrock Victor Jr intake cradles a Quick Fuel Technology Q-Series 850-cfm Blow-Thru carb linked to twin Nelson Racing 61mm mirror-image turbos generating enough power to pin you to the back of the seat. The Vintage Air Front Runner drive system adds plenty of performance accented by custom inner fender panels and billet hood hinges from Eddie Motorsports and DMC Racing's exclusive hideaway turbo plumbing. The goods move through a PerformaBuilt Level 3 Invincible 4L60E trans to a QA1 REV Series carbon-fiber driveshaft, making it easy to cruise comfortably at triple-digit speeds.

Study Leftover and you'll see plenty of subtle changes. Peter turned up the heat starting with a custom-fabricated steel chin spoiler, welded and filled front fenders, and filled antenna mount as well as welded and smoothed driprails. He continued on with 2-inch dropped steel rocker panels with matching sections on the fender and quarter-panel bottoms, adding a custom relief to the quarter-panels ahead of the rear wheels and wrapped it up by pie-cutting the rear of the quarters to gracefully transition the panels into the roll pan and carbon-fiber diffuser.

Finally, the quarter seams were welded and smoothed with final accents including Eddie Motorsports RS grille, taillights, and door handles, as well as a carbon-fiber trunk lid by Anvil. He then set the gaps, made it razor sharp, and laid down a deep coating of House of Kolor Apple Red accented by custom stripes.

Inside, DMC Racing completed the tinwork along with the eight-point chromoly cage. The factory dash features a custom insert housing a Racepak IQ3 to monitor the vitals. A Billet Specialties wheel carves the course while shifts fly through a Lokar unit. Cool breezes are by Vintage Air.

All-new interior panels were designed and crafted at JK Automotive Designs and covered in a combination of black leather and suede by Cutting Edge Designs, both of Stoneham, Massachusetts. Cutting Edge then upholstered the Procar seats in black leather while also covering the dash in suede, accented by charcoal German square weave carpet. Clayton Machine Works door handles and window cranks add the final touch.

In its current form, the car is a fusion of Pro Street and Pro Touring to create a type of Pro Outlaw style where a wide-tire car can effectively throw down blistering performance and still handle well on the long haul. Currently, Leftover has logged over 50,000 miles in all types of weather conditions year-round, and shows no signs of slowing down! CHP