I was one of those kids that spent more time daydreaming about cars and women than listening to my teachers. Drag racing on Friday night and learning how to work on cars by trial and error. I bought my first Camaro when I was just into my senior year in High School. I had just totaled my '81 Monte Carlo with a 327 after a night of raising hell. I bought a '68 Camaro and they agreed to paint it '77 Corvette yellow for $3,500 total. That's when the sickness set in. I spent a few years updating the mechanical aspects of the car from bumper to bumper. I decided I liked working on cars so much that I went to college and got an associate degree in the GM ASEP program. Shortly after graduating I got a wild hair and moved to Las Vegas with my parents' 1970's style flower couch and $3,000. No job or place to live lined up. The good old days! The car went in storage and I planned to come back and get it ASAP. I got the call we all dread. It was missing out of the storage unit. Some dirt bag had stolen my car. The insurance company cut me a check for a whopping $7,500.

I only lasted about six months working on cars down here. I was already pretty much topped-out pay wise. Working on new cars wasn't what I had in mind. I took the insurance money and went out on my own and became an entrepreneur. That's where the name Payback comes into play. I took the money and launched a successful career that enabled me to build my dream car. Pretty good Payback I'd have to say!

I wouldn't say it was easy getting to this point with my car. It's been about two and a half years from start to finish. I have to say it's all worked out really well. Some early delays enabled me to plan and research my build to the point of being cross-eyed. My initial builder scored me a really solid, all-original 307 car. It's all GM steel except the hood. It also gave me the chance to run across respectable people in the business. After about a year in paint jail, I sent the car to Frank at Prodigy Customs in Florida. That was really the cross road for me. I was almost ready to give up and store the car. I had bought some parts from Frank in the past. He cut me a square deal and stuck to it. Six months later, I had a super-straight, deep black painted '69 Camaro roller in my garage. I worked on the car nonstop for 3-4 months and racked up 1300 miles with an unfinished interior. I got to the point where I knew I needed a pro to finish the interior. I contacted Findlay Customs here locally, and they did a great job finishing the car off just how I wanted it.

I'm not going to bore you with a list of parts. This is the car I've always wanted to build and have had floating around in my head. Basically I have a 600 hp race car that I can take out to dinner on a Friday night and fill it up with 91 octane, not overheat in the Vegas heat, feel like I'm driving a modern sports car, and listen to my favorite tunes on my IPod. I'm no stranger to cars that handle. Having owned a C5 Corvette and a 545i and 550i BMW, I can tell you this car handles better and is more predictable. It's been a blast building this car. I think I'll just enjoy it a while. This year I would like to get a chassis dyno, hit the drag strip, and maybe a road course. Future plans include fuel injection and just tweaking on the car until near perfection.

Special thanks to the whole crew at Prodigy Customs for all their hard work, honesty, and support. Oh yeah, that super-deep, neck-snapping black paint job. DSE and Classic Chevy for all the tech calls and fantastic parts. Lemons headers for building me a sick set of headers that don't road rash and breathe so nice. Tyler and Russ at ATS for finishing off my exhaust and cross member with the best welds in the business. Joe and George at Findlay Customs for some top notch interior work. Of course, Scott for the opportunity to be a Lateral-g feature car. Quite an honor amongst what I would consider the top cars, builders, and people on the planet!!