September 2019 Camaro of the Month: Kevin Jahnke's 615hp 1967 SS

Over the course of the past several years, TorqueNews has worked with the members from the Camaros Unlimited Facebook group to select our Camaro of the Month. This begins with the members of the Camaros Unlimited Facebook page – nearly than 43,000 of them – nominating their favorite Chevrolet Camaro owned by a fellow member of the page. After five owners have been nominated by the community, the voting begins and when the balloting closes, we have our Camaro of the Month.

For September 2019, the huge crowd of Chevrolet muscle car fans picked this 1967 Camaro SS owned by Kevin Jahnke. We reached out to Jahnke for more information on his big block SS and below, you will find his story.

We should point out that while we usually feature a “beauty shot” of the car atop our Camaro of the Month feature, but for this piece, we have used the “before” picture because the transformation is so very impressive. After sitting outside for nearly 30 years, this Camaro went from the picture above to the picture below in about two years, bringing this classic muscle car back to life.

Saving the 1967 Camaro
It’s a 1967 Camaro. It started life as a 327 PowerGlide car and I bought it from the original owners in Medford, Oregon on August 14, 2014. It had been sitting in his backyard since 1988 with only 91,000 miles on the odometer.
I completed the full rotisserie restoration in September 2016. It has a 496 big block Chevy that puts out 615 horsepower and 621 ft. lbs. of torque. Performance transmission in Jupiter, Florida built a custom wide ratio M-22 four speed transmission. The rear end is a Quick Performance 9 inch with 4:11 gears, narrowed 7 inches. It has Billet Specialties Win-Lite wheels, 12x15 rears and 4x15 fronts.

The paint is code 3R3 Barcelona red, with a stinger hood. Features vintage air, Custom Autosound stereo with 2- 10 inch subs with 1600 watts from two Rockford Fosgate amps and a Dakota Digital VHX gauge package with GPS controlled speedometer.

My Camaro is a super fun car to putt around in and it gets thumbs up everywhere I go. It is not for sale, as it will be passed down to the 13 year old boy that helped me build it after he turns 18, as he has taken so much interest in Camaros since helping restore this one.

Congratulations to Kevin Jahnke and his 1967 Chevrolet Camaro SS for being named the Camaro of the Month for September 2019. If you would like to participate in the Camaro of the Month program with your Chevy muscle car, click here to join Camaros Unlimited!

Patrick Rall is a professional writer and photographer with a passion for all things automotive. Patrick has been sharing his automotive expertise in automotive journalism from Detroit for more than a decade covering the Big Three. Having grown up in his father’s performance shop, he spent extensive time at the oval track and drag strip – both driving and wrenching on various types of vehicles. In addition to working as a writer, Patrick previously worked as an automotive technician before moving on to a business office position with a chain of dealerships, and this broad spectrum of experience in the industry allows him to offer a unique look on the automotive world. Follow Patrick on Facebook, Youtube and Twitter.