Retro-Styled 2015 Chevrolet 'Chevelle' Camaro Somehow Doesn't Make Me Want To Commit Arson To Save My Eyes

Unlike a lot of, shall we say, older automotive enthusiasts, I don't like restomods. Sure, they can look cool, but I've also never driven one that actually felt properly sorted or worth the money. Maybe they're out there, but I haven't driven them. Sadly, grafting a vintage body onto a modern chassis doesn't usually work much better since the resulting cars look more like something you'd get from Wish.com, only even more cursed. So imagine my surprise when I saw the Mecum auction listing for this Chevelle-bodied 2015 Chevrolet Camaro SS and didn't immediately want to set it on fire.

I'm not going to call this the most beautiful car I've ever seen, as that award obviously goes to the BMW XM, but with different wheels, it's also a car I wouldn't be completely embarrassed to be seen driving. Somehow, it actually mostly works. Sure, you can tell it isn't an actual Chevrolet Chevelle, but it actually mostly pulls off the whole charade. Even if you don't like the idea of it, you have to appreciate the fact that it doesn't sear your retinas and make you wish it would spontaneously combust. Aside from the part where burning people's property is a serious crime, you also don't know for a fact that you don't have pyrokinesis, and you need to be careful, just in case.

As you can see here, you don't get a similarly retro custom interior as it's all just taken from the modern Camaro, and there's an automatic transmission between the 6.2-liter V8 and the rear wheels, neither of which is ideal, but redesigning a dash and center console gets pricey fast, so it's understandable that the builder chose not to open that particular can of worms. Especially since the listing claims getting the build to where it is today already took about 2,000 hours. That also may explain why other similar conversions end up stuck in the uncanny valley. You do get legit Chevelle headrests, though, so that's nice. 

It also doesn't hurt that the original car was a convertible, so you aren't stuck looking at an obviously modern roofline or the hatchet jobs that are most Dodge Challenger convertible conversions. And while the new headlights appear to be modern LEDs, they were either smart enough to skip daytime running lights altogether or photograph the car with them off. DRLs can look good on cars that were actually designed to have them, but muscle cars from the 60s and 70s weren't, and therefore every single retro conversion or restomod that adds them is a sin against God. You could say the same thing about the builder's decision to start with an automatic, but you and I both know whoever wins this auction probably admitted long ago that their days driving stick were behind them. 

Annoyingly for me personally, as well as probably many of you, our new CMS doesn't do galleries or images well, so you'll have to

 head over to the listing

if you want to look at more photos. Still, from what you can see here, it still looks far better than the overwhelming majority of these retro conversions, even if it isn't perfect. And while it may have an automatic transmission, it's still a Camaro SS, which means it should drive far better than the overwhelming majority of restomods you could have bought instead. 

Heck, you may even like the wheels enough to keep them on until winter. You shouldn't, but if you win the auction, I'm certainly not going to stop you. Drive it. Enjoy it. And if you do have a wreck, as long as you're wearing your seatbelt, you should also survive it. And you definitely can't say that about a $250,000 restomod. 

H/T: CarScoops