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The Man Likes His Camaros

Written By: Tom Olsen

Steve Lenning, from Sioux Falls, is a car guy through and through and he loves Camaros! He “worked his way up” through the car hobby with his first car in high school being a 1964 Chevy 4-door with a 283 V8. Soon, the engine was pulled from that car, rebuilt, and put into a ’64 Chevelle SS, then the engine went into another ’64 Chevelle. Steve raced the Chevelle in the early ‘70s at Empire Raceway at the Sioux Empire Fairgrounds while that track was still running. Steve recalls taking auto shop with several of his buddies at Lincoln High School. “We really got hooked into cars…all of us were gearheads,” he said.

Steve’s interest in Camaros first began when a returning Viet Nam veteran, living about a block away, showed up with a brand new 1969 Camaro Z28. The Camaro was Le Mans Blue with white stripes, and Steve has had a soft spot for Camaros ever since! In 1974 Steve bought his first 1969 Camaro from Wendell Simko; Hugger Orange with a flat black hood. Simko worked at Performance Parts at the time and the car had race history at Thunder Valley Dragways.

In our January issue, highlighting Winterfest of Wheels, we introduced you to Steve’s beautiful 1970 Pro-Touring Camaro. “ZO70” (Z-oh-seventy), as Steve named it, was still under construction at the time, but it was finished enough to be a feature car at Winterfest. For those that didn’t see it previously, ZO70 features a wide range of custom and performance features. Outside there is a heavy dose of carbon fiber; black leather and suede highlights the interior. The powertrain and suspension are all designed for maximum track performance complementing a 685hp Chevy LS7 engine. Straight Lines Custom Restorations did the body and paint work finishing the car in a matte Hyper Blue color. The crowds loved the Camaro and it drew positive comments from all who took time to really examine all the creative details on the car. Steve’s hard work was rewarded with one of three “People’s Choice” awards handed out at the show.

What you may not know, is that ZO70 is just one of the Camaros in Steve’s garage; presently there are five. In addition to this most recent addition, there are two 1969s, a 2010, and a 2014. Each of these is different, so let’s take a look.

Steve has owned his Fathom Green ’69 Camaro SS396 since 1977, having paid the princely sum of $500 for it! It, of course, didn’t look like it does now when he bought it. After having the car for many years, Steve restored the car to correct, factory stock condition in 1993-94. And, it’s a beautiful restoration. He did the majority of the body work on the car himself and had Midwest Paint and Body in Hull, IA, paint it. It’s powered by the 350hp, 396ci engine with a Muncie 4-speed transmission. The interior was originally light green, but Steve changed that in favor of the black factory interior. Under the hood, the interior, and anywhere you look, you see a factory new appearance. The Camaro was first shown in 1995 and won “Best Musclecar-Stock Appearance” at the Car Craft Summer Cruise that year.

Steve has another 1969 Camaro which is a very different animal. This one is highly modified for autocross and road course racing. Steve built this car over the course of 18 months in 2005-07. Mark Stielow, a GM factory performance engineer, is credited with doing the first Chevrolet LS7 conversion into a Gen 1 Camaro, and Steve’s car is likely the second. Steve added a hotter cam to the dry sump LS7 crate motor, along with ATS headers, and the engine now produces 497 rear wheel horsepower. A 6-speed T-56 transmission and Moser 12-bolt rear end with 4.10 gears send that power to the Fikse wheels. (18x12 rear, and 18X8 front.) Baer 14” brakes slow everything down. The suspension and roll cage are by Detroit Speed. The body work was done at Nick’s Body Shop in Truman, MN, by Steve’s brother-in-law Brian Nickerson and his brother, Brad. The custom silver paint was shot by Brad. Steve races it in Omaha and Hastings, NE, and in Michigan. As with all of Steve’s builds, this car is very well done, and was featured in Camaro Performers Magazine in 2010.

Something a little more tame, but still a fine performing Camaro is Steve’s 2010 Camaro SS. When the new Gen 5 Camaros were available for order, Steve put his order in on the very first day. He believes his is the very first one in Sioux Falls. The SS is black with white stripes. It is equipped with the 6.2L, 426hp LS3 engine and the 6 speed transmission. Steve’s wife, Kristy, drove this car regularly…right up until the 2014 Z28 came along!

The next addition to Steve’s high-performance Camaro fleet is his 2014 Z28 Camaro. Steve wanted a 2014 as this was the first year for the recent Z28 model; there were only around 400 of these built. 2014 and ’15 are the only two years of the latest Z28. Steve’s is Ashen Gray with the black leather interior. He wasn’t able to find one locally, so this “Z” came out of Houston, TX. The Z28 uses the LS7 naturally aspirated 7.0L engine producing 505 horsepower with a 6-speed transmission. These are built for track use and have 14” ceramic brake rotors and come with super sticky Toyo tires. Steve found the original Toyo tires to be too sticky for street use (throwing gravel and pebbles all the time) and changed to a more “streetable” tire for road driving. (The “stickies” go back on the car for track use.) Having discovered what a blast the Z28 is to drive, now you’ll commonly find Kristy driving it around town!

As noted previously, Steve enjoys racing his Camaros. His silver ’69 Camaro has seen the most track time to this point, although the ’14 Z28 has track time as well. Steve races in timed competition events where there is no “door to door” competition. “No one is trying to bang these cars up!” he said. Cars are put onto the track 8-10 at a time and are running for fastest times. If a faster car wants to go around, it must be waved around by the leading driver. Steve is really looking forward to getting his 1970 Camaro on the track next season. He will initially get some track time in at Omaha and Hastings to sort out the car and get comfortable with it. Then, he’s planning to run in the Motor State Challenge in Michigan, which is a qualifier for the Optima Challenge. The Optima Challenge has four parts to the final scoring including: a road course, autocross, speed-stop challenge, and the design (appearance) challenge. Sounds like fun, and certainly, a challenge!

Steve gets his Camaros out regularly and it’s not unusual to see one show up at a local cruise night or car show. He had hoped to get ZO70 on the road course this summer, but some build delays prevented that from happening. He will have it totally ready for next summer, however, and I’m sure he’ll have a blast with it on the track. I may have to make time for a trip to Omaha to see that one run! Do you suppose a guy could get a ride?

December 2018

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The Man Likes His Camaros

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