If you don’t notice the customized logo that apes the IROC-Z lower door emblem, you’d just think that you are looking at a properly restored and slightly built third-generation Camaro. In person, the DSE-Z Camaro that Detroit Speed put together is so damn gorgeous that it honestly leaves us wanting to put a third-gen together…it is that good. But subtle, it is not. Not by any stretch of the imagination. I was standing right on the concrete barrier at the Hoonigan’s pit at SEMA last year when the Camaro went full Australian mode, screaming at the upper end of it’s lungs, somewhere in the neighborhood north of 8,000 RPM, and that noise doubles as an aphrodisiac for any gearhead. (Coming soon for the Christmas season…screaming Mast LS! Makes your man wild!)

The third-gens were good cars for the day but let’s be quite honest: they are still a 1980s GM product, with small-blocks that were just learning how to breathe again after the horror of the 1970s smog setups. They had their issues, too: questionable build quality, a painful fuel pump location and a more-or-less basic suspension. They look absolutely bitchin’…an IROC Camaro or a Firebird Formula really do look the part, but like every 1980s car, to really be something major work needs to be put in to make them properly move. If you have really sat on the fence regarding a 1980s Camaro/Firebird, hit play and take notes on what we think is the baddest example of the breed!