The Goodguys 21st PPG Nationals was held on July 6-8 at the Ohio Expo Center in Columbus featuring everything from hotrods, customs, muscle cars and classics. The event showcased over 6,500 vehicles and had plenty of competitions to see who has the best ride.
This year the coveted Street Machine of the Year award went to Detroit Speed Inc. It is the second time they have won this prestigious award and this time it was their custom-built 1969 Chevrolet Camaro, named TUX, that stole the show.
The last time they were given this award was 18 years ago with another 1969 Camaro build that was nicknamed the Twister. The Twister Camaro is the car that ultimately led to the beginning of Detroit Speed, according to the company that offers aftermarket suspension and chassis components.
This year’s winner, TUX, took 13 years to complete. It was a collaboration between a long-time customer, Stuart Adams, and Detroit Speed. The Camaro was originally a green-on-green, base optioned, automatic V-8 Camaro coupe. Other than being a really straight and dependable car, there wasn’t anything too extraordinary about it.
The guys at Detroit Speed really wanted to make this Camaro a sophisticated street machine. A high-performance vehicle that could still have an elegant presence. Something that would never go out of style. Hence the name TUX since a tuxedo is both sophisticated and timeless in style.
There are so many build details in this car that it would take way too long to list them all. Among the thousands of modifications, there are a few that really stand out like the hand-fabricated, custom floor pan and transmission tunnel, hand-built and narrowed Detroit Speed front subframe with hydroformed frail rails and custom stamped steel cross-members. Then there is the six-point roll cage that’s integrated into the dash and interior body lines, and the hand-built, custom dash panel and console. The car also features the deepest black paint that PPG offers. It has smoothed, polished, painted, cleared and buffed engine block, heads, supercharger and transmission, and polished chrome vehicle trim.
The 2018 Goodguys Street Machine of the Year award is not the only recognition this Camaro has received. Detroit Speed unveiled it at the 2018 Detroit AutoRama where it was chosen as one of the Great 8 finalists for the highly desired Ridler Award. Tux is also heading to Vegas this year to compete in the Ignited Battle of the Builders competition at SEMA. After that, it will be going home with Stuart.
Check out this cool video from Goodguys where Kyle Tucker sits down to speak about TUX, their 2018 Street Machine of the Year winner. There are also almost 500 pictures of the car and build on the Detroit Speed Flicker Page.