Photos.
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The story.
The color tells the first part of the story. Larry Morgan's 1969 Camaro SS 396 started life Pearl White, but somewhere along the way it picked up a new color — red — the one the car wore through the years his sons grew up around it.
Three decades later, that same paint scheme rolls out of Morgan Muscle Cars in Pelham, Alabama, on a different '69 Camaro: an RS Z28 owned by Steve Morgan, with an LSX 454 under the hood and roughly 700 horsepower at the rear wheels.
For the Morgans, every car starts with Larry — "the legend," as the brothers call him. Mom and Dad dated in a '67. Larry's '69 SS was a fixture of the brothers' high school years: the homecoming parade car, the family centerpiece, and the same car they tried to teach the younger Morgan to drive a stick on. That experiment didn't take. As he tells it, the 396 four-speed was "not the stick to learn on," and the family rumor has outlived the lesson by a wide margin. Steve's RS Z28 is an answer to that history — not a copy of it. The body is a true 1969, with the right shark gills, the right pinch line, and the right shape. Everything underneath it is current.
Power comes from an LSX 454, normally rated around 640 to 650 horsepower from the crate. Morgan Muscle Cars built on that foundation with a BTR upper intake and dialed in the fuel injection using a Holley Dominator X Series controller. The dyno settled the conversation: just under 700 horsepower, with around 600 foot-pounds of torque behind it. A Tremec manual sits behind the engine. Behind that, a Ford 9-inch rear end running a 3.90 gear, narrowed to clear the 14-inch-wide rear tires. The engine bay was treated with the same intention as the body — a custom radiator cover, a custom dual intake feeding both sides of the engine, and a deliberate break in the stripe pattern so the BTR intake reads as the centerpiece instead of the paint.
The exterior wears red — the same color that defined Larry's car — with painted black stripes. No stickers anywhere on the build; everything from the light bezels to the windshield-wiper trim was sprayed to match. The only chrome left on the car lives in the shark gills and the wheels. Inside, the brothers landed on a gray checkered upholstery with a thin red line woven through it after a black-and-white checker didn't carry enough depth — the kind of small detail that takes a build from good to great.
Start to finish, the car was built in the family shop. It's a 1969 on the outside, a modern muscle car underneath, and a tribute to the legend who started it all. This Camaro is no longer available through the shop. Next: 1970 C10 Stepside →
In motion.
The build.
- Engine
- LSX 454 — approximately 700 hp, ~600 ft-lbs torque. BTR upper intake; Holley Dominator X Series ECU; custom dual intake feeding both sides of the engine; custom radiator cover under the hood.
- Drivetrain
- Tremec manual transmission; Ford 9-inch rear end. 3.90 gear, rear narrowed in-shop to clear the 14-inch-wide rear tires.
- Suspension & Steering
- Coilovers all four corners; sway bars; quick-ratio power steering box. Tracks straight hands-off; reacts faster than a stock '69 has any right to.
- Brakes
- Wilwood six-piston calipers, finished red and visible through the polished mesh wheels. Required hardware on a 700-hp Camaro built to drive like a go-kart.
- Body & Paint
- Red with painted black stripes — color lifted whole from Larry Morgan's 1969 SS. All bezels, light surrounds, and wiper trim sprayed to match. The only chrome left on the car is the 1969-only shark gills and the wheels.
- Interior
- Custom seats in gray checkered upholstery with a thin red line; billet pedals; billet switches. Stitched in-shop. Black-and-white checker was tried first and rejected — the gray checker carried more depth against the red exterior.