Steven Rupp

I was born and raised in Southern California and have always been into classic cars. My first car was a 1964.5 Mustang that I remember tossing Centerline wheels on and giving a midnight blue paint job to. It was a straight six, which most likely kept me alive. After high school I picked up a 1967 Camaro and spent all my money at Super Shops fixing it up. It rolled on 16-inch IROC wheels, which in the 1980s was pretty cutting edge. I'm old enough that Big Daddy Ed Roth pinstriped my car in his driveway. In 2004 I was hired on as Technical Editor for Popular Hot Rodding and later I did the same gig at Camaro Performers where we built a 1968 Camaro called Bad Penny (Google it). Later I was editor for Vette and Super Chevy Magazines before ending up here at HOT ROD as a Senior Tech Editor.

I've had the pleasure of building and being involved with quite a few cars from the above-mentioned Bad Penny Camaro to a 1968 Camaro called Track Rat and a 1,000 horsepower 1971 Wagon rolling on a Roadster Shop chassis. I've owned a few ZL1/1LE Camaros, a couple of Porsche GT4s and currently I'm working over a sweet 1972 LS-swapped Chevelle wagon to see if we can make this 4,000 beast handle on track. I live in SoCal with my partner April where I still spend way too much time thinking about the next big project.