About Me

My name is Brandon Brown, and I am simply a Camaro enthusiast with an attraction/interest in knowing facts and history. Being a 4th generation Camaro history nerd is one my many hobbies and has been since the early 2000s when I joined camaroz28.com and ls1tech's forums with the name Brangeta.

With regard to Camaros, my family bought its first Camaro in 1995 when I was 10 years old. It was a 1995 Camaro Z28 that is currently owned by my sister. My mother owns a 2002 35th Anniversary Edition Camaro SS that she purchased new in 2001. I drove one of my other dream cars, a 2006 Grand Prix GXP, from January 2009 till the fall of 2022 when I bought a Hyundai Sonata N-Line. 

Although the urge comes and goes, I do still want to own a perfect '97 Camaro Z28 in Bright Purple Metallic to only drive occasionally as my weekend car. If I do decide to pursue it when the timing is right, I do know what I want.

Ideally it would be a nearly factory original 1997 Bright Purple Metallic Z28 hardtop with super low mileage, perfect paint and bodywork, and ideally with an automatic transmission so I can just cruise and enjoy myself. I prefer it have the gray/black interior plastics. Depending on the condition and mileage of the car, I may do absolutely nothing to it beyond restoring what needs to be replaced. However, I might consider adding subframe connectors to help prevent dimples on the rear quarters, upgrading the front brakes, swapping to larger wheels and tires (17" C6 Z06 replicas in silver metallic), lowering the ride height with better springs and shocks (Strano springs, Koni shocks), a few chassis/suspension bolt on changes to correct the position of everything (from lowering the car), and zero engine/performance modifications (ignore the aftermarket exhaust in the photos below). I want the car to sound like the car it was intended to sound like, so I want the OEM Z28 exhaust with black rectangular exhaust tips! GM spent a lot of money paying their engineers to make the car sound like it sounds, and I see no reason to pretend I know better. My Photoshopped plans are below. Note: this car was green... not purple, so this car does not exist in reality.

The interior leather, if I decide to change it, will be an upscale and custom design by me in a raspberry or lipstick color and I will save the original seat covers. I love the '90s Callaway Corvettes and their crazy exterior/interior colors and that's what has inspired me. The actual shade is highly dependent on whether the Z28 I end up with was originally optioned with Dark Gray or Medium Gray interior, as I refuse to change the plastic to some out of another Camaro that may not be as low mileage and mint as the car I hopefully find. Carpet will likely be changed to an aftermarket ultra luxe Agate colored carpet to better match the bluish purple hue of the interior plastics. The GM carpet usually had a yellow tint to it, that doesn't match well in photographs. The unfinished Illustrator rendering is below. Ignore the beige leather as the seats will be 100% raspberry/lipstick, and also ignore the fact that this does not have a '97 steering wheel, and is a convertible--it was just the best interior picture I could find. I love complimentary colors and contrast, and to me, this pinkish color will look really great with the exterior paint as well as the gray plastics and etc.

One modification that tempts me heavily is switching the interior mirror out with a Gentex GENK30 mirror like many of the GMMG Camaros have. This mirror is auto-dimming and has a compass, map lights, and the outside temperature. It's actually the same mirror, or similar, as those found in the GMMG Camaros. The rest of my technological needs can be taken care of by my phone...

If you happen to own a very low mileage (less than 50,000 miles) '97 Camaro Z28 coupe in Bright Purple Metallic, be sure to email me at brangeta (at) gmail (dot) com.