One thousand pounds. Half a ton. Way more than any strongman contestant can lift. That's how much weight Finale Speed has been able to cut out of a 1969 Camaro by replacing its steel body with carbon fiber. And the company's aiming to bring that supercar technology to pretty much any American muscle car.

"Carbon fiber's been around for years," said J.D. Rudisill, who founded Finale Speed in Yukon, Oklahoma, in April 2022. "It's what they use in Formula 1, all the hypercars, because it's just a fraction of the weight of steel. Half the weight and double the strength, is what they say. It's just that nobody had used it on the classics."

Other aftermarket companies have offered ready-made carbon-fiber components, Rudisill noted, and a handful do offer full carbon-fiber bodies, but Rudisill said that as far as he knows, Finale is the first company to offer full carbon-fiber bodies for 1968-1970 Dodge Chargers and first-generation Chevrolet Camaros.

The latter made its debut this past week at Barrett-Jackson's Scottsdale auction as a complete car dubbed Viral, powered by a 650hp LT4 6.2-liter crate engine. The former has had a far more eventful few months. From the start, Rudisill wanted to work with Dodge representatives to license the second-generation Charger's design, and even before those agreements were in place, he got an invitation to unveil the Charger's bare carbon-fiber body at Dodge's Speed Week event in August - the same event at which the company debuted its all-electric Charger Daytona SRT Concept.

There's more! Keep reading...