With 2010 Camaro’s hitting the streets and in enthusiasts hands, we thought we would share with you our current picks of some of the coolest 2010 Camaro builds. Some cars we saw in person and others we found on the world wide web. We picked the Camaro’s that turn us on, purely as a matter of our own styling and performance tastes. No bribes or cash exchanged hands to make our list. We looked at high end tuners, home built projects and race shops for worthy candidates. Now, we left a few off the list… Conrad’s 2010 drift camaro for starters, only so much because we’ve covered it so extensively. If you think your ’10 build deserves from cred, let us know.

So, with the explanations out of the way, here is LSXMag’s Top 10 2010 Camaro’s for mid-2009.

10. Tom Henry Racing Super Sport Camaro

Tom Henry Chevrolet in Bakerstown, PA has been toying around with hot rod Camaros for years. When Tom Henry got their hands on their first 2010 model, they went right to work modifying the Cyber Grey Metallic SS with custom stripes and engine mods. The first go fast parts installed was a set of Stainless Works long tube headers and high flow exhaust system. The performance updates have netted a 26 horsepower improvement at the rear wheels.

Being a Chevrolet dealer, they have a good understanding of what modifications will not effect the factory warranty and all the updates give the car the best bang for the buck. External mods included painted-on silver “throw back” side hockey stripes and matching cowl silver striping.

Tom Henry Chevrolet plans to make this a dealer package for 2010 Camaro customers that want the unique Tom Henry Racing look.

9. Newport Convertible Engineering’s 2010 Camaro Convertible

Newport Convertible Engineering (NCE) did not wait around for Chevrolet to build a convertible version of the 2010 Camaro. With the factory vert not planned until 2011, NCE is getting some good press with its current project. California based NCE, with its 24 years of designing and building convertible conversions, jumped at the chance to tackle the new Camaro and produced a real head turner.

The Camaro convertible conversion starts with NCE cutting off the original roof panel, then the chassis is reinforced in the rocker sections as well as the A-pillars. Bracing is also welded into the door post and to the leading edge of the trunk.

Once the bracing is finished, NCE installs their custom made convertible top which uses a top-of-the-line German canvas on the exterior layer, while the inner headliner is made from artificial suede. A glass rear window with defroster is also part of the new top package.

To round out the custom convertible, Forgiato cast-aluminum wheels have been added along with a custom front billet grille. Pricing for the convertible conversion is around $16,000, with the car’s official debut scheduled in November at the SEMA show in Las Vegas.

For more information on the NCE 2010 Camaro Convertible, check out their website.

8. Nickey Chevrolet 2010 Camaro

At the Detroit stop on the 2009 Hot Rod Power Tour, we had the chance to check out the bright yellow 2010 Nickey Camaro in person. If you’re up on your Camaro history you’ll remember back in 1967, Chicago based Nickey Chevrolet installed a 427 big block into the first generation Camaro and set the Chevy aftermarket tuner trend in motion.

Fast foreword to 2010 and Nickey Chicago has been revitalized by Stefano Bimbi and is located in St. Charles, IL, just outside of Chicago. Nickey Chicago jumped on the 2009 Hot Rod Power Tour and when the crew made a stop on the Eastside of Detroit, the yellow Nickey Camaro made quite an impression on the crowd.

The 2010 Nickey Camaro on display at the Power Tour had a great stance made possible by its adjustable Pedders Xa coil over suspension. Exterior updates included unique Nickey stripes and five spoke 20″ Nickey wheels. Engine updates include a set of tubular headers and the car had its share of curious onlookers after an impressive burn out at the end of the day. Currently Nickey has two stages available for the 2010 Camaro.

Stage I offers a mild performance improvement and unique Nickey exterior styling. Performance updates include custom tuned headers & exhaust, 160* Thermostat and Stage I Nickey Tuned Suspension. Exterior styling updates include; blacked out rear body panel, special customer I.D. plate
and Nickey Badges.

STAGE II offers a medium performance improvement and custom appearance items including a 600 horsepower engine update (Nickey CNC Ported Heads, Nickey Spec. Cam Kit, Custom Nickey Intake & Fuel Rails, & Nickey Billet Valve Covers). Exterior styling cues include Nickey Stinger Hood With Functional Ram Air Scoop.

Look for more from Nickey Chicago as more Camaro’s hit the street, for more information on the Nickey Chicago Camaro package check out their website at www.nickeychicago.net.

7. Hiney1’s Bumblebee Camaro

Hiney1 from the camaro5.com forum built his own version of the Transformer Bumblebee car from the hit movie. Several 2010 Rally Yellow Camaro owners have already customized their cars to resemble the movie star car by the application of black “bumblebee style” vinyl stripes. One central element of the Bumblebee look that has been missing from most of the cars was the trick golden yellow paint.

Currently, HINEY1’s Camaro is the closest resemblance to the actual onscreen car. HINEY’s car is a result of a full teardown, panel prep, paint, and reassembly of all the body panels of an original rally yellow Camaro SS. The Bumblebee’s Golden Yellow paint treatment started with the white base then topped off with the Sunrise gold paint and clearcoat. The entire process took the body shop, Gateway Collision, 6 weeks to pull off.

The project is complete with a license plate that reads: TRANS4MR. To get the full background on the project visit the www.camaro5.com site.

6. Momentum Race Group 2010 Camaro Koni Challenge Car

Momentum Race Group recently announced that it will be fielding a new two car team for the 2009 Grand-Am KONI series. The team will be campaigning the new Riley Technologies-built 2010 Camaro, powered by a LS3 engine built by GM Powertrain. GM Racing has made Riley Technologies the official supplier for the 2010 KONI Challange car and their history building some of the best road racing cars in the country should make any Camaro competitive from the start.

Momentum Race Group will begin testing cars in late August in preparation for its September 18th debut at Miller Motorsports Park. Being one of the first teams to field the new Riley Camaro, the team hopes to have a strong showing in 2009 and contend for the 2010 championship.

Driver line-up will include Jordon Musser, Robb Holland and Jeff Altenburg. It will be interesting to see how the new Camaro performs against the well sorted Mustangs and Porsche.

Visit the Momentum Race Group site for updates on the team and car.

5. Epic SS Widebody Camaro

Southern California based Epic Customs has created this sinister looking widebody version the 2010 Camaro. We thought the factory Camaro was wide, but the Epic SS is 7″ wider in the rear than the original 2010. To achieve this look, hundreds of hours were spent welding, shaping and filling the widebody kit to the car. Once the body work was ultra-smooth, a flat black paint job was sprayed to create a very agressive looking car.

To fill out the wider wheel wells, massive 26×12″ rear and 24×9″ front black with red spoke Accent wheels were added. I addition to the wide stance and lowered look, it has a full JL audio sound system and a custom red/black interior. Performance modifications include a high performance exhaust and cold air intake, with plans for a future LS9 engine swap or supercharger install.

To follow the progress of the Epic SS build, visit the build journal.

4. Lingenfelter Performance 2010 Camaro

The original Chevrolet high performance tuner, Lingenfelter Performance Engineering, has taken what they have learned on the Corvette program and applied it to the new 2010 Camaro’s 6.2 Liter L99 engine.

Their base package for the 2010 Camaro includes a TVS 2300 Magnusson Supercharger, upgraded fuel system, air intake system and a performance tune. The result is 550 hp and 550 ft-lb’s of torque, a 100 horsepower increase over the factory rating, plus its got a 3 year 36,000 mile warranty on the supercharger.

Suspension, wheel/tire and aerodynamic updates are optional on the Lingenfelter Camaro. Exterior styling updates will include; LPE cowl induction hood, LPE grill/headlight kit, front lower bumper grill/inlet, front lip spoiler, LPE sideskirts, and a rear trunk spoiler.

For more information on the Lingenfelter Camaro packages, visit their website.

3. Fastlane’s Stage 4 ZL1 Single Turbo 2010 Camaro SS

Texas tuning house Fastlane Incorporated is one of the first 2010 Camaro tuners to install a turbo kit. They are still tuning on the black development car and it’s only running 7lbs boost but it’s already putting down 520 RWHP and 509 RWTQ.

Fastlane’s turbo system is fabricated around an efficient Borg Warner extended tip turbo with a 71.5mm compressor wheel. The turbo exhaust system features a custom LS3 exhaust manifold with 3″ exhaust ducting. The turbo back exhaust system features high flow 3″ catalytic converter X-pipe with 3″ stainless cat-back exhaust with 3″ stainless tuned mufflers.

There are a few tuners currently developing single turbo kits for the 2010 Camaro, but Fastlane plans to offer it as a package in addition to supercharger kits and naturally aspirated packages. For more information on Fastlane’s 2010 Camaro Project, visit their website.

2. East Texas Muscle Cars V6 Camaro Turbo Project

East Texas Muscle Cars is developing a turbocharged 2010 V6 Camaro with the ultimate goal of beating the Nissan GT-R time around the Nürburgring Nordschliefe circuit.

Rather than go the V8 route, they are starting off with the 300 horsepower V6 engine and the STS rear mount turbo system. The car, currently under development, will initially be a one-off to prove the concept and take the pulse of the Camaro V6 market. Built with a forged crank, rods and pistons, the V6 has a modified Squires Turbo Systems remote-mount turbocharger kit and produce around 500 horsepower.

Other updates include a Baer big brake kit, lightweight 20-inch iForged wheels and Pedders coil-overs suspension to address the stock Camaro’s understeer. Plans are to run on 275/35 Bridgestone RE050 [street] tires.

The company estimates the Camaro’s final weight to be around 3,750 pounds, with a full interior in place . Once sorted, the company plans to crate up the development car and ship both the completed Camaro and a friends personal Nissan GT-R to Germany to run hot laps of the Nürburgring. The car will debut at the 2009 SEMA Show in the Squires Turbo Systems booth.

1. 2010 HPE700 Camaro

Hennessey Performance Engineering (HPE), well known for their extreme performance Vipers, Corvettes and other sports cars, announced their Limited Edition 2010 HPE700 Camaro back in January.

At the heart of the HPE700 Camaro is GM’s new LS9 supercharged V8 from the ZR1 Corvette, tweaked from a factory 635 horsepower to 705 horsepower and 717 lb-ft torque. To match the power, Hennessey offers 15-inch carbon brakes from the Corvette ZR1, wrapped in light weight HRE wheels with Michelin PS2 tires. A full suspension upgrade is also part of the HPE700 Camaro to make full use of its new found power.

In addition to the power and handling upgrades., Hennessey offers an exterior aerodynamics package to improve downforce at high speed. Body upgrades include: Carbon fiber rear lip spoiler, carbon fiber side rocker panels, carbon fiber front splitter, front fascia with hideaway-look headlights and front billet grille.

For more information visit the Hennessey Performance Engineering website.