Robert Downey Jr. surprised his MCU co-star Chris Evans with a pretty amazing gift; an Avengers-themed 1967 Chevrolet Camaro. Evans showed off the $275,000 car and all of its personalized touches in an episode of Jay Leno's Garage on CNBC in August 2018.
The car is a tribute to Evans' iconic superhero character Captain America, including a steering wheel emblazoned with his star-shaped shield, and a plaque which commemorates the vehicle as a "Steve Rogers special edition."
"This car was a gift from Mr Robert Downey Jr.," Evans told Leno, describing how Downey Jr. kept asking him during shooting what kind of cars he liked. "In my head I’m like, ‘Is this guy going to give me a car? There’s no way he’s going to do this,'" he said. "And, then sure enough, I showed up on set one day and it was there."
Evans described the Captain America Camaro as "way out of my league," and with its Chevrolet LS3 crate engine and Whipple 2.9-liter Supercharger, it is "without question" the most powerful car he's ever driven. The Camaro was restored and customized with new state-of-the-art parts by car designer SpeedKore in Grafton, Wisconsin. While a 1967 Camaro would usually be valued at $20,000, Evans' bespoke Captain America version is valued at $275,000 due to the custom parts and the hours of labor it took.
Evans and Downey Jr. have forged a strong friendship over their years working together on the Avengers movies; in fact, it was Downey Jr. who originally convinced Evans to take the role of Cap back in the early days of the MCU. Their bond in real life mirrors the friendship shared by Tony Stark and Steve Rogers on-screen, and Downey Jr.'s extravagant gesture here absolutely feels like something billionaire Stark might do.
