Exclusive: 2013 Camaro Pro Stock

Emilio and Adamo Spinozzi are no strangers to the world of professional drag racing having campaigned race cars at the highest level and taken a number of national records along the way. With their latest vehicle, this stunning 2013 Chevrolet Camaro, the brothers are determined to carry their competitive performances into the new season.

The first current shape Camaro to find its way into Australian Pro Stock is this incredible 'Stardust' Silver Jerry Haas-built machine. With its all-carbon fibre body and state-of-the-art chassis it has all the right parts in the right places to run into six-second territory at over 310km/h!

The engine powering their quarter-mile pursuit is this 400ci bullet crafted by Rino from RC Performance Engines. With 15:1 compression and revving to a sky-high 10,000+rpm, this beast is more than capable of producing 1100 naturally aspirated horsepower.

Those two BRE carbs deliver truly incredible quantities of VP Racing Fuels PSX to the engine via the billet intake that is a work of art in its own right.

Stainless steel headers and collectors are more than meets the eye and nothing short of an exercise in science to make them when every single horsepower found could be the difference between winning and losing.

Minimum weights are strictly enforced in Pro Stock and so the teams build them light and then add the weight where they want it to help with handling.

It might look like the insides of a Terminator robot but that's actually the Liberty shifter mechanism that Emilio will use to manually select all five gears during the course of a pass down the strip. It may seem as simple as push/pull but hitting the shift points every time is a must!

There's more carbon fibre inside a Pro Stock car than just about any other type of racing vehicle. The driver only gets a minimum of padding on the seat but then again his aim is to spend as little time in the seat as possible.

The one-piece carbon fibre front end has an airbrushed grille and badge but those are genuine Camaro headlights and yes, they work.

Perhaps the only product used more extensively that carbon fibre is aluminium. Everything from the engine to parts of the driveline and even all four wheels are machined from billets of aircraft quality material. Brakes are by Strange and are made from, you guessed it, carbon fibre.

Those giant rear wheels measure 16x16in and, unusually for a Pro Stock car, sport Mickey Thompson 10.5W drag slicks hinting at the potential for Emilio to run the car at the increasing number of Outlaw 10.5 meetings around the country.

Here you can see Emilio in place and ready for action. Note the wrap-around roll cage, window net, fire suit, gloveds and helmet that all serve to protect the driver in the event of something unplanned happening at speed. There's also a fire system that is designed to extinguish fires in both the engine bay and cabin.

Narrower than a standard road-going 2013 Camaro, the race car is built for speed and presents as little wind resistance as is allowed under ANDRA rules.

The differential and four-link rear suspension are light, strong and state-of-the-art. Here you can also see those 10.5in rear tyres and a pair of big-dollar Penske shocks.

The rules state that anything over 200mph must have a pair of parachutes. While the current Pro Stock speed record is a shade over 310km/h (~195mph) common sense says that's close enough to warrant a pair of Simpson 'chutes.

The team check the clutch settings between each round of racing and so the entire transmission tunnel, again made from carbon fibre, is removable with only a small number of clips holding it in place.

From any angle this car looks fast!

You can see Emilio, Adamo and the rest of the Spinozzi Racing Team doing their thing at the next round of the ANDRA Pro Series Drag Racing Pro Stock Championship, the Nitro Champs, at Sydney Dragway on the 4th and 5th of May, 2013.