Is This The World's Coolest Camry?

I’ve written more words about performance Camrys in the last few months than I would have liked to, however when I spied this decidedly classic Camry race car I simply had to know more, and for better or worse, you’re here reading about it too!

There’s just something about mid-90s touring cars that gets me. I’ll admit that circuit racing isn’t really my thing and the less said about modern Supercars the better, but through rose-coloured nostalgia glasses, I can’t help but love 90s race cars.

It’s probably this same nostalgia that piqued my interest in this very car, and had me trawling the internet trying to learn more.

Initially built by the esteemed Dave Cook Racing, the feisty Camry first saw track time in the South African Touring Car Championship in 1995. Engine and gearbox specs are a little hard to come by, but in another 90s/2000s throwback it was allegedly packing an engine built by tuning house, Tom’s.

The car was shipped to the States in 1997 and Kiwi gun for hire Rod MIllen put it through it’s paces in the North American Touring Car Championship. It barely set the world on fire, and in the early 2000s the Camry was shipped to Australia where Phoenix Motorsport campaigned the car, before shipping it to New Zealand where it still races today!