Car Spotlight: Sema’09>>the Drift Camaro

Yesterday we took a look at a custom '67 Camaro from Japan, and now it's time to look at another SEMA Camaro of slightly different type – the Grunewald Racing drift Camaro. It was only a matter of time before someone took to drifting the big Chevy, and Conrad Grunewald will be doing just that next year in Formula Drift. The car was built by a shop called BR Racing, and by all appearances it looked ready for action at SEMA. This thing is far the from the mock-up that most "new" drift cars start as.

One of the biggest complaints about the new Camaro is it's porky weight. To help remedy this situation, Seibon has provided carbon fiber bumpers, fenders, doors, hood, and decklid for the car.

Under that carbon hood, the stock engine has been swapped out for the supercharged LSA engine found in the Cadillac CTS-V. This is also the engine that's rumored to be in the upcoming Camaro Z28. This engine is rated at over 550hp in the Caddy, so it should make more than enough power to smoke the Camaro's big Hankook tires.

There's more weight reduction in the cockpit with things like a one-off carbon fiber dash. You can also see the digital gauge cluster and data logger. The roll cage was done by an outfit known as "Blu808".

Check out the giant diffuser mounted in the rear bumper. The car looks mean…

Tucked nicely into the fenders are a set of Forgeline ZX3R wheels, sized 18×9.5 in the front, and 19×11 in the rear. Tires are Hankook Ventus of course, 245/40/18 front and 305/30/19 in the rear. Suspension consists of Eibach coilovers and sway bars, while the brakes are from Wilwood.

The car should already be entering testing stages as I write this, and it should be ready for action come April and the Long Beach FD opener.

-Mike Garrett

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1

I've noticed the trick rear mounted radiator.And that diffuser is massive.Will conrad be supercharging the LSA Mike?

2

the front looks wierd

3

Looks like Conrad picked up a really good sponsor, huh? I can't wait till we see this and the R35 in action. What is Falken going to run next year?

4

I don't think the cooler in the back is the radiator. You can see the fluidyne radiator in the engine bay pic. Oil cooler possilby? Very sick car though

5

The LSA is supercharged already by GM. You can see the belt for it.

6

So is this turning to SEMA month? What happened to slammed month?

I'm still waitin on more shots of that black bimmer from Houston..

7

My goodness people like to complain here.

8

What about the R35?

Yea what happened to all the slammed cars?

9

blu808 yahhhhhhhhhhhhh F-in A!

10

@Vinh Charles



Dude, calm down, SEMA is the biggest thing in the aftermarket industry, if SEMA was not around, you would find it very hard to find sites like this, HellaFlush, and others. There is a lot of industry backing on all these sites, plain and simple... no SEMA, no Speedhunters.



That said, Rod and Mike have done an exceptional job weeding out all the crap that was at SEMA and showing the amazing reveals and builds that will definitely stand out in the next year.



Thanks a ton!

11

@rod, its the internet......nuff said. Speaking of new american drift cars, what happened to Sam's challenger?

12

Ya, Speedhunters is becoming so big, even ricers are seeing it. You'll start to see some hokey comments, but the veterans can keep 'em straight. IMO, this is the best, freshest blog for speedhunter types going on the web right now. It's got a little of everything. Hot Rods, drifters, super slammed and super fast. Keep bringing the hellafresh stuff Rod and crew, don't worry about the whiners!

13

they were talking about SEMA on Attack of the show on G4 today!

14

Randy Pobst quoted from Motor Trend (OCT 09, pg. 40) after driving the Chevy Camaro,"Understeer---frustrating understeer. It's almost like before stability control when they'd make cars understeer alot just so they'd be safe. As a driver, I find that frustrating. When I got done with my hot laps, I didn't want to drive it anymore."

15

everybody give the man a chance to breathe.....
Rod already does a amazing job bringing us all sorts of automotive beauties for us to fantasise over & im sure he has a few "SLAMMED" posts for us in these coming week
but honestly. one man cant cater for hunderds of people in such a short amount of time, so lay off him, yeah?

i for one enjoy reading your posts...
SO KEEP 'EM COMING ROD ;)

Kev

16

Looks like Hankook is gonna give Falken a challenge this year. Yay for tire rivalries!

17

yea keep em coming rod and the rest of the crew!your not meant to see EVERY SINGLE ARTICLE,you just read the ones YOU want,so if one,for example,isnt in the mood of reading a SEMA article,then heres something for you:look away,go read something else.Its always the same.every single month theres people complaining cuz its either too much toyotas,or bmws,now that its stance month , you couldnt resist and complain about too much SEMA :\

just look away.

again,nice coverage =)

18

for what purpose does the REAR diffuser have if this car was meant to be a DRIFT car (to go sideways) i would understand a massive GT spoiler on the trunk, but a rear diffuser!? another FD car that has no presence in my eyes what so ever... its more into the functionality rather than style and beauty. this is a mere site seeing for me.

19

yeah i cant picture that drifting... and with all that carbon fiber its going to take a fortune to maintain unless you never touch a wall. like that will happen...

20

ECR33 some people have tried using diffusers to control the flow of smoke rather than to creator downforce

21

Im a ford guy but i like it. Wilwood brakes? i cant see the fronts but the rears look like the ss models brembo cals.

22

Rod Chong, hmmm that could be it, but controlling smoke? lol the thing just disappears into the air, whats there to control anyway? hmm but i guess, thats a purpose. better looking smoke = better show?

23

Can't wait to see the Camaro and all the new rides at FD round 1 @ Long Beach!

Btw, what happened to the Mopar Challenger??

24

lol for some computer nerds some of you cant follow the times



midway through last season nuformz lost their sponsor mopar



then the team owner sean carlson died



so we might never see the "new challenger", thay was suppose to be debuted @ long beach of this year

25

@ ECR33: more for how it makes clouds around their opponents... I'm just speculating here though

26

Let's hope this car goes farther than the Mopar Challenger last year. Sure looked neat hoisted in the air at Formula D Long Beach, but we all wanted to see it on the track!



I gotta hand it to Formula D for at least one thing...the drivers are a lot more experimental with cars. Think, Hampton's '67 Camaro, McQuarrie's Porsche (what happened to it? car was AWESOME), Hubinette's "Drift Limo" and Viper, Millen's Solstice, Mustangs from Gittin and Gushi, Scions from Gushi and Faust..... Looking at D1GP, the only cars that come close to winning all need to be either S15/S13/FD3S/GDB. I hope this Camaro can hold it's own :)

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