Brian Hobaugh’s ’73 Camaro in the Wilwood Booth SEMA 2012
Brian Hobaugh’s ’73 Camaro was one of the superstars of the Wilwood Disc Brakes booth as part of the company’s 35th Anniversary celebration representing the Pro-Touring market.
This second-gen SCCA and autocrosser started out as rust-covered donor car, but with a little help from Hobaugh’s family (dad Steve) and some very knowledgeable friends—autocross legend Frank Stagnaro, and chassis designer and fabricator Mike Maier —Brian put together a champion that sings on the track and the street.
An 416ci LS3 SS Mast Motorsports Engine and Gforce 4-speed GF4A transmission built by Maier represent the tip of the iceberg. The car looks stock, in part because of C-class regulations which requires that frame rails remain close to stock, and that the subframe can only have slight modifications. But Hobaugh, and his crew at Car West Elite, bent the sheet metal to customize the body, shaping the quarter panel flares over and over until they got them just right. The front end is lightweight customized fiber glass, so ultimately, lead had to be added to the Camaro to meet the Class C weight requirements.
The interior is pure race car – no frills, and a safety harness. Even though this car can sweep through the streets, growling around its muscle car paint job, it’s track star at heart.
Post SEMA, Hobaugh took the car to the Optima Ultimate Street Car Challenge, coming in second behind Mark Stielow’s ’67 Camaro. Check out the car in motion in this video from the Goodguys 19th Summer Get-Together in Pleasanton, CA.
SEMA saw a host of other great Camaros over the week including: Reggie Jackson’s green ’69 Yenko, the blown 780 LS7 1st Gen, the Hot Wheels themed ’69, the Custom Shop’s adventure in graphics, the one of a kind Copo Convertible, Mark Stielow’s latest, Mayhem, and the Goodguys’ Muscle Machine of the Year.
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