The folks from Jegs walk us through some interesting facts on their 2016 Chevrolet Camaro Pro Stock race car.
In most cases, our drag racing segments feature Camaros, Corvettes or some other high performance GM product blasting down the quarter mile. Also, they usually feature said GM’s beating up on something from Ford or Chrysler. Today, we take a slightly different approach, focusing instead on some interesting facts on one of the quickest door-slammer Camaros in the world – Jeg Coughlin’s 2016 Chevrolet Camaro Pro Stock race car.
If you are unfamiliar with Jeg Coughlin’s Chevrolet Camaro, or the world of NHRA Pro Stock drag racing as a whole, it’s time to get learned. This particular Camaro race car can blast down the quarter mile in the mid-to-low 6-second range. It reaches speeds well over 200 miles per hour on the big end. However, today’s video doesn’t actually show Coughlin’s Camaro making a quarter mile pass. Instead we get to run through some of the crazy facts of the National Hot Rod Association’s Pro Stock category.
Here are the numbers.
Jeg’s Camaro in the Pro Stock class looks a great deal more like a production car than, say, John Force’s Camaro funny car. However, there are few similarities between this bright yellow Camaro race car and the average Camaro on the street.
The Camaro street car has a 110 inch wheelbase, while the Jeg’s Camaro is slightly shorter between the wheels, measuring just 105 inches. The 2017 Camaro SS coupe has a curb weight around 4,000lbs with a driver. On the flip side, Jeg’s Camaro weighs just 2,350lbs with the Coughlin strapped into the driver’s seat. Most importantly, however, while the standard new Camaro SS on the street offers 455 horsepower – Jeg’s race car packs a whopping 1,380 horsepower. It burns a full gallon of fuel when it rips down the quarter mile.
A 2,350lb Camaro race car with 1,380 horsepower is capable of running through the quarter mile at well over 200 miles per hour. But in order to get there, Coughlin has to manually shift the transmission 5 times in less than 4 seconds.
At launch, the huge rear tires only have 6 pounds of air pressure in them. The traction from those tires is so great that the wheelie bars see more than 3,000lbs of force. Finally, while this Camaro runs from 0-60mph in just one second, the driver experiences over 3 Gs of force on launch. To slow it down, more than -2 Gs of force are created when the parachute opens at the end of the run.
"Before I was old enough to walk, my dad was taking me to various types of racing events, from local drag racing to the Daytona 500," says Patrick Rall, a lifetime automotive expert, diehard Dodge fan, and respected auto journalist for over 10 years. "He owned a repair shop and had a variety of performance cars when I was young, but by the time I was 16, he was ready to build me my first drag car – a 1983 Dodge Mirada that ran low 12s. I spent 10 years traveling around the country, racing with my dad by my side. While we live in different areas of the country, my dad still drag races at 80 years old in the car that he built when I was 16 while I race other vehicles, including my 2017 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and my 1972 Dodge Demon 340.
"Although I went to college for accounting, my time in my dad’s shop growing up allowed me the knowledge to spend time working as a mechanic before getting my accounting degree, at which point I worked in the office of a dealership group. While I was working in the accounting world, I continued racing and taking pictures of cars at the track. Over time, I began showing off those pictures online and that led to my writing.
"Ten years ago, I left the accounting world to become a full-time automotive writer and I am living proof that if you love what you do, you will never “work” a day in your life," adds Rall, who has clocked in time as an auto mechanic, longtime drag racer and now automotive journalist who contributes to nearly a dozen popular auto websites dedicated to fellow enthusiasts.
"I love covering the automotive industry and everything involved with the job. I was fortunate to turn my love of the automotive world into a hobby that led to an exciting career, with my past of working as a mechanic and as an accountant in the automotive world provides me with a unique perspective of the industry.
"My experience drag racing for more than 20 years coupled with a newfound interest in road racing over the past decade allows me to push performance cars to their limit, while my role as a horse stable manager gives me vast experience towing and hauling with all of the newest trucks on the market today.
