Today’s daily drag race video features a 5th generation Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 blasting down the quarter mile against an equally quick Cadillac CTS-V. There are no details included with this video, so there is no way of knowing what work has been done to this Camaro ZL1, but we can see that it has lightweight front and rear wheels wrapped in Hoosier tires and thanks to the wicked cool purge setup that exits through the front Chevy Bowtie, we know that this blown beast has nitrous. The exhaust sounds a little louder than stock and the engine idle seems a little lumpier than stock, so I would guess that the mod list extends far beyond the nitrous and the wheels/tires, but that doesn’t matter.
What does matter is that this Camaro ZL1 gets down the quarter mile in a serious hurry.
We get to watch this murdered out Chevy Camaro ZL1 do a big, smokey burnout before loping its way into the staging beams – after a short purge of the nitrous system, of course. The Camaro stages and almost instantly, the lights come down and the race begins.
The ZL1 roars out of the hole without any wheelspin and quickly makes its way down the track alongside the Cadillac in the left lane. We can see that the Camaro gets there first, but because of the random guy who wanders out in front of the camera at the end of the run, we cant see what the CTS-V runs. We can, however, see that the Camaro runs a 9.79 at 145 miles per hour.
"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.
