In the nearly 25-year history of Pro Modified racing, the use of particular body styles have been quite cyclical, with the 1941 Willys, the 1953 Corvette, late model Mustangs, first-gen Shelby Mustangs, the 1953 Studebaker, and others all enjoying their time in the sun. Perhaps no other body — at least until now — has been more over-saturated than in the late 90’s and early 2000’s though, when every Tom, Dick, and Harry in the pits had a split-window 1963 Corvette. The last decade, however, has been completely dominated by the first-generation, 1968 and 1969 Chevrolet Camaro (with a few 1967 models sprinkled in for good measure just cover the entire generation).
Chassis builders have been churning the early model Camaros out seemingly in bulk, like shopping at a Sam’s Club, and they’ve been in rather strong numbers — relatively speaking — in Pro Nitrous. In fact, at the recent PDRA Spring Open in Rockingham, twelve of the sixteen cars in the field were a ’67-’69 model Camaro. Top qualifier Jason Harris was in a 1968 Firebird that, to the average fan, looks just like their Chevrolet sibling, so we’ll call it twelve and a half. The three remaining cars were Lizzy Musi’s Dodge Stratus, and two fifth-gen Camaros. Three other ’69’s were among the non-qualifiers, making it 14-of-24 in the full field. And these numbers are pretty consistent with the fields at many Pro Modified events over the last few years.
Pro Extreme, known for having a wider range of body styles, had just four of them, and Pro Boost just one — along with six 1963 Corvettes. So what this tell us is, if you want to build a nitrous car, you’ll need a Camaro to fit in. any other class, and you can go hog wild.
Now don’t get us wrong, they are strikingly beautiful cars, and we’re guessing they’re as slick in the air as they look, or nobody would run them….but there sure are a lot of them.
So tell us: do you think there are entirely too many first-gen Camaros in Pro Modified racing? An taking that question a step further, what’s your favorite body style on these cars, and what body style hasn’t been used before that you’d like to see replace some of those Camaros?