When the Q80 Racing team, led by team owner Sheikh Duaij Fahad Al-Sabah, tuner Steve Petty, and driver Eric Dillard of Proline Racing, pulled the wraps off their brand new twin-turbo Camaro last month, the world knew it was a matter of when, not if, the records began to fall. And after recording the first ever 3.6-second pass by a turbocharged doorslammer back in mid-December, another barrier dropped by the wayside today when Dillard blasted his way to a 3.59 at 216 MPH in Qatar, becoming the first and only non-supercharged door car to reach the 3.50’s.

Photos courtesy Q80 Racing

The incredible number came today during testing at the Qatar Racing Club ahead of this week’s fourth round of the Arabian Drag Racing League season, in which Dillard currently sits second in the Pro Extreme standings after a pair of final round appearances at the season’s opening races. Having carded a 3.68 here in the states last month while shaking the new car down, the team departed for Qatar vowing to push their way into the fifties, and few doubted it could be done considering the equipment and the talent involved.

Petty and company steadily crept toward that mission, running 3.67 upon their arrival to push the world record even lower, later inching into the mid-3.60’s before clicking off a 3.62 and, most recently, a 3.60 that placed them on the brink of history. After an off-week, the team returned to the Qatar Racing Club and got it done, carding a .947 short time, 2.449 to half track, and a 3.592 at 216.62 MPH at the eighth-mile, reaching a performance level many couldn’t have imagined just a few short years ago and joining a club previously reserved for the sport’s elite screw-blown Pro Extreme doorslammers. 

The Camaro, built by Jerry Bickel Race Cars and motivated by a Proline-prepped 481X big block powerplant with twin Precision turbos, is still in its infancy, and the sky would appear the limit for this team as they continent make laps. Is that 3.40’s we hear?