The new 2010 Camaro, despite a lot of interest from the public since their unveiling and strong sales numbers to date, has been slow to infiltrate the drag racing scene. But if racers like Bellwood, Pennsylvania’s Mike McCracken keep churning out the sharp new GM muscle car, they’ll surely catch on.

McCracken’s Camaro SS – completed in just four months time in his garage – sports a 600 cubic inch, alcohol-injected Big Block Chevy producing 1,013 horsepower, backed by a three-speed Powerglide transmission.  It delivers the power to a 9” Ford rear-end with 4.30 gears.

“I actually ordered a body-in-white right from GM around the end of the year and they couldn’t deliver it to me.  There was a list, but we kept getting pushed back and back and back.” Instead, McCracken ordered every piece individually and pulled a stock dash from the junkyard and mounted it on the chassis he had already completed. “We actually painted it in pieces and put it back in the cardboard boxes that came from GM so when I assembled it, I could just pull it out of the box and put it together,” Mike explained.

Every piece of the car is made up of parts from GM, including the front end and hood, along with brand new door panels, all of the side glass, power windows, the original trunk, grilles, front fascias, headlights, and fog lights, among other original factory parts.

The mild steel, full tube chassis is a Morrison Super Car, which was originally being built to accommodate a 1969 Camaro body before Mike acquired it. The chassis features Strange Engineering front struts, Wilwood disc brakes, and a Super Series four-link with Koni coilover shocks.

McCracken was racing a dragster last year and decided he wanted to build a door car.  He came across the chassis that had already been started on, and the owner wanted to trade for the dragster. “I went online looking to buy a new ’69 Camaro body. Well, I got to thinking about it and thought, hey, the new Camaro is out, why don’t I just buy a new Camaro body?”

The car will see duty primarily in Super Pro competition, along with some possible NHRA Super Gas races.  The car is expected to run in the mid 8’s, making it perfectly suitable to either racing application. The car turned out a little heavier than McCracken anticipated – around 2,900 pounds – due to the factory body panels and glass which may keep it from the mid-to-high 7 second range that he had hoped for.  “But I gave up the weigh for the look,” he said. “When we took it to the track the first weekend, people just went, wow!”