When San Fernando Valley local, Al Jimenez first started on his ‘73 Camaro, he started with a car that had no drivetrain, one on which he had spent no more than $800. Needless to say, Jimenez’ Camaro was the definition of what we frequently refer to in the rodding world as a “backyard build.”

Better things would soon be in the cards for Jimenez and his second-gen Camaro, however, as Jimenez’ original intention was to build a 10-second car for the street and track, one that could, in the words of Jimenez himself, “drag race every Mustang I could find.” It was a great idea with a simple-enough formula behind it, but what started as a “fun street build” soon became an outrageous drag car project, Jimenez and company hopping-up the Second-Gen to PSCA, “Wild Street” standards.

With his award-winning combination of big cubic-inches and wide drag radials, Jimenez was able to garner for himself and the Camaro an ’08, PSCA Wild Street championship, as well as the title of “Street Car Super Nationals” winner for that year. The Camaro was also the PSCA’s fastest car with a stock, leaf-spring suspension, and it set a record on M/T 275/60 Drag Radials with an E/T of 7.56 at 188.8mph.

At one point, Jimenez’ drivetrain combination was banned from PSCA’s “Wild Street” class, but Jimenez and his crew worked to remedy the problem with the addition of a Vortech YSi supercharger that would bring the Camaro into the 9.30s at the track; Jimenez and his crew had even experimented with nitrous at one point. For the motor, Jimenez contacted Mike and Brad from QMP Racing Engines in Chatsworth, California, and QMP did a majority of the engine work. The motor that they and Jimenez built is a stout, 515-cube motor that, with the aid of Procharger’s F3 unit and an air-to-liquid intercooler, that now makes north of 1800hp!

If these numbers sound just way too good to be true, then take a look at this video of Jimenenez’ Second-Gen as it nearly rips a chassis dyno clear out of the ground at Lou’s Performance in Sun Valley. Here, the 1800+ horse Camaro produces so much energy that it nearly blows the dyno’s output monitor clean off of the wall on which it’s hinged. With that and a little blue flame-spewing action, you can be sure that there will never be a “normal” dyno run as long as Al Jimenez and his radical, Second-Gen Camaro are around!