Dan Southall's Chevy has covered a 1/4 mile track in 8 seconds. Photo / Supplied
Dan Southall's Chevy has covered a 1/4 mile track in 8 seconds. Photo / Supplied
Marton expat Dan Southall and his 1969 Chevrolet Camaro will be in action at this weekend's Whanganui Street Drags - and they're bound to be one of the stars of the show.
The car is listed as the fastest street legal small block V8 in New Zealand by NZV8 Magazine.
Currently based in Christchurch, Southall has owned the Camaro for 15 years.
"To start with it was doing 10.8 [seconds] on a quarter mile track, then it progressed to 9.7, then 8.59s and 8.31s," Southall said.
"We got our fastest time ever in Auckland a couple of weeks ago, which was 8.0 seconds at 184 miles per hour. I think that's about 294-5km/h.
"It's currently making about 1725 brake horsepower at the wheels, and it's knocking at 2000 at the motor."
Southall said he had raced the Camaro for the past five weekends leading up the drags in Whanganui.
"Drags are popular at the moment, big time popular. The Port Road Drags in Wellington are always massive, there were 215 cars at Masterton last weekend.
"After Whanganui we'll be back up to Auckland to race again as well."
The 1969 Camaro last appeared at the Whanganui Street Drags in 2010. Photo / Supplied
While the cap for competitors on the one-eighth mile track in Whanganui is 6.5 seconds, the Camaro has a best of 5.3 seconds over that distance, thanks to its all-aluminium, 406 ci (cubic inch) small block engine, complete with twin turbo chargers.
"This is about the sixth different engine combo we've put in it," Southall said
"It's been nitrous, it's been super charged, and now it's twin turbo. It definitely drinks a bit of gas, and it usually uses around 20 litres of E85 fuel per quarter mile run."
Southall, who is sponsored by FFR Engines and C&M Performance, said he was last at the Whanganui Street Drags in 2010 and, despite the 6.5 second cap on the track, he would still be reaching speeds around 200km/h on Saturday.
"I wanted to start doing some more street drags and supporting them a bit more.
"You're not going there to try to break all the records, you're just going there for a bit of fun and to show the crowd what kinds of cars are out there."
The 35th Anniversary Whanganui Street Drags, organised by the Whanganui Street Rodders, take place on Taupō Quay from 10am to 3pm on Saturday, February 27.
