First rule of drag race announcing: Don’t have favorites. That becomes virtually impossible when you see cars that you’d love to own or just stare at for hours. That’s my deal with Mike Wenzler’s 1987 Camaro which began life as a pro stock car before being crashed on like its second pass and then it was fixed and made into a top sportsman runner. Mike has finished as the runner up in Unlimited two years in a row now and has decided that he needs a “new problem” so the trusty Camaro, which is one of the neatest cars in the history of Drag Week is for sale. I love the way it looks, I love the way it leaves, and I love the way the tin-work under the hood is gold anodized to perfection.
Other than the obviously killer looks of the car, the engine is a favorite as well. It is a blunt force object. There are no turbos, no exotic stuff of any type, just three stages of juice (of which he has only fired two), a traditional style big block Chevy with good but conventional big block heads, a pair of large by huge carbs on top of an untouched cast Dart tunnel ram, and a grand total of 598ci.
Mike traded a cool 409 powered bubble top 1962 Chevy for this thing and we think it was a good trade. This car is not the most comfortable thing to drive 1,000 miles but it has done it multiple times now and it stands as one of the fastest cars of the event both of those times. The best ET he has recorded is in the 7.50s with speeds approaching 190mph. The transmission is a Rossler 210 Pro Mod unit and the rest of the car is filled with good stuff as well.
We’re guessing that whoever buys this thing for the money Mike wants will not be drag week torturing themselves but will likely put this thing back on the strip full time. The odds are heavily skewed in that favor but you never know. What we do know is that a few years from now this will change hands again and when that happens, we’re betting the drag week mystique helps to keep the value floating higher rather than lower.
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Always hurts to see one of your favorite cars crashed, sold, or disappear. That car definitely qualifies as one of my favorites. Definitely hope to not only see Mike with something new, but also see this car back at Drag week.