This is the second edition of our build progress of Conrad Grunewald’s drift Camaro. As the build comes to a close, we received all the inside information during this exclusive interview with Grunewald. SEMA is a week away, and the team at BR Racing has been working 20 hours a day to get the Camaro finished in time.
Click here for more pictures of the build
In case you missed the
first edition of Grunewald’s build, he was given one of the dollar car Camaros from GM to build for the SEMA show. Additionally, Conrad is the only recipient who is actually going to use it for racing purposes. This is his first car build, as he was only a driver in his previous Formula Drift stints. Now he is dealing with the challenges of not only overseeing the build, but also making his SEMA deadline.
Since the last time we spoke with Grunewald, a lot has been done. The car has made its way from having only a completed cage and mocked engine to a nearly running vehicle - all in less than a month. With SEMA starting next Tuesday, he is happy with the progress of the car. You can follow the progress he's made on his 2010 Camaro drift car through the photos shown below.
When we last saw the car it was heading for paint. They started with the interior, keeping it the same color as the stock exterior currently is, although the final exterior color will be changed. Grunewald says that the color of the interior is very forgiving, and any minor scratches which happen when the car is being run will be well hidden. You can see the stitch welded chassis and
Wilwood brake pedal set in the picture above. Accompanying the pedals is a manual brake bias knob to dial in the split for the
Brembo brakes.
They've also been working on the car's wiring. For a clean and easy wiring solution, they went with Military-spec quick disconnect harnesses that house the main chassis and engine harnesses. The chassis harness will be completely fresh, and will use only the required components needed to be drift legal. The engine harness will be powered by an
AEM EMS and logged through a
Rackpak. The ‘dash’ is now a full carbon fiber piece by
Seibon, and will sit relatively clean due to the monitoring capabilities of the Racepak
The mounting of the LSA is complete. When compared to Robin Lawrence’s LSA-powered Camaro (which he modified the upper plenum to fit into the Camaro), we can see that Grunewald took a different approach by cutting the sheet metal where the windshield wipers reside. Because the drive-by-wire is being ditched, a custom throttle bracket and cable was fabricated to the supplied
Holley throttle body.
Exedy has completed the custom flywheel that will be an LS3 piece in design, but drilled for the LSA crank pattern to allow proper fitment to the
Tremec 6-speed transmission. A custom heat exchanger will be mounted in the rear of the car to offer cooling to the supercharged engine.
Here is a preview of the Seibon body work. The hood resembles the design of the Z28 hood, which clears the supercharger of the LSA without any cutting. The fenders (which are still OEM width) are carbon fiber, as are the doors, and they weigh half as much as the OEM counterparts.
We will have a third installment on the progress of Grunewald’s build, which will include finishing the paint job, fitting the body kit, and bolting on the suspension components.
Linear Mode
