So what seems like a fat-tire Camaro at first glance is really a corner-carver of the first magnitude, not a refugee from the straight-line wars. It’s quite capable of embarrassing more modern vehicles that have most of the chassis development already completed by the factory. It’s Kerr’s challenge to be the interloper, to defeat them with his homebuilt assassin.

Chris has gone the typical hot rod engine route, the chassis and suspension modifications he performed are quite atypical and are what make this car different from most of the genre. There aren’t many street Camaros rolling around on 11-inch front wheels or 13-inch rears. To facilitate the front-wheel package, Kerr sliced and diced the Camaro’s underpinnings clearly with ultimate handling as the goal. In order to locate the front wheels properly, he raised and widened the wheel opening, yet made them appear stock. Fitting the fat rear rims necessitated narrowing the axlehousing 4 inches per side and hanging it under a tube-frame conversion. Perhaps the most interesting part of the car is the engine set back to realize that prime 50/50 weight distribution—just the ticket for a ground-hugging, neutral-handling road racer. The Camaro side-to-side weight distribution of 50/50 is keen as well. Though usually the province of a strict race car, Kerr has anchored the engine solidly to the framerails via a motor plate rather than relying on ordinary rubber sandwich engine mounts.

He pushed onward, bravely sectioning the front subframe to accommodate the most accurate Ackerman line (turning angle) and instituted a mere 1.5-degree bumpsteer over the suspension’s 4-inch travel. He converted to front-steer by installing a modern rack-and-pinion steering assembly with a super-fast 12:1 ratio. The inclusion of coilover assemblies, front and rear, is another departure from the Common Camaro. These self-contained units are important to the overall scheme because of their ability to adjust to track conditions. Look at those big back tires; they’re one reason Kerr doesn’t need a rear anti-sway bar. And look at that big rubber. You should be getting the idea that this chassis is beyond stiff. The rollcage has 22 attachment points rather than the usual 12. All of this allows the wide tires to realize a full frictional coefficient and keeps the body of the car as flat as possible when physics makes it want to lean to the outside.