Hendrick Performance 2010 Camaro T/A LSX 454 is the Meanest Camaro Race Car on Earth

This particular Camaro stock car began its life as a Superspeedway chassis and metal body for the Hendrick Motorsports number five cup team. Between outings at the Daytona and Talladega Speedways, this chassis competed eight times between 2010 and 2012. From there, the car, V8 engine and all, was put into long-term storage at one of Hendrick's personal storage units.

From there, the car, chassis number 5-632, sat largely unattended for the next seven years. Mostly unattended, all the while. But that all changed in August 2019, when the car was promptly taken out of storage for a comprehensive set of upgrades. No longer was it a mere NASCAR Cup car. It was something profoundly more interesting. First things first, that NASCAR regulation-certified stock-car racing V8 had to be removed.

One can only hope the outgoing engine found its way into another race car. But at least the engine that replaced it was something very special indeed. It's a 454-cubic-inch (7.4-liter) LSX, racing-derived, naturally-aspirated big block monster. An engine that even by conservative estimates peg as jetting 650 horsepower right out of the box.

There are no turbos, no superchargers, and no forced induction of any kind. Just a good, old-fashioned displacement with enough modern tech under the hood to satisfy a bare minimum of racing regulations. Of course, you can't just keep a crate engine stock.

Hendrick set about breaking all the rules without some stuffy-sanctioning body to regulate every nut and bolt of a race engine to a frankly ridiculous and absurd degree. With upgrades to the valvetrain, intake, and camshaft, you bet your you-know-what this engine cracks 700 horsepower. The torque is somewhere in the ballpark of 600 lb-ft (813.49 Nm).

Power is fed to a Race Tech Services 6XD sequential transmission. A unit purported by the Hendrick Performance website to be rated for 1,800 lb-ft (2,449.47 Nm)of torque. Meaning this racing chassis could probably trade its LSX gas big block for a twin-turbo GM Duramax diesel with a minimum of fuss. The in-house developed nine-inch rear-differential r is equally overbuilt,

Adjustable coil springs and racing shocks make up the suspension at all four corners, and braking is handled by independently cooled drilled and slotted race rotors with six-piston calipers up front and four-piston in the back. Cooling is taken care of via front NACA air ducts which direct a constant torrent of fresh air directly onto all four brakes.

Why? Because what better way to make your race car faster on the track than with aerodynamic doohickeys designed by the predecessor organization to NASA. It definitely makes it sound important. Not like a race car done up by a 12-time NASCAR Team Owner champion doesn't have enough prestige on its own.

With its new digs, the Camaro Track Attack prototype is much more than a glorified oval racer. Stunning still shots included in the advertisement show this race car carving corners with all the grace of a LeMans racer. If you think about it, they did play around with the idea of bringing NASCAR stock cars into LeMans racing back in the 70s to varying and often not-so-fantastic degrees of success.

If there were ever a car to bring stock-car style race cars overseas for a 24-hour endurance race, we'd bet money on this being the best candidate. Albeit with maybe a larger rear wing. The price for it all? That'd be $148,000 before taxes and fees. Considering what you get for the money, that's a bargain.