Aussies go drag racing in a Toyota Camry

Usually there’s nothing special about drag racing teams using a standard production sedan as the basis for their new dragster, but when a team chooses to adopt a vehicle normally reserved for the over fifties and cardigan wearers we start to get a little curious. A team in Australia are about to debut a new Camry that can reach speeds of up to 354km/h (220mph) in a competition for the Pro Factory Extreme class.

Tony Wedlock, former Australian National Drag Racing Association Group One Pro Stock champion, will be behind the wheel of the new Camry. The car is the quickest vehicle in its class in Australia and is possibly one of the quickest in the world.

“The Camry will do zero to 100km/h (62mph) in less than one second. It pulls 3Gs of force during acceleration. When you tell people that, they really sit up and take notice,” boasted Wedlock. In full flight the Camry can cover the quarter mile in less than 6.5 seconds due to its impressive six-cylinder, 3.2L, 1,800hp (1,342kW) Toyota 2JZ turbocharged engine.

Vehicles in this class must have an engine that matches the badge on the bonnet. That means a Toyota body shape must have a Toyota engine, and the engine must be less than four-liter capacity.