The House of Kolor Drag Strip

At the 2018 SEMA show, the theme of the House of Kolor booth was nostalgia drag racing.

Henry Jaded

Dave Shuten of Galpin Auto Sports built this gasser-themed 1952 Kaiser-Frazer Henry J for owner Daniel Nelson. The car is powered by a Chevrolet Performance 572 crate engine bored out to 585 cubic inches by QMP Racing and is fed by a Holly 1150 carburetor atop a Chevrolet Performance ZZ572 intake manifold. The paint is a mix of House of Kolor Orion Silver with Teal Kandy Koncentrate, with the leaf and striping work done by Pete Finlan.

Dr. Moon’s Rage

This 1948 Anglia gasser owned and driven by Howard Moon is powered by a supercharged and injected 427 cubic inch Chevrolet engine, connected to a 2-speed Powerglide transmission and a nine-inch Ford rear end. The car is finished in House of Kolor Violet Shimrin Designer Pearl with the striping and lettering by “flea.”

Helmet display

The House of Kolor booth also had several displays of nostalgia-themed racing helmets.

Photos by the author

The eCOPO Chevrolet Camaro

One of the most eagerly anticipated vehicle debuts at the 2018 SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) show was the unveiling of the  “eCOPO” Camaro, an electric-powered Central Office Production Order concept car built by a partnership of Chevrolet and  the pioneering electric drag racing team Hancock & Lane Racing.

The car’s usual gasoline engine was replaced by electric motor based on a pair of BorgWarner HVH 250-150 motor assemblies, each generating 300 foot-pounds of torque. The motor is connected to the conventional racing-prepared TH400 three-speed automatic transmission that transmits the motor’s torque to the same solid rear axle used in the production COPO Camaro race cars.

The 700-horsepower motor is powered by an 800-volt 32-kilowatt per hour battery pack comprised of four 200-volt modules, each module weighs approximately 175 pounds.  Two packs are mounted in the rear seat area and the other two are mounted in the trunk - one in the spare tire well and the other in the area over the rear axle.

In testing, the eCOPO Camaro’s best quarter-mile run was an elapsed time 9.837 seconds from a standing start with a trap speed of 134.07 miles per hour.

All photos by the author