Taking Cues From Cleetus McFarland’s ‘Eagle’ Camaro Build, Cameron Johnson Race Cars Introduces a New Drag-and-Drive Project
After initially meeting Cleetus McFarland when he was tapped to build an exo roll cage for the C5 Corvette known as ‘Leroy’ several years ago, it wasn’t a complete surprise that Cameron Johnson was tapped to build Cleetus’ latest race car, a ’69 Chevrolet Camaro known as ‘Eagle.’
Now, Cameron Johnson Race Cars (CJRC) is jumping into the drag-and-drive world with a brand new build of their own.
It’s a once in-a-lifetime drag-and-drive event: Edelbrock Sick 66, October 10th-18th, 2024. Route 66, plus 6 different race tracks and over 50 checkpoints. Don’t miss your chance to join us as part of Sick Ward - CLICK HERE for more information.
“Fired up for this build,” said Cameron. “After 7 years of not having a personal car, it’s time.” After that amount of time without something to have fun with, Cameron knew what he wanted to build, and despite a few hurdles, he was able to locate a suitable candidate.
“It was either going to be a 1968-72 Chevrolet Nova, which I love, or a ’69 Camaro,” said Cameron. “I looked for both, and a lot that I found was either rough, or you had to pay a lot of money.”
So Cameron looked for another option: buying a brand-new ’69 Camaro body shell. And lucky for him, one of the best was just two hours away from his front door; Real Deal Steel.
“I called Real Deal Steel, and they were a year and eight months out,” Cameron said. Because of the increased demand for the brand-new shells, Cameron couldn’t get one direct from the source.
So he started searching for Real Deal Steel ’69 Camaro shells for sale, and found one that was purchased two years ago, and had sat unused in Texas. They snatched it up and brought it back to Florida. Once it arrived, CJRC wasted no time getting parts ordered, as well as 3D scanning the Camaro.
“The reason we are 3D scanning it is because we build a lot of these cars out of just body panels,” said Cameron. “Finding the exact measurements and angles to make them perfect; we’ll have that now.”
“Now that we have scans, we can do parts for the inside,” Cameron said. That includes their adjustable steering columns and seat mount brackets for starters.
Drawing from the recent ’69 Camaro build CJRC embarked on for Cleetus McFarland known as ‘Eagle’ Cameron has dubbed this new build ‘Seagull.’ “The goal with this car is not to build something like the Eagle; that’s why we named it the ‘Seagull.’ It’s like the ‘Eagle’ but a lot cheaper.”
“We’re only going to do a 10-12 point roll cage, going to stay leaf spring in the back, have a 12-inch wide wheel in the back. It’ll be a really slick looking car, and still have a bunch of power, between 1500-1800 horsepower. We’re going to try and run 8.50s, have air conditioning and something we can still drive on the street and have fun, go to lunch, beat on it, and do some racing.”
Some of the parts have already acquired for the build, including a Smith Racecraft front subframe, TRZ Motorsports front suspension and billet spindles, and a full set of TBM Brakes.
Cameron has three engine options in mind currently for ‘Seagull’ – LS twin-turbocharged, LT twin-turbo, or big block Chevy twin-turbo. “I would like to do big block Chevy twin-turbo,” Cameron said, but a final decision has not been made yet. A Turbo 400 3-speed automatic will likely be the transmission of choice behind the engine.
The video detailing the debut of the build, as well as discussing some options and parts used, is below:
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of Cameron Johnson Race Cars.
If you have thoughts / feedback / ideas, please e-mail us at derek@sickthemagazine.com