The Chevy eCOPO Camaro electric drag car wowed us at SEMA with its 700-horsepower electric motors and its claim of being capable of nine-second quarter-mile times. Weirdly, though, we didn’t see any video of the car racing. That’s been rectified by YouTube user Cody Lane, who posted footage of the car doing its apparent first run at a drag strip.
It’s a strange and fascinating video clip. Here is a bright blue Chevy Camaro with fat drag tires and a hunkered-down stance, and it’s not making any noise. All the plump exhaust noises are coming from all the other vehicles on track. And it goes through all the usual drag racing routines, from doing a burnout in the staging area to pulling the nose on a hard launch. All the while, little sound is emitted except for tire noise during the burnout. It’s strange, but also pretty cool. And who doesn’t like a wheelie, with or without sound?
We don’t get to see the final time when the Camaro crosses the finish line, but Cody Lane says in the description it finished with a 10.142-second time. That’s not quite a 9-second run, but pretty darn close. And since this was ostensibly the first run, it’s not hard to think Chevy could make some minor tweaks to break into the nines.