A sneak peek under the hood before all of the custom turbo system goes into creation from the creative minds at Southern Speed Racing.

Travis Burger has recently decided to jump head first into the ever-popular and growing X275 Drag Radial category. Burger, hailing from Sikeston, MO, found a late-model Chevrolet Camaro set up for stock suspension, small tire-style racing in Georgia and purchased the car from well-known builder and Pro Modified racer, David Reese.

Upon bringing the car back to Missouri, Travis found numerous things that he wanted to change to come out of the trailer and be competitive in X275. He immediately enlisted the help of Southern Speed Racing, owned by Wade Hopkins, a high performance shop in Tupelo, MS, that is growing into one of the leading shops of choice for X275 turbocharged applications.

From the exterior, this car looks just like any other F-Body Camaro – including the stock headlights and a sleek gloss black paint scheme.

Hopkins and his skilled team of fabricators have taken this car from mild to wild already, prepping the suspension to handle the horsepower that an X275 car has to have to be competitive.

Speaking of power plants — this is where this car gets very interesting. How many Ford Mustangs have you seen with a Chevrolet engine tucked between the frame rails? Yes, I know, too many to count. But how many Chevrolet Camaros have you seen with a fully race-prepped small block Ford? Hence the name, “The Fordmaro” on this car.

Along with the Precision turbocharged, Bennett Racing Engines small block Ford, Burger has enlisted Dave Klaput (Proformance Racing Transmissions) to help move the horsepower from the engine to the Mickey Thompson Pro 275 Drag Radials.

Hopkins’ shop manager, Kevin Mitchell, has been on the lead with this project and is in the process of getting the car race-ready. In talks with him recently, they still have more custom work to do, including the turbo system, fuel cell and other things to move this car closer to the track. SSR has already done the custom headers, custom plumbing and wiring for the car and is installing a custom BMR Torque Arm soon.

“This car has raised many eyebrows from people who just walk through the shop picking up their cars or just local friends stopping by,” said Hopkins, owner of Southern Speed. He also added, “The small block Ford engine has become a very reliable platform for X275.” With Hopkins and Mitchell on the build, expect to see some quick times right out of the box with this car. In talks with Burger, he said “we’re going to try and make some passes late this year, but a date is yet to be determined.”

To see more of what’s happening at Southern Speed Racing and to keep up with this build, like them on Facebook or visit their website at southernspeedracing.com.