Did you see the wicked second gen Corvette that graced Speedhunters a few weeks back? That was the car that first put Brian Hobaugh on my Speedhunting radar, when I witnessed him ripping around (and kicking some serious ass) at a Goodguys AutoCross event.
Just imagine if that widened, track-ready ‘Vette was passed down to you by your Pops! Now, what if I told you that Brian’s story was just getting started with that big Corvette? And what if I told you this autocross fantasy includes not just one, but two vintage autocross demons? Well, that fantasy is Mr. Hobaugh’s reality…
While Mike told the story of the classic Corvette that’s been aced by Brian and his dad for three decades, this ’73 Camaro has a much more recent history. It’s not an accumulation of years and miles, but rather of experience that’s embodied in this build.
Brian Hobaugh’s Camaro isn’t just built to look good, although it certainly does. It’s not built to go fast in a straight line, but it could probably spank most cars at that too. This car was built to slay cones and corners, and the only way to build it correctly was to first get out there and do as much road course driving as possible.
While the ’73 is most certainly a nice build, it required years of seat time for Brian to know exactly what the right combination would be when it came time to start a new build from scratch. I don’t think we can go any further without seeing and hearing the Camaro at full-tilt though, so you’d better watch this POV video of Brian tearing up the autocross course.
While the red Corvette had gobs of history, Brian’s Camaro build isn’t exactly without sentiment. The first car he ever autocrossed was his mom’s daily driver ’74 Camaro, before he and his dad moved on to a purpose-built ’72 Z/28.
The ’73 you see here is a whole different beast though – it was completely stripped and built from the ground up to compete specifically in the SCCA C-prepared class.
Obviously this wasn’t just built to race, or it wouldn’t be finished this nicely. Brian’s secondary requirements were that the car be driveable on the street and look great doing it.
The pursuit of building a race car that also looked like a show car was certainly aided by Brian’s job as General Manager of Car West Elite, a luxury car body shop. That’s where they fabricated the flared wheel arches and expertly straightened and painted the car.
