Never in its lifetime did the makers of the Chevrolet Camaro ever imagine that someone would modify one of theirs and call it the F-Bomb. But stranger things have happened in automotive history and one man’s vision of the Camaro has taken it far above its normal capacity and turned into something that can only be described by a swear word, considering its near-nuclear capacity,
That’s the wonder of cars and human innovation. Modify a car right and it can be coaxed to deliver jet-plane-like power, and sound so great, it's like nothing you have ever heard before. And while the F-Bomb Camaro is certainly unique and one-of-its-kind, similar things have been done to cars before and after, like a coming together of kindred spirits.
The best part about this Camaro is that the maker has used the 1973 model to make this wonderful, awesome, and completely bonkers car – giving a new meaning to a classic restomod because this one can beat a new Camaro, with one hand tied behind its proverbial back.
So this is what we know of the F-Bomb Camaro and why we consider it absolutely drool-worthy…
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The F-Bomb Owner & Build
The F-Bomb Camaro belongs to David Freiburger, the former Editor of Hot Rod Magazine and the current host of Engine Masters and Roadkill. So it makes perfect sense for him to drive a classic that is repainted in non-Chevy colors and looks purposely “drab”, because everything about it that's OTT, lies under the hood.
TheF-Bomb was built or rather rebuilt by Nelson Racing Engines and the idea was to first decide on what would power the car, and then strip and rebuild it around the mill. The engine is a 6.6-liter twin-turbocharged Chevy small-block V8 that makes a crazy, no strike that, an insane amount of power.
The 1973 Camaro was first stripped and then fitted with a roll cage and then mini-tubbed as well, which involves widening the rear wheel wells and moving the inner half closer to the frame rails to get better ground clearance. It was then stripped to bare metal and powder coated to bear that matte olive green paint with that black stripe. Then came the very visible F-Bomb decal because this Camaro makes 1,540 horsepower and 1,527 ft-lb of torque – and then it went on and f-bombed everybody at the 2006 SEMA at Las Vegas, Nevada.
It has also been featured in an episode of Roadkill, and David Freiburger is more than happy to make monies of merchandising.
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The Fast & Furious Connection
Obviously, when one such car comes into the limelight, movies are more than happy to feature it, and so the F-Bomb made its mark in the F&F franchise.
The 2009 movie, Fast & Furious, the fourth in the line of the main franchise, featured the F-Bomb as a minor car. The car is driven by one of Arturo Braga’s henchmen and is shown chasing Dom & Brian when they kidnap Braga. Later, Dom jumps out of his Charger and into this Camaro and kills Fenix Calderon with the car, avenging Letty Ortiz’s supposed death.
But for the movie, they didn’t really need a 1,500-plus horsepower car. So they made six replicas of the same, all powered up by the normally aspirated 300-horsepower GM V8 crate engines, with three-speed AT. To let this normally aspirated car do a wheelie, one of the cars was built with all weight stripped off from the from with a rack on its rear that held 2,000 pounds of iron ingots.
Three of these movie cars survived and one of them was listed for sale as well by Volo Auto Museum for $39,998… Where else do you think you can get an authentic F&F movie car for under $40,000, that looks like the 1,500-plus horsepower real thing?
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F-Bombing Roadkill
Freiburger’s F-Bomb did not make an actual appearance in the F&F franchise, but its popularity has only grown ever since. Of course, it has made many cameos on Roadkill, and the readers of Hot Rod magazine are pretty aware of the car as well. Seeing the increasing interest in the car, Freiburger even made a Roadkill Extra Video talk about the history of the car and how it developed.
Interestingly, Freiburger got the car for like nothing, trading it for some car parts and a measly $800. For those of you who don’t know the painstaking making of the car, this is where you can read about it, and see how the chassis was also build to handle this insane amount of power.
This is a powerful street-legal car, so a lot went into it to make it as safe as it was cool. So to be honest, the making of this car is like a DIY guide that shows how to turn a classic Camaro or any car into something that can smoke even a Ferrari!
Sources: NelsonRacingEngines, Facebook, Edmunds, Autoblog, HotRod
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