Whether you have been a life-long automotive enthusiast or you just yesterday took a ride in your first muscle car, it is safe to say you understand this hobby attracts all kinds of characters. Some people get into the lifestyle to show off, others to make friends, and some to become famous. Some alleged "car guys" are in it for all the wrong reasons, trying to prove something to the world or put down other enthusiasts. Conversely, there are people like Phil Hollingsworth, a 62-year-old retiree from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who represents everything that is awesome about this hobby. In fact, when I asked Phil about doing this feature, he told me that "I don't like a lot of hoopla, so please don't play me up too much." Sorry Phil, but when you're as cool as you are, it's worth printing a few words.
To start, Phil is a real racer, a guy who competitively campaigns an A-Stock NHRA Stock Eliminator race car, which happens to be an LS1-powered Trans Am. "I am a GM LS-man" Phil told us and he "isn't a show car guy, I try to break 'em!" With that mind-set, Phil spends his free time hauling his crew around the country to compete in the NHRA and IHRA series. Although his young driver, David Latino, hasn't strung a complete victory together yet, Phil told us that "I am proud of everything David has done and I am going to stick with him, win or lose, until we get something going." And that's just part of the attitude that makes Phil an awesome guy.
He also owns this killer 2010 Camaro, which almost came about by accident. "I have a friend at a GM dealership and I told him that if one ever comes up without an owner to let me know." As luck would have it, Phil got a call a couple of months later from his friend, telling him a brand new 2SS had hit the lot and the owner had backed out of the sale. According to Phil, he wanted to go look at the car first but was told, "you ain't got time to come look at it, I have four other salesman trying to get this car sold." And with that, without ever seeing a 2010 Camaro in person, Phil bought the Camaro over the phone. When he finally got to the dealership to pick up his new car, he was ecstatic. It was perfect, a bright yellow 2SS, no sunroof, automatic and an L99-Phil was in love.
Of course, as the owner of a 9-second race car and a life-long hot-rodder, Phil wasn't content to keep his Camaro stock, so he turned to Allan Futral of Futral Motorsports in his hometown of Baton Rouge to take over the project. "We started off small," Phil told us, installing a new camshaft, a Hennessey cold-air intake, American Racing long-tube headers, and an underdrive pulley. "Allan told me I shouldn't go with the underdrive pulley because it wouldn't work with a ProCharger. I told him I was an all-motor man and I wouldn't ever need a ProCharger!" To help ensure that the Camaro made great power on the stock bottom end, Allan also decided to install a set of Mast Motorsports 12-degree Black Label cylinder heads, which really helped bring Phil's Camaro to a new power level. And with that, Phil and his driver David loaded up and headed to the track, running a string of 11.6-second passes before eventually lining up next to a turbocharged Jeep SRT-8. "We got outrun by a Jeep and I knew that was it. The first time I got my [butt] handed to me, I was back at Allan's place."
It didn't take long for the crew at Futral to get things back underway. "I told Allan I wanted to never get beat like that again." His response, of course, was to install a ProCharger, and this time Phil agreed. "They joke with me all the time about it, but that ProCharger just flat-out works!" To bring the serious horsepower, Futral bolted a brand new Procharger D-1SC supercharger to the front of Phil's L99 engine, pullying it to 10 psi and intercooling it with the ProCharger air-to-air unit. Along with the ProCharger, Allan also ground Phil a boost-friendly camshaft and ported the stock L99 intake manifold and throttle body.