Oklahoma Chevy Dealer Offering the 720hp Fireball Camaro for $52k

Eskridge Chevrolet in Guthrie, Oklahoma is offering an in-house performance package for the 6th gen Chevrolet Camaro SS which lifts the output from 455 horsepower to a whopping 720 horsepower – and they are offering this beast for just under $52,000.

Back in January, we brought you the news of the Fireball Camaro, which was the first 6th gen Chevrolet Camaro to run in the 9-second quarter mile range. That beefed up muscle car drew enough attention to the Fireball name that Eskridge Chevrolet has started offering a special tuning package with that name, and it packs enough power to go head to head with the mighty Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat.

However, the Chevrolet Fireball 700 Camaro which you can buy from that Oklahoma Chevy dealership is very different from the car that ran 9s early this year.

The Eskridge Fireball Camaro
When the Fireball Camaro first came onto the scene as the first new Chevy muscle car to run in the 9s, it was built by B&R Performance in Oklahoma City. That Camaro included ported LT1 cylinder heads, a new camshaft, and MSD intake, long tube headers and a 150-shot of nitrous oxide – along with skinny front tires, sticky rear tires and an engine tune to make the most of those power-adding mods. As a result, the Fireball Camaro which was the first in the 9s offered around 500 wheel horsepower without the nitrous and with the bottle, it made around 650 wheel horsepower.

Without the nitrous, the B&R Performance Fireball Camaro ran a 10.95 and with the juice turned on, it ran a remarkable time of 9.831 at 137 miles per hour in the quarter mile. Click here for more on the Fireball Camaro which ran 9s earlier this year.

The Fireball 700 Camaro on sale from Eskridge Chevrolet is quite different, as it doesn’t have the ported cylinder heads, the camshaft, the intake, the headers or the nitrous system of the 9-second car. Instead, the LT1 V8 has been fitted with a 1200cfm supercharger from the crew at ProCharger and a proper engine tune, lifting the output to 720 horsepower (brake horsepower, not wheel horsepower). Figuring a very conservative drivetrain loss of 18%, the Eskridge Fireball Camaro should make around 590 wheel horsepower, so this package is not quite as stout at the setup on the car that ran 9s early this year, but this is still far more power than Chevy fans can get from the “average” 2016 SS.

Best of all, according to the Eskridge website, their Fireball Camaro with 720 horsepower and the 8-speed automatic transmission costs just $51,900 and based on the details, that price includes a lifetime engine guarantee and free oil changes for the life of the car – along with the wheels and badges of the Fireball 700 package.

Eskridge Camaro VS Hellcat Challenger
If you just look at the power numbers and the price, the Eskridge Fireball 700 Camaro has an advantage in both areas, with the Hellcat Challenger “only” having an official power rating of 707 horsepower and a starting price of $65,290. However, while the differences between these two monster muscle cars might not justify the $13k difference to a Chevy fan, there are some very important features which are included with the Hellcat Challenger that you don’t get with the supercharged Camaro.

First, it should be noted that the engine internals, the cooling system, the transmission, the rear differential and the half shafts of the Hellcat Challenger were designed, engineered and built to handle more than 700 horsepower, while the components of the 6th gen Camaro SS were intended to handle 455 horsepower. I am not saying that the LT1 and the drivetrain components behind it won’t handle the extra power, but it is worth noting the fact that one of these drivetrains was intended to face that kind of power.

Next, the Hellcat Challenger has some of the biggest brakes offered on an American production car, with 15.4 inch rotors under 6-piston Brembo calipers up front and 13.8 inch rotors under 4-piston Brembo calipers out back. The Camaro SS wears 13.6 inch rotors up front and 13.3 inch rotors out back, all of which are under 4-piston Brembo calipers. This gives the Hellcat an advantage when getting slowed down from the big speeds that come with having more than 700 horsepower.

Finally, and the least likely to be of interest to Chevy fans, is the exterior design of these two 700+ horsepower muscle cars. The Hellcat Challenger has a hood and front fascia which were designed specifically to keep the supercharged engine as well-fed and as cool as possible. On the other hand, the hood and front fascia of the 2016 Camaro SS were designed to feed and cool an engine under much less stress.

The bottom line here is that if you are a Chevy fan and you want to buy a new Camaro SS with enough power to battle the Hellcat Challenger, Eskridge Chevrolet in Oklahoma has a great solution for under $52k.

Image: Eskridge Chevrolet