Outrageousness abounds at the 2014 SEMA show, so for a moment you might be excused for thinking this silver 2015 Toyota Camry wears nothing more involved than some custom wheels and smoky tint. That impression will swiftly fade, though, when the mild-mannered sedan flips open, Funny Car–style, to reveal a tube-frame dragster powered by a supercharged, nitro-huffing V-8 sending 850 screaming horses to the rear wheels. This is one Camry you do not want to pick a fight with.
Unveiled by none other than Rutledge Wood, Toyota’s “Sleeper Camry” hides a TRD-supercharged 5.7-liter V-8 lifted from a Tundra pickup, as well as the truck’s transmission and rear axle. With a wet-nitrous system and 335-section-width DOT slicks out back, the crazed Camry, Toyota says, is capable of a 9.8-second quarter-mile.
Built in just 11 weeks, the full custom Camry gives away nary a hint of what lies beneath when its flipper body is in place. Beefy rear tires and lowered ride height aside, there’s no outward indicator that this family sedan packs 143 more horsepower than a screaming 707-horse Hellcat Dodge. Everything works, right down to the car’s four doors.
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Of course, entering through the doors is difficult for the Sleeper Camry’s driver and downright impossible for passengers: All that tube-frame, custom-fabricated, race-spec goodness doesn’t leave any room for passengers. Save for the door panels, the interior is all built to spec, with an Autometer digital dash, Fast Ed’s racing seat, and Impact Racing four-point harness helping the driver tame this unlikely beast.
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This exercise in insanity will be on display at Toyota’s booth throughout SEMA week, after which it will appear at NHRA drag races around the country. It’s clearly not meant for production, although we desperately wish that it was—in this Camry, you’d spend every stoplight just waiting for some punk in a Mustang to sneer at you. Don’t judge an 850-horse book by its cover.
