Alex Laughlin In Early Testing In New Elite Pro Mod Camaro

In case you missed it, we announced a short time back that Alex Laughlin had landed a new job piloting an Elite Motorsports Pro Mod for the full 2019 season schedule in addition to competing in Pro Stock, where he’s become a fan-favorite over the past few seasons.

While the cars may look similar, outward appearance is the only area in which they have very much in common. Under the hood of the Pro Stock car is a naturally-aspirated 500 CID engine cranking out somewhere in the neighborhood of 1400 horsepower. Backed by a manually-shifted 5 speed transmission, this combination is good for quarter mile times in the 6.5-second range at well over 210 MPH.

The Pro Mod, however, not only has a little more displacement and a lot more horsepower thanks to the allowance of power adders in the class. Alex’s power adder of choice is twin turbochargers, which despite being restricted in size and boost levels by the NHRA’s rules, still cranks out an estimated 3,500 horsepower. While Elite’s Pro Mod operations – Laughlin will be joined in Pro Mod by fellow Elite drivers Erica Enders and Steve Matusek – are brand new undertakings, team owner Richard Freeman will rely on the expertise of Justin Elkes and legendary tuner Shane Tecklenberg to get all three cars up to speed in short order.

The Elite team made the haul from Oklahoma to sunny Bradenton, Florida for a week-long test session, where they’re working on getting some solid baseline numbers in the Pro Mods and then beginning to refine the tune to really crank up the performance. The Pro Mod season begins at the Gatornationals in Gainesville, Florida, where all three Elite cars will be on the property, as well as the Pro Stock cars of Laughlin, Enders and Jeg Coughlin Jr.

Check out this quick clip of Alex testing his car, getting comfortable in the cockpit and learning how the car should feel as it traverses the quarter mile. This was planned to shut off the pass, just to get some useful data on what the car is doing in the first second of a run. Look for more from Bradenton throughout the week!

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