The 4th Gen Camaro Battle… Big Rob vs The Plumber Camaro

Long before there was Street Outlaws, Robert “BigRob” Chapman was videoing the action on the streets of the 405. If there is anybody who could take credit for making the show a reality, it may very well be Chapman, whose footage was almost certainly what got the attention of the producers who would eventually come to Oklahoma and film the show. The show has become a huge hit for Discovery Channel, and Rob continues to be the only non-network cameraman allowed to film the races, showing how much respect he’s earned from the production crew. Of course, Rob is quick to point out without the awesome action and cars to shoot, there wouldn’t have been much to grab anybody’s attention, so it’s definitely a two-way street on who gets the credit.

There’s more to BigRob than just manning the camera and capturing the action though. He also does a little racing himself in his ProCharged Camaro, but unlike many cars we see on the streets of the 405, Rob’s 4th Gen still carries all the creature comforts, including a badass Kicker stereo with a speaker box that fills the rear hatch with a pair of 10” subwoofers and an amp that not only gives the car booming bass, but hangs quite a bit of weight right over the rear end that helps the car bite hard, even on the street, or in this case, the parking lot of an industrial park. All that amperage calls for an upgraded battery, which is provided by the XS Power battery.

Also helping with the traction are QA1 coilovers on all four corners, helping transfer the weight rearward and kick the nose into the air as you can see in the video below. While most hardcore street racers strip as much weight as possible out of their cars, Rob’s still has the full interior, all the climate control functionality, and even a nitrous kit that, at the time, isn’t hooked up, which means it’s a little more dead weight until it gets wired and plumbed.

Even at a relatively low 15 pounds of boost and on a safe tune, Rob’s car hikes up the nose and carries the front wheel for quite a ways, even picking it up after the 1-2 shift as Rob pulled away from his completion, a boosted 4th Gen Camaro known as The Plumber. As you can see, Chapman has little trouble running clean out of The Plumber’s life, disappearing out of the frame in the on-car camera. This is one impressive ride, especially considering you can jump in it and go anywhere!