Some race year around, and some have to shut down for long winter months, but just because racing isn’t happening on the track, doesn’t mean those crazy snow people forget all about racing. Brainerd, Minnesota is home to some of the largest crowds of wintertime tourists looking for some ice fishing, riding snowmobiles, or even weekend getaways to resorts, but that’s not the case for Greg Schmidt and his race team with their car ‘Bad Influence’. Schmidt and his father, Al, take every winter to tear apart their big tire no prep/ no time car and make improvements for the upcoming season, but this offseason brought a whole new car to the table. Starting over 14 months ago they started to plan their build for a ‘New Bad Influence’ Camaro and this season they have been busy at building “a new beast” as Schmidt says.
The new car, Pictured below, started life as a real steel 1982 Camaro that a crew member found on craigslist for $200 in 2017, they decided to go pick it up with the thought that maybe we can build a new car one day. This turned into an R8 Docol built chassis by Innovative Metalworks in Lafayette MN, the chassis includes a double frame rail design, and incorporated an ex Don Ness pro stock rear end and 4 link as well. The Chassis and body were started on in the summer of 2018 and picked up in the fall and delivered to Schmidt’s shop in Brainerd. The same power plant from their previous Camaro is used again, a 632 inch Big Block Chevy with nitrous supplied from Nitrous Outlet, behind that is a BTE Bolt Together Converter and Reid Cased BTE TH400 transmission. All body panels are from VFN and lexan from five star, while AFCO Racing supplied the shocks on all 4 corners as well as the cooling system. Greg and Al have been putting in as many hours as possible while running their 2 Auto Repair Shops and Al was down for 6 weeks with a knee replacement over the holidays.
This new car is turning out to be quite a looker and we are excited to see it completed late spring of 2019. Greg has said ” Our plan is to be testing middle to late May and hopefully racing by the beginning of June, Fingers Crossed” Keep an eye out on facebook for updates, Follow Bad Influence, and the possibility of a live reveal and giveaway after the car hits the paint booth in the spring.
Greg Schmidt
Performance Manager – Paradigm Automotive
Driver/ Marketing – Bad Influence Racing
218-855-1111 – Shop
