NATA champions crowned at Super Lap Battle | Articles

Unlimited Champion: Feras Qartoumy, Chevrolet Corvette

Photo courtesy Gridlife

Undefeated for three years. That’s the track record behind the C6 Corvette that Feras Qartoumy campaigns. Oddly enough, he didn’t intend to keep this car for long. Then he found its speed potential.

Feras, a former off-road car fabricator and chassis builder, wanted to build a tube-frame car. He picked up this Corvette to feed his need for speed in the interim. It snowballed from there.

“The only thing that remains factory to the car is whatever remnants of the chassis, the suspension, torque tube and diff. Besides that, everything’s been changed,” Feras explains.

The formula Feras used to create this track-record destroyer is simple: “A car that’s super light makes a lot of power, and a lot of downforce equates to a really fast car,” he says.

The car incorporates a carbon-Kevlar body from HGK. The Corvette now weighs 2640 pounds, about 500 pounds less than stock. Verus Engineering came up with an aero package that delivers up to 6000 pounds of downforce, while Late Model Engines built a 427-cubic-inch powerplant fed by twin Garrett G35- 900 turbos. Feras typically sets the boost to put out 1000 horsepower.

It sounds like a lot to handle, but Feras says the car’s more of a pleasure to drive than you might think. “The Corvette is such a neutral, well-balanced platform,” he says. “Some could be intimidated by it, but any well[1]rounded driver could get into the driver’s seat and in a couple of laps be very comfortable.”

After conquering the tracks and events Feras wished to win here at home, including the first two rounds of NATA, he put the Corvette on a ship to Australia. Down Under, he became the first American to post a class win at the World Time Attack Challenge in Sydney. Feras now seeks to carry his winning ways to the birthplace of time attack, Japan, and compete at the famed Tsukaba Circuit in February and March. Faras hasn’t…