Queen of the Coast...Capri Wesley's '98 Camaro

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During David and I adventures across this great land earlier in the month, we made it a priority to stop and see a great racer and friend. She is none other than the Queen of the Coast, Capri Wesley. Also, someone to speak her mind, she might not seem very intimidating, but you can bet that she will bust your ass on the track if you are in the lane next to her.

In talking to Capri, I wanted to get a better understanding of where she came from in this industry. She told me that her love for cars started at a very young age, around 10 years old, and at the time, she would tell everyone that she was going to own a 1998 Camaro Z28 T-Top. So even at a young age, she had her sites set on something very specific, but it would be years before that came to fruition.

Along comes an import. That’s right folks, the Queen of the Coast got sucked in by the allure of the Fast and the Furious. Then again, a lot of gear heads got sucked into that, and in fact, the movie did do a lot of good for the car culture. Capri stated to me that she started to like imports and by the time she had turned 16 Capri was the owner of a Honda Prelude. During that time she started to be more involved with the car scene and some friends took her to the drag strip. It was that moment Capri said that she didn’t care what the car looked like, she just wanted to go fast.

We all know what happens when the bug bites you. There goes all your money, free time, and most likely half your friends. Capri slapped a turbo on that Prelude with a stock engine and drove it to school. There was no A/C and no power steering, but none of that mattered at this point, because it had a turbo. As time went by Capri continued to work on the Prelude, even building a stout engine for it. In the end, though, the Prelude was never going to be fast enough for her.

2015 is when everything came together and the dreams of a 10-year-old little girl finally were fulfilled. This was the year that Capri bought her dream car. A car that she had been thinking about since she was a child. The car you see here is a 1998 Chevy Camaro Z28 T-Top car. Obviously, with her previous experience working on cars, this Z28 was not going to be some stock daily driven F-Body either.

While most of the car world is chanting “LS The World”, Capri decided to take a different route with her Camaro and stick a conventional small block Chevy under the hood. Capri, unfortunately, wouldn’t give us the nitty-gritty on CID, etc. since she plans on doing so grudge racing here and there as well. As you can see, it is fitted with a Nitrous Express set up to get this Camaro all kinds of motivated. Capri also relies on companies like Menscer Motorsports to make sure the Camaro is going to go down the track and not on the damn bumper every time.

While in the past Capri was focused on multiple different classes and styles of racing, she told me that her intention for 2020 is to focus on index racing, along with some possible grudge racing mixed into the equation. No matter what she does, you can bet she is going to give it all she has to make whoever is in the lane next to her go home disappointed.

Capri did want to give a big shoutout to her fans, and to the companies and affiliations that she works with. Those companies include Menscer Motorsports, Car Chix (Capri was featured in the 2020 Calendar as Ms. January), Nitrous Express, Motion Raceworks, Mags Fab Worx, E3xtreme, Freelife Films, and Alliance Racewear.

*Photos by David Hilner & Damon Steinke