Some experiences stick with you longer than others. One of these moments was hanging out of the window of the AMC Rambler as we cruised along the winning car of the 2018 Drag Week months after it won.

The story begins last year, a lot longer than I should admit. My friend Ken Cox had asked me if I would like to photograph the fastest street cars in America. It’s a street car, I thought. But it isn’t a . What is a “street car” anyway?

Registration and plate? Can you go around the block in a good weather day? Is it road legal in some way? Everybody has their own interpretation of what they consider to be road legal. But Hot Rod Magazine’s Drag Week competition uses a concise definition.

Five days, five races and over 1,000 miles of road trip. If you can’t drive on public roads to get from one race to the next, then it’s really not a streetcar, is it?

Tom Bailey’s 1969 Camaro ,better know as Sick Seconds, is a monster. This Chevy is not just a 6-second vehicle, but one that you can drive to your local burger place outside Detroit on any given day. It actually is an urban car.

Tom Bailey is the man behind Sick seconds, a car that has 3,500hp. It was also the first Drag Week vehicle to run five 6-second runs in a row. He’s just like you and me, but faster.

This is the same guy who, when asked about his 6.70-second ET quarter-mile run — the fastest of the day — said that he needed to improve on his 60-foot time. Tom has won Drag Week three times, and two of these victories were behind the wheel of his car.

Tom may be a good-natured guy, but the garage floor at the M1 Concourse doesn’t play around. Garages are available as blank slates, so owners can customize their spaces however they like.

The downstairs is the working zone with tools and serious toys. Upstairs, it’s all about toys.

Tom is a winner, whether he’s playing with toys or not. As a three-time Drag Week champion and current reigning champ, this shouldn’t be terribly surprising. He and Aydan then gave me (and Ken), a crash-course on how to lose every game upstairs. Either father or son would win every time.

Ken and I did beat them once in a shuffleboard match. It’s not that Tom is invincible. You just have to choose your battles.

Chapter Two

Street Car

It is implied in the name that a streetcar should be able drive on the road at any time. It was fortunate for me that this was “anytime” and I ended up in Tom’s Garage late one afternoon on my first day in Michigan as he prepared the Drag Week Winner for the road.

Aydan, Tom’s son, attached turbo filters while Tom removed the wheelie bar.

Tom laughed and said that Aydan was eager to get behind the wheel. He had only just received his permit prior to my visit.

Drag Week is a 1,000-mile road trip. You may have also noticed the tow hook required to pull a trailer to each race. I don’t give a damn about the car of your cousin’s friend or dad that has never lost a freeway race. This is an street car.

The next difficult decision was which car Ken and myself should drive to follow Tom and Aydan. The two choices were the cheapest Turo near the Detroit Metro Airport or Ken’s newly-restored 1963 AMC Rambler.

It wasn’t that hard after all.

You’ll recognize Michigan as the American auto country if you’ve been there. Everybody has some sort of connection to the three big names, and the closer you are to Detroit the stronger this association is.

Everyone’s Head Turns When Sick seconds Cruises By. You can’t not. Funny thing is that people don’t seem surprised when they see this.

It seems normal and expected. Few people know that the car is the winner of Drag Week twice. Tom and Aydan, riding in the most conspicuous car on the street, cruise under the radar.

Tom drives the car a lot, and he works out all of its kinks, making it more streetable with time.

This is evident, as there are always issues that arise during a shoot when photographing race cars. The car may overheat from idling or the starter will not engage due to heat soak.

This is not Tom Bailey’s car. This is the car of a Drag Week competitor who has been in traffic for hours, pulled a trailer during rain and then made a 6-second run the next day.

Chapter Three

The Specs

Tom credits Steve Morris, of Steve Morris Engines, for the work he did on the 615ci Brodix V8 big-block Chevy.

Tom’s 69 Camaro can make 1,500hp with pump gas on the street. But at the track, the car is capable of more than double that figure. The car is powered by a pair 94mm Precision Turbos that ram air through an Edelbrock intake and Holley EFI system. Steve Morris chose a Callies Crank, Oliver Racing Parts Connecting Rods and Diamond Pistons for the block to withstand the abuse on the track and wear from the road.

Tom claims that the engine has not been removed from the car in a few decades, despite the fact that it has been rebuilt several times over the years. This includes a dirty and quick piston swap done during Drag Week last year due to a failed fuel injector. Tom says that while the mentality of not fixing something if it isn’t broken has brought him to this point, it will soon be time to overhaul the engine.

The ’69 Camaro is a tube chassis with fiberglass and carbon fibre body panels that look like they were attached by a factory. A Wilwood disc setup under the fenders helps the parachute bring the 3,500hp beast down to earth after 200+mph runs.

Tom upgraded every inch of this car, whether it was fortified, redesigned or simply thrown out. This car boasted a five-day quarter-mile average of 6.83 secs, and an average trap speed 213.94mph.

To put this in perspective, Tom’s average speed was more than 15mph slower than the driver who finished second over the five races during Drag Week.

Tom won the overall title again in 2015, this time in a ’69 Camaro. This time he had a sub-7 second average with an amazing fastest pass of 6.355mph at 224.96mph. Tom won the overall title for the third time, despite injector issues, in 2018 in the same copper-colored 69 Camaro.

Tom is a fierce competitor and credits his success in Drag Week to the fact that he drives this car so much at home. Sick Seconds has two cupholders. I’ll believe him.

Tom loves racing – and winning – but it is obvious that he just enjoys being around cars.

Tom and Aydan worked together every day in the garage during my visit at the M1 Concourse.

I won’t pretend to know Tom, but I am sure that I will be in for a lot of pain on the shuffleboard when I return to the M1 Concourse this year for the Motovicity Speed Ring.

It’s hard to summarize someone without knowing them well.

Tom’s description of the feeling of driving a ’69 Camaro is the closest I can get. “How does that feel?” I asked.