Door Slammer

A Door Slammer is a type of drag racing car that looks like a regular street car and has doors that actually open and close, unlike other racing vehicles with bodies that flip up or tilt forward.

The name "Door Slammer" comes from the fact that these cars retain their original body shape and functional doors. When drivers get in and out, they slam the doors just like you would with any normal car. This might seem obvious, but it's actually a key feature that separates Door Slammers from other drag racing categories.

In drag racing, many high-performance cars called Funny Cars have lightweight, one-piece bodies that tilt up like a clamshell to give mechanics access to the engine. Door Slammers are different because they keep the classic car appearance that fans recognize from the street.

Common Door Slammer vehicles include popular muscle cars like the Chevrolet Camaro, Ford Mustang, Chevrolet Chevelle, and classic models like the 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air. These cars start with recognizable body styles but get heavily modified underneath for racing performance.

Don't let the familiar appearance fool you - Door Slammers are serious racing machines. They typically run massive supercharged V8 engines that can produce over 3,000 horsepower. The original body sits on a purpose-built racing chassis designed to handle the extreme forces of drag racing.

Door Slammer is both a general term for this style of drag racing car and a specific racing class in some regions. In Australian drag racing, "Top Doorslammer" is an official professional category with strict rules about engine size, minimum weight, and which car bodies can be used.

The Door Slammer category overlaps with Pro Modified racing, where heavily modified production-based cars compete at the highest levels of drag racing while maintaining their recognizable street car appearance.