Ron Rhodes regularly pushes the boundaries of what’s possible in the X275 category, and his stalwart efforts have resulted in championship-winning success. That performance-driven mindset led him to find a way to regain his Camaro’s performance after changes to his transmission program provided much needed reliability, but came at the cost of performance on the clocks.
Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in DI #197, the 30 Under 30 Issue, in November/December 2025.
Rhodes’ vivid red Chevy Camaro is widely recognized in drag racing as well as the X275 ranks, where he pilots his nitrous-oxide-injected, big-block-powered, and leaf-spring-suspended machine to top elapsed times and event wins. The Camaro has a long, storied history going back to its roots as a street car, and it has been Rhodes’ relentless pursuit of performance that has taken it to where it is today.
Looking back to 2022, Rhodes’ small-block combination lived on the edge of reliability and so did his RPM Transmissions-built Turbo 400. The Delaware-based racer squeezed every ounce of performance out of his drivetrain. With the transmission, eventually he began finding the limits of what the internal parts were capable of.
“I had been running lightweight aftermarket parts,” Rhodes remarks of his previous transmission program. At a big event, it became evident that it just wasn’t the right equipment for the task at hand and it cost him a record run as well as the race win.
Rhodes had RPM Transmissions set up his Turbo 400 with a traditional larger drum thinking that it wouldn’t slow the car down too much. Reliability improved, but the larger and heavier components did not perform as well as the lightweight part previously used. The decrease in performance was notable and Rhodes couldn’t recover the lost performance through other means.
“Rodney [Massengale] mentioned the Sonnax drum to me,” Rhodes says of his introduction to the Sonnax Smart-Tech drum module. “Anybody who knows about Sonnax knows they do their homework and their stuff is awesome. Rodney knows his stuff and I trust what he tells me so I said, ‘I’m in.’ He put it in and it was hands down faster than the big drums. The car wanted to accelerate faster and earlier.”
According to Rhodes and Massengale, owner of RPM Transmissions, Rhodes was the first to use the Sonnax Smart-Tech drum module in X275 and the change resulted in improved performance numbers on track while providing the reliability he sought as well as the increased safety that the module is known for.
The Sonnax module replaces the traditional forward/direct drum design with a more efficient, single-drum system. With its combination of lighter components and redistributed mass, the module takes less energy to run and puts less strain on the transmission than typical aftermarket aluminum drums. An added benefit: the single-drum design eliminates the flaw in the two-drum setup that has occasionally been known to cause catastrophic transmission failure.
Rhodes paired the Sonnax module-equipped and RPM Transmissions-built Turbo 400 with lockup with a Neal Chance torque converter and ran that behind the small-block for a full year with no issues. His consistent drive towards improving his racing program had him look at his engine program next, now that the transmission program was fully capable of delivering the performance he required from it.
“The class was progressing and the rules makers try to make the small-block Chevy competitive,” Rhodes says. The displacement limit at the time was 500, but then the rules were opened up for even bigger engines. “It’s been a challenge to get the Camaro to weight,” Rhodes notes of the small-block combination. “Do we stick with the small-block Chevy and build another engine or go big-block and maybe get more longevity out of it?”
As it turned out, Rhodes was ready for another change and worked with Bischoff Engine Service to put together a 636-cubic-inch big-block powerplant based on an Energy Manufacturing billet aluminum block that is stuffed with BES/Ross Racing pistons and topped with a pair of Edelbrock BV3 cylinder heads with T&D rocker arms and a cast intake. While the big-block was a “big” departure from what Rhodes normally runs, the single SPEEDTECH direct-port nitrous system bolted to it is not.
“It was a great choice, zero regrets making the change,” Rhodes expresses of his engine combination change. As for the module-equipped transmission behind it, the automatic is now on its fourth year of service with only once-a-year refresh by RPM Transmissions.
“It has the same drum and transmission, everything is so happy, and I’ve been tickled to death with it,” Rhodes says. “All of our other cars have the [Smart-Tech] drum. At the PRI Show one year, Tony Bischoff, my engine builder, was standing at the Sonnax booth and I went to say hi. Jim Widener was with him and had the [Smart-Tech] drum in his hand and I said, ‘That thing is badass, best thing I ever did to my transmission.’ Gregg [Nader] was on the other side of the counter. Gregg calls my phone a month later and asked if I wanted to do some stuff together. This has been my second year with them. They are so professional and great to deal with. Gregg calls me with ideas to try and we work with Rodney. I have that kind of confidence in those guys.”
That confidence and the teamwork among them led to another change to Rhodes’ racing program, that being switching to MoTeC engine management.
“There were too many anomalies in the operation of the [previous] electronic fuel injection system which resulted into poor performance,” Rhodes notes. “I often ask myself, ‘What do Pro Nitrous cars run?’ and I think about that with every aspect of the car.” As it turns out, many of the top Pro Nitrous cars utilize MoTeC, and Rhodes’ son Ronny also had a friend, Randy Shoener, who was using it in the import world and steered him towards MoTeC.
“I talked to Bischoff about the health of the engine and he said we really shouldn’t have been having the issues we were having,” Rhodes says. “I put MoTeC on the car and I could not believe how much happier the engine is. We are on our fifth race without having to take the engine apart. I’ve never been able to do that until now. It’s faster and healthier.
“I’ve been running Sonnax parts for probably 10 years now in other transmissions,” Rhodes adds. “Sonnax is like the MoTeC of transmissions – you know you’re getting the best. I am so blessed to be able to surround myself with these key people. I’m willing to put in the work and these people back me up.”
Gregg Nader is the high-performance transmission product line manager at Sonnax. He noted that all of these components, including Rhodes himself, are key to optimum performance.
“It seems to me there is a common thread between transmission (traditional big drum, lightweight small drum and Sonnax module), the engine (stressed small-block vs. big-block) and management system with the new one making the nitrous power adder more powerful and reliable,” Nader says.
“Starting with the transmission breakdown costing the race and the record (lightweight, small drum did not have durability), it reminds me of the old car racing idiom, ‘To finish first, you must first finish,’” Nader says. “There is a constant tension between being competitive by pushing the limits and being durable enough to be there at the finish line. It reminds me of another euphemism, ‘All I want is everything,’ and Ron has demonstrated with his program that it is possible to push the performance limits and be reliable. Getting there, though, requires change and other risks. I think it is safe to say navigating those risks of change is clearly Ron’s ‘superpower.’”
Getting down track is the bare minimum a racer needs to be successful and it’s also the foundation that is built upon when the goals are going quicker and faster. Rhodes’ switch to the Sonnax Smart-Tech drum module has provided him with that foundation, one that he has built upon and made his legendary Camaro quicker and faster than it has ever been.
The post Striving For Success: How Ron Rhodes, Sonnax Teamed Up To Excel In X275 first appeared on Drag Illustrated.
