Pro E.T. is a category that attracts many quarter-mile racers due to the wide range of elapsed times competing together, making it a bracket at its best. Many Dutch drivers are competing in Pro E.T. One of them is Ed Breedveld, call sign The Neigbour! Ed is well known on the track for performing massive wheelies. But who is Ed Breedveld, what is his story, and why is he called the Neighbour? Let us take you through the historical lane of Ed Breedveld!

Text: Benjamin Wefer
Pictures: Benjamin Wefer, Ed Breedveld

So who is Ed Breedveld? Ed is currently a 55-year-old and owns a company that specializes in free-digging underground high-power cables, gas, and water pipes using vacuum / air-displacement methods. When he is not working, he spends most of his free time with his family. They are all racing enthusiasts, and his son, Joep Breedveld, is currently racing in the Porsche Sports Cup Germany in a GT4 RS. He is much more successful in racing than I am, Ed added. Besides racing and spending time with his family, he devoted his time to restoring classic cars, such as a 1969 Chevrolet Camaro Trans Am Racing Tribute RS/SS, a 1968 Camaro convertible, a BMW E30 M3 DTM clone, or a 1986 Citroën 2CV.

Ed’s story began in the late 1980s, when he participated in rally racing in a 1978 Alfa Romeo and a Volkswagen Golf MK1, and continued until the late 1990s.  In the early 2000s, he started experimenting with street racing in a Chevrolet step-side pickup and his 1969 Camaro convertible. Soon, he found out that neither was his preferred choice for racing. But it wasn’t until Fabian “Fabel” Oosterveen became Ed’s neighbor that he invited Ed to races at the Drachten Airfield. There, Fabien introduced him to a group of racers. Ed became a regular visitor, but people always recognize him as the Neighbor of Fabian (Neighbor is Buurman in Dutch). It stuck so hard that it became his racing nickname – Ed Buurman Breedveld for life! He continued racing on the street from time to time.

One day, Ed spotted the 1963 silver Chevrolet Nova (Chevy 11) at a swap meet in Poeldijk, where the previous owner, Eric Pellegrom, had taken it for a demonstration run on the street. The car was imported from the USA and built into a racecar by Erik Bauwer and Eric Pellegrom in the early nineties. Ed thought, ‘It won’t get any better than this.’ The body line is perfect, and the stance of the car is stunning. I want this car! Time has passed, and the car changed owners, and finally, in 2010, Ed bought the Nova as a turnkey from “Fuel” Lievaart.

Ed and his Nova are well-known on several tracks around Europe for performing wild wheelies. He has also won several events in the past, and this year, he ended as runner-up with 177 points (just 25 points behind the leader) in the French Championship in Pro E.T. Of course, we took the opportunity to ask him a series of direct questions.

What is so interesting about racing in PET? I started in Supergas and ran two classes (SG and PET) for a long time.  However, nowadays I only race PET, and I prefer it more because the fields are larger, allowing me to always go full throttle and adjust the index as needed.

Who usually builds the engine? How much horsepower is the engine generating? My engine and transmission builder is Marc Langenberg from Total Performance, and the engine produces around 840 horsepower. He is very precise with his measurements and edits, and I am very pleased with his work. I want to thank him for the track support he always provided.

What are your expectations for your current setup? I hope to break the 8-second barrier one day.  There are two options: the engine is nitrous-ready, which can provide approximately +250 bhp extra, or to lose weight. Eighty percent of the car is still original steel, which we all know is quite heavy. And of course, the driver is heavy as well: Ed laughs. The current weight, including the driver, is around 1,500 kg. However, putting the car on a diet is easier, so I already have Fiberglass doors, bumpers, and trunklid on the shelf.

Would you be interested in racing in any other class? I really like Super Pro E.T., but you have to be able to go low to mid-8 seconds to join this class. Even though you can race this class with an 8.9-second car. For the future, everything is possible because I have a Nitrous kit, a Pro Charger system, and two massive turbos on the shelf, waiting for the right moment.

What would be the most remarkable moment you have ever experienced in your racing career? And what would be the funniest one? Winning the last ever to be held Pro ET Dragracing event on Drachten (NL) and becoming runner-up in the France Championship 2025 in Pro E.T. would be my best results so far. 

The funniest is an easy one, for sure! The huge wheely at Drachten! It was well-documented on film and in photos, and it went viral. But it is also the scariest moment ever; the rear bumper hit the track so hard that the wheels lost contact with it, which is typically a recipe for disaster. I did not lift the throttle while the front of the car was airborne. However, in the end, nobody was hurt, and the vehicle suffered no damage.

How do you see your future in drag racing? I am doing it for fun, no plans attached. I will go with the flow and check my race agenda against my son Joep’s racing schedule to see if there is a slot available for drag racing.

So, what does drag racing mean to Ed? Number one for me is spending time with friends and meeting new people at every event we go to. At night, we party hard, and in the morning, we race harder. 

Now you know a little more about Ed Breedveld, including his nickname ‘Neighbour,’ his long history in drag racing, his wheelies, and his passion for quarter-mile races. If you want to know more about Ed, Joep, and Breedveld Motorsport, follow their website at https://www.breedveldmotorsports.com.

Nova Specifications:
Chassis Build-by: Home-built by Bauer & Pellegrom with parts from Chassis Engineering / Ford Capri / DIY
Make: Chevrolet Nova
Year: 1963
Wheelbase: 112 inches
Engine: Dart BBC 509 cu inch Power 840 bhp
Transmission: Th400
Supercharger: No / Nitrous ready for +250hp
Differential: 4,57
Fuel Type: pumgas 98
Best E.T. with 100 shot Nitrous: 9,30 sec at 144mph/230km/hr
Best E.T. NA 9,41 sec at 142 mph/228 km/hr