No, dear readers your eyes aren’t deceiving you! That is a 1972 Chevelle coming out of Turn 9 at Laguna Seca and here is the story behind this icon from the 70’s. Owner Dave T was scouring the internet for dyno shops when he found Z Car Garage. With an endorsement from his co-worker an e-mail was sent and we happily obliged to dyno the Chevelle. We love muscle cars!
Dave had assembled this engine entirely by himself and wanted to see the difference a new exhaust system made. The stock exhaust consisted of OEM cast-iron manifolds, dual pipes w/o crossover and generic turbo mufflers. Baseline numbers were 277hp/326tq to the wheels. The new exhaust system included Hooker SBC headers, Pypes X-pipe and Race Pro mufflers. This helped produce 330hp/356tq to the wheels!
Here is a video of the dyno run:
What we love most about the car is that it was meant to be a ‘grandma’s sleeper’ that could work at the road-track, the drag-strip and as a daily driver. It still has its original bench seat and column shifter. Dave has logged over 11,000 miles on the motor and recently completed a track day at Laguna Seca!
A few details on the engine build:
383CI
Intake Manifold-RPM Air Gap
GMPP Hot Camshaft
COMP Cams Valve Springs
GM Bow-Tie Vortec cylinder heads
Compression ratio 9.543
TH-350 (TCI)
3000 rpm flash stall converter (TCI)
3.08 rear, Eaton posi
Dave actually built the engine before he found the car. After the successful engine run on the stand, his dad encouraged him to find a car for it:
“He said, why don’t you get a Chevelle like you had in high-school- that was the best car we ever had. I had received a 1972 Chevelle Mailbu from my parents at the age of 16. It was blue with a white vinyl top. I had an accident in it and some time after that the cam/timing gear let go and although I tried to replace it the engine never ran right and we ended up donating it to the high-school auto shop class.”
He then found a ’72 on Craigslist in un-modified condition, shown above in the original owner’s driveway. The car has been repainted it’s original shade of green, and that’s it. In went the new motor and he’s been driving like mad.
Here is Dave putting the Chevelle through its paces at the Sear’s Point Drags (Sonoma Raceway). His first time out he ran low 13’s!
Thanks for bringing your Chevelle to us we enjoyed working with you Dave!
Marc H found Z Car Garage online and wanted to see what we were all about. After visiting the shop he dropped off his ultra-clean, low mileage 2008 350z for power and suspension goodies:
We love the HR engine found in the latest Z33s because they respond extremely well to simple bolt-ons and UPREV tuning. We started with a with Bassani cat-back exhaust followed by JWT dual POP charger intakes :
On the dyno, Marc’s 350z baselined at 271hp/245tq to the wheels. The Bassani exhaust netted a peak gain of 7hp and significant midrange gains in torque:
The JWT intakes added an additional 4hp:
This graph illustrates the benefit of UPREV tuning when adding bolt-ons. More power everywhere, all the way up to 7500rpm for peak gains of 19hp/8tq for a total of 290hp/253tq to the wheels:
Marc wanted to improve handling and braking so we installed Eibach springs, Hotchkis sway bars, and Whiteline T/C rod bushings followed by a full alignment. Factory Brembo brakes were upgraded with Stoptech Sport Kits all around:
Sway bars:
Marc was very pleased with the results and has been enjoying his Z. He told us he would be coming back to ZCG and we will happily oblige!
We recently had the opportunity of tuning the famous “Kas” Kastner Triumph race car. This 1971 Trimph Vitesse sports sedan was designed to run against cars like the Datsun 510 in the SCCA’s Trans-Am racing series. Though car wasn’t successful in the series it became a winner in the hands of privateers for last 30 years.
It’s a really quick car powered by an inline-6 with triple carbs, independent rear suspension and 4-wheel discs. Find out more info HERE. Butch Gilbert is the current owner of the car and found Z Car Garage through Datsun racer/specialist Troy Ermish. Here is Butch practicing with CSRG at Thunderhill…the sound is almost S30-like!
Rob dyno-tuned the Triumph and picked up significant hp/tq while increasing the rev-limit…Butch is happy!
Butch has been racing since the 50’s and owns a bunch of cool cars. This is a 1958 Hagemann-Sutton Special. It has a 283 with Hilborn injection and Lehman cross drive front cover. Weighing in at only 1980lbs with an aluminum body/cromoly frame and Halibrand drive pin wheels:
Here is Butch driving the “Birdcage” at the 2013 Monterey Historics….oh that v8 sound!
We love working with authentic race cars so big thanks to Butch for visiting ZCG!
Stunato Racing Machines is breaking speed records again! Z Car Garage helped tune their #477 Sprint car and recently dyno’d their Studebaker to go after a record at the Bonneville Salt Flats. While on the dyno the Studebaker blew a tire! This was a first and fortunately nobody was injured.
275hp/416tq to the wheels! We love helping this great group of racers and look forward to more record breaking passes!
