The Camaro Club (UK)

1999 Chevy Camaro - 11s, Bone Stock
OK, It’s Not All Stock—but the Long-Block Is, Right Down to the Cam. And No Nitrous!
From the January, 2012 issue of Hot Rod Magazine
By David Freiburger
Photography by David Freiburger

This guy has a really cool approach to going fast: Leave the engine stock and hop up everything around it. His formula has delivered an 11.62 e.t. at 117 mph from an untouched LS1 in a '99 Camaro. How? Traction, gears, and weight reduction. It reminds us a lot of how Hot Rod used to test muscle cars back in the '60s. The dude is Steven Mashburn of Independence, Missouri, and this SS is his first street/strip car. He got it for $11,000 two and a half years ago, scoring the hard-to-find, one-year-only Hugger Orange paint. This stripper also had perks like manual windows, no T-tops, and a stick. Drag-wise, it's the perfect fourth-gen F-body. When he got it, all it took was Mickey Thompson sticky rubber to get it running 12.85 in the quarter, though a previous owner had installed an aftermarket airbox and a 12-bolt rear with 4.30 gears. It was impressive for a near-stocker but not quick enough, so Steven installed his only horsepower parts, beginning with headers from American Racing (AmericanRacing Headers.com) and 3-inch Dynatech exhaust (DynatechHeaders.com), eliminating the catalytic converters and placing the turndowns ahead of the axle. With a computer tune, Steven says that change made the car about 0.400 quicker in the quarter-mile. Another 0.400 was trimmed with an LS6 intake and another retune, pushing the rev limiter to 6,800 rpm and adding LS6 valvesprings to the stock cam and rockers. The engine makes 317 hp and 350 lb-ft at the wheels at Revline Motors in Kansas City, Missouri.
After fragging a gearset in the 12-bolt, Steven put in a virtually unbreakable S60 rearend from Strange (StrangeEngineering.net), this time with 4.56 gears. The stock axle ratio in this six-speed model was 3.42:1. The lower gears (higher numerically) provide more mechanical advantage to get the car moving; they act like a longer lever. You probably know that lower gears cause more engine rpm at cruise. For example, at 75 mph with no overdrive and 28-inch-tall tires, 3.42 gears make for 3,078 engine rpm, and 4.56s would spin it 4,104 rpm. On the dragstrip, that carries the advantage of keeping the engine higher in the power curve and also zinging it more quickly through the rpm range. To picture that, envision the car accelerating from 100 to 110 mph in Fourth gear (which is 1.0:1). With 3.42 gears, the engine would go from 4,104 to 4,514 rpm, a change of 410 rpm. With the 4.56s in the same situation, the engine would run from 5,472 to 6,019 rpm, a more radical increase of 547 rpm.

Also, rear axle gears for a drag car should typically be selected such that the engine is at (or just after) the rpm point where it makes peak horsepower. In Steven's case, he shifts at 6,000 rpm and runs through the lights at 6,400 rpm at 117 mph. If the car ran the same mph with the stock 3.42 gears, it would be at 4,800 rpm, which would be too low in the power curve for aggressive acceleration. According to Steven, the swap from 4.30s to 4.56s was beneficial by a tenth.

Speaking of shifting, First through Fourth gears in the stock T56 six-speed trans have been faceplated. This means the stock synchronizer rings on the gears are removed and replaced by a new plate that has much larger openings that allow the gear changes to happen much faster at higher rpm without grinding the gears and therefore missing shifts--but faceplating does not make the trans clutchless. It does make the trans last much longer, but it can be awkward on the street until you get used to it, as the trans will be smoothest when shifting quickly, even at low speeds, or with double-clutching. Also, with the synchros gone, you'll have to match engine rpm to road speed to downshift. The most popular company handling the faceplating mod is Liberty's Gears (Libertys Gears.com).

Stock clutches don't last long either, so this one's upgraded with a Quicktime bellhousing, a Monster Stage III clutch, and a Monster billet flywheel that's SFI-certified and therefore legal for dragstrip use (see Monster Clutches.com).

Traction was another fairly simple job on the fourth-gen. The front suspension is stock other than the removal of the sway bar and addition of Strange double-adjustable coilovers with a 300-lb/in spring rate. In the rear, Eibach Drag-Launch springs support the car and Strange double-adjustable shocks damp it. There's a torque arm from BMR Suspension (BMRsuspension.com) and a custom-made, torsion barûstyle antiroll bar. BMR subframe connectors are also used. The best-ever 60-foot time is 1.59 seconds.

Finally, Steven hacked weight. The air conditioning and heater are gone, as are the stock ABS setup, the bumper supports, and the back seat. The rear hatch glass is lightweight Speedglass from Percy's High Performance (PercysHP.com). With a quarter tank of gas and no driver, the Camaro weighs 3,100 pounds, a reduction of around 500 pounds from stock.

Steven says his total investment, including the purchase price of the car, is about $22,000. That adds up to 11.60s, which is just a tenth slower than the point at which NHRA requires a rollbar. We like it.