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Words & Photos: Tommy Parry
Getting stationed overseas is always hard, but there’s usually some good money in it. Once Yahtzee had left Japan and returned to his hometown of Albuquerque, he took his money and started scouring Craigslist for a new toy to play with. The choice was simple: a classic Camaro with a modern drivetrain for a stylish, well-balanced and potent street car that could work well on the drag strip.
The only challenge was that he had thirty days to make this happen, since he would be re-stationed in California at the end of the month. Sometimes a little pressure can work wonders for productivity, and with little time to fret over the perfect machine, he grabbed an ‘89 F-body and started sourcing parts for an LS swap.
Yahtzee found a stock ‘98 LS1 and rebuilt it with mostly new parts. Included in the long list of goodies are Callies Compstar 4" stroker crank, Callies Compstar H-Beam Rods, Mahle -6cc forged pistons, a shortblock built by Performance Plus, AFR 205cc Mongoose Heads milled to 62cc and cleaned, a Hawks LSX Throttle Cable, a Hawks LSX T56 Swap Cross member, Hawks Racetronix fuel pump and a standalone wiring harness for simplicity’s sake.
With a new LS6 intake, throttle body, injectors, a Vengeance Racing Vindicator cam and a Walbro fuel pump, he’d have a little more power on tap for duels on the drag strip.
He fitted the gearbox, a T56, with a Ram billet flywheel, a Ram HD clutch and an LS6 slave cylinder for a little more support with the added thrust. With all those goodies in his garage a few days after setting foot in the States, he was well on his way to finishing his project post-haste.
Once Yahtzee had pulled the TPI harness, cleaned the bay, installed the new Lokar Throttle cable, mounted the 4th gen clutch and brake pedals and the LS1 swap motor mounts, he could turn his attentions to assembling the engine. The LS7 lifters were a pain to install, and the crank he ordered had been keyed - annoying, surely, but nothing a frustrated phone call and overnight shipping can’t fix.
Despite these setbacks, another two days and Yahtzee had completed his LS. Spurred on by both his own efficiency and that of UPS, he had the vigor to complete the rest of the subtle modifications he wanted this discreet dragster to have.
After the filter and headers were tacked on, Yahtzee took his new roller to Alburquerque’s Solid Tech Performance for a quick tune. It wasn’t quite running and he had to trailer his black beauty, but the anticipation hung thick in the air; a running Camaro was not far off.
Once they’d disabled the VATS, the car started up beautifully. However, the motor still needed a bit of tuning as it was running roughly. While the problem was getting diagnosed, Yahtzee kept to his schedule by building the exhaust, which was comprised of a pair of shorties flowing into 2 ¼” piping, then on to 2 ½” piping, into the Y-pipe, into a 3", through the cutout and into the muffler. When the shop sorted out the problem - the driver’s side harness had been mounted backwards - he had himself a motor running on all eight and rumbling comfortably.
After the Camaro had been dyno-tuned, the numbers were encouraging: 414 horsepower and 420 lb-ft. Since his funds had been drained by the big-ticket engine items, he couldn’t snag a new rear end at this juncture, but soon he’d strengthened the car with a slew of chassis upgrades to better administer that power. Included in that list are a Moser 9” rear, 3.50 gears, an Auburn Posi, BMR lower control arms and panhard bar, a Spohn anti-roll bar, Ground Control weight Jacks and Bilstein rear shocks.
As far as styling went, the intent was to be simple. Inside, nothing but a wood grained wheel and Auto Meter gauges were added. With the Alpine head unit helping with with tunage, tags hanging from the rear view and his custom switchboard adding a sense of purpose, he had created a comfortable cabin to cruise in, with personality but no gaudiness.
His exterior modifications were subtle: smoked lights front and rear, a ‘91 Z28’s hood, and C5 Replicas at all four corners, painted flat black with a polished lip, measuring 17x9.5 up front and 18x10.5” in the rear, and wearing 275/45/17 Nexens and 295/30/18 Pilot Sports, respectively. Though he could smoke his track-only Mickey Thompson ET Streets on his occasional trips to the strip, he had found that perfect zone where traction and torque meet in perfect balance. More importantly, he had built himself a very quick ride to transport him to his new station in San Diego.
