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Drivetrain
Tony used the best of everything for his 540, basing it on a granite-like Dart Pro cylinder case with a 4.50-inch bore. Motorsports Machining (Waukesha) did all the nipping and tucking under the sly eye of John Nader. Motorsports' Tim Jakus (himself a 10-wide racer) specified a Callies billet crankshaft (4.25-inch stroke), Oliver billet rods, and 10.5:1 Ross forgings wrapped with Childs & Albert rings. As if the combo wouldn't make enough of a racket by itself, Tony couldn't resist the nostalgic whine of a Pete Jackson geardrive. The big cog is connected to a Lunati solid roller (268/278 degrees at 0.050). Jakus capped the V-form with pocket-ported Dart aluminum castings set up with Chet Herbert valvesprings. The Comp 1.7:1 rocker arms wiggle less under the grip of a Comp stud girdle. On the bottom end, Jakus shielded the high-volume oil pump and pickup with a deep 7-quart Moroso sump. On the intake side, Jakus paired a Holley intake manifold with 1050 Dominator (covered by K&N) and put an NOS Cheater plate in between the two, just for personal protection you understand. Pyrotechnics zap from the MSD 6AL box and Pro Billet distributor set at 38 degrees total (with provision for pulling timing out when the nitrous begins its rampage). Hooker Super Comp headers feature 21/4-inch primaries and feed into scant and raspy Dynomax Race Magnum "mufflers." Torque transfer begins with a Turbo 400 built by Rick Tilke with FB Performance innards. It's fronted by a Dedenbear bellhousing, an FB trans brake, low gear kit (2.75, 1.57, 1.00:1), and reverse manual valvebody. A B&M Mega Shifter changes up gears and the transmission fluid is circulated through a B&M core. "When used with nitrous, that 2,800-rpm stall speed in conjunction with a trans-brake puts the motor at the bottom end of the power curve so the car reacts as if it had a 4,500-stall," said Tony. Grunt jams through a Mark Williams 4-inch diameter carbon-fiber prop shaft built by Tilke/Schaar Racing Transmission in nearby Milwaukee. At termination, there's a Strange Engineering Ultra Case, spool, 4.56:1 gearset, and 40-spline axles. Spool in a street-driven vehicle? "People have told me that driving with a spool is not cool because it's too hard to turn and too hard on the drivetrain. On cruise nights, I pull U-turns constantly and haven't had a single issue with it." Myth debunked.
Chassis
"Once the 540 went in, the chassis became immediate junk," quipped Tony. He took his case to Gebhardt Pro Cars in Jacksonville, Illinois. Gebhardt fabbed him a 9-inch housing, appropriately narrowed to accommodate BIG tires, and put it up in the car with a four-link and wishbone setup. Pro Cars cinched motor to chassis with a plate, slipped in Herb Adams solid body mounts, and controlled body movement and centered the axlehousing with an antisway bar setup. The four-link brackets are heavy duty and have lots of adjustment holes for lots of setup options. Adjustable Koni and Afco shocks, front and rear, get the attitude right for either track or street. For that critical link between rubber and road, Mike Schaar installed rack steering tailored by Kim Smith.
Wheels & Brakes
That would include lightweight, drag race-sized Wilwood and Aerospace Components discs, front and rear, respectively. Wheels at the leading edge are 15x4 Weld Pro Stars hugged by Moroso 7.10 Drag Specials. Regardless of the situation, the Camaro turns mammoth 15x15 Pro Stars; the road rubber is ET Streets, measuring 33x18.5. When he's not running a 10-wide event, the usual race combination is those 15-inch wide Pro Stars wrapped in M/T 32x14.5 ET Drag slicks.
Interior
Remember, this is a street car, not a racer. For the most part, the interior is intact but amended in areas critical to occupant well-being as well as for ease of maintenance. The 12-point 'cage also acts as the pick-up point for the safety harnesses that contrast nicely with the JAZ seats. Tony rewired the hog with a complete Painless loom and painstakingly inserted the Auto Meter gauges in the original dash. The rear "seats" were replaced with brackets for the nitrous bottles, sometimes in place, sometimes not. Tony removed the air conditioning to make the car lighter.
8.70 at 154 mph.
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