IT HELPS THE STREET LS1
While you're probably not going to run out and build your own 1,700hp LS1 any time soon, knowing what it takes to build an engine that makes this power and stays together is rewarding. W2W is constantly upgrading LS1, LS2, LS6, and Gen III-powered trucks, so the lessons learned from this project definitely helped them provide more performance to it's customers. The company's complete fabrication shop, engine building center, four-wheel chassis dyno, three engine dynos, machine shop, and other facilities are all in-house. This allows W2W to do just about anything required to improve performance--and now the company can say it helped to take the LS1 to a whole new plateau. The W2W team wanted to extend their gratitude to: Big Stuff III/John Meaney, Precision Turbos, Precision Torque Converters, Superior Radiator, Mike Moran Racing Engines, and the quarter-mile gods for smiling on this effort.
THE WILD 1320
The advantage of using Moran's racing-vet Caspar Camaro and having him drive it became apparent when the car first went down the track. Moran was able to provide clear input and recommend actions to tune the chassis and engine. The car started out using a Bruno torque converter/G-force gearbox transmission they had lying around, and getting the engine up to peak rpm at the starting line to stall the converter was the first challenge. To achieve stall, a 100hp shot of nitrous was robbed off a team member's car and activated at the line. Later, a running change to more aggressive turbo impellers to spool the turbos up faster was made along with installing a looser converter from Precision Torque Converter.
With the engine stalling the converter at the line, getting the EFI calibration in the Big Stuff III controller to work all the way down the track took many more passes. The nature of these runs is what separates the men from the boys in this business-many were absolutely wicked. More often than not, Moran would have to get off the throttle after going seriously sideways near the top end of a run.
Back in the pits, Moran would be matter-of-fact about what changes the car needed and the work usually resulted in the car going faster on the next pass. The guys worked quietly, with few smiles and jokes, but often they could be caught shaking their heads at the sight of seeing both doors from the starting line at over 175 mph.
The record-setting pass has not yet come, due to a miriad of circumstances, none of which has been a lack of horsepower. After 15 more dyno pulls and 20 quarter-mile passes, netting a so-far smooth 7.80/175-mph pass, this team of Detroit hot rodders firmly beleives that a blistering 6-second run is within their reach. We'll follow up later on with the details of how they did.
Good Idea + Hard Work = New Record
The engine you see here wasn't funded by some wealthy enthusiast, it wasn't built for a big corporation to promote a product, and it's not going to make anybody any money racing somewhere. Nope, this engine came to life after a bunch of gearheads decided they could piece together a bunch of parts lying around their shops, buy a few things with chipped-in money, and make whatever else they needed to stuff it into a borrowed, legendary race car to set a new world record.
It all started when Denny Dera, the lead fabricator at Wheel to Wheel Powertrain (W2W), was talking with the other members of the W2W crew about building an LS1-powered vehicle that would run the quarter-mile in 6 seconds--a new world record. While everyone that heard the idea thought it would be great, how to do it was a mystery. Not to be deterred, the more the techies talked, the more the plan came together.
Fastest Street Car racer Mike Moran walked into the W2W shop one day and overheard the crew talking about what they were working on and asked if they could "borrow" a car. Moran delivered his "Caspar" Camaro the next day with its nitrous'd 650-cid Rat still stuffed into the engine bay!
So, what started as an impossible idea turned into a wild adventure, as this volunteer effort consumed many nights, weekends, and even a few "vacation" days where the guys thrashed their hearts out to finish the car and make it run the number.
TWIN-TURBO LS1 DYNO CHART