The suspension systems on classic America muscle cars are, well,
classic we guess you could say. What we mean is that 40 and 50 years
ago, suspension technology was still rather primitive, with leaf springs
and and drum brakes handling most of the work. These days though, if
you have the money and the talent, you can update your American muscle
car with a premium suspension developed this millenium It’s not as difficult as it might seem, as
this video of Route
66 Motorsports installing a Heidts
suspension system on a ‘70 Chevelle shows.
The ’70 Chevelle was most definitely a muscle car, having grown huge
and requiring a big-block engine for any real performance. Upgrading the
original suspension to a Heidts suspension makes a world of difference
when it comes to handling, ride quality, and overall performance.
With this shiny new Heidts suspension, backed by big Wilwood brakes,
this ‘70 Chevelle should have no problem conquering even the tightest
autocross courses. With coil-overs, new control arms, and dropped
spindles, the suspension also gives the Chevelle a sleeker stance. All
in all, we think every muscle car should focus a bit more on suspension
improvements these days. If you find yourself looking for a serious
suspension upgrade, talk to Heidts; they can help.
Throwing parts and a ton of money at a car does not guarantee
success, but imagine the pressure trying to found a business that relies
upon building a Camaro that stands out from the crowd? Shane
Wagner went through this very experience when he started his
fifth generation Camaro project and founded Proven
Wicked simultaneously.
This build required the crew to devote every free
moment of their lives to creating one of the most remarkable fifth
generation Camaros to grace the streets.
Double Trouble
Wagner had longed to open his own business, an engineering company
creating performance parts, but taking his dream to reality proved to be
a crazy process. After attending the 2009 SEMA show in Las Vegas,
Wagner picked up his car and got to work on the project thanks to the
help of a trusted friend, John McBride of Midnite Octane. McBride and
Wager worked on the preliminary sketches and Wagner began shopping the
concept at the SEMA show.
During the span of two months, Wagner brought
the Proven Wicked test mule to life with the help and support of
friends, family and colleagues. Seibon provided Wagner with a carbon
fiber hood, fenders, doors, decklid, and rockers along with both the
front and rear lips.
A year after the show, Wagner received a call from a carbon
fiber/body kit company called Seibon regarding the Camaro build. They asked if it
would be possible for the car to become a reality in time for the next
SEMA show. Wagner had not planned to put together a large scale project
on a small budget, work a job, and start a business at the same time,
but he elected to take on the challenge.
With limited funds available to Wagner during this time period thanks
to starting Proven Wicked, he was needless to say somewhat concerned
about both labor hours and keeping on-budget. This build required Wagner
and his friend Russell McLean (of Bent-n-Twisted Metalworks) to devote
every free moment of their lives to creating one of the most remarkable
fifth generation Camaros to grace the streets.
Since the
Wagner's Camaro was destined to be a track car and test mule for Proven
Wicked's newest products, this car needed to perform like a racecar as
well as look like one.
Race Ready, Yet Street Legal
According to the literature Wagner provided in his initial proposal,
the goal of the project was for the car to look race ready, execute the
demands of the track and maintain a street legal form. This tall order
came to life in the span of a mere two months with both Wagner and
McLean working regular jobs during the process. This time period
included Wagner using 3D Computer Aided Design software to create the
all of custom pieces needed to bring this Camaro to SEMA.
Proven Wicked makes use of the 3D data from General Motors to ensure
proper fit, and when necessary Finite Element Analysis to test stress,
deflection and potential failure. These processes require copious
amounts of time, but it is safe to say that Wagner is a bit of a
computer wizard. With the future of Proven Wicked resting on Wagner’s
ability to perform, creating something both race-ready and aesthetically
amazing, the sense of accomplishment had to be tremendous.
After the
fabrication for the side exit exhaust was complete, Wagner installed the
Dr. Gas oval side exhaust, Borla long tube headers and an ATAK Street
exhaust, to enhance the performance and sound of the car.
Getting Started
During first month of the project, Wagner spent time seeking
sponsorships, securing parts and designing all of the one-off pieces
needed to bring the Camaro to life. With the design process underway,
the tear down commenced resulting in both guys losing sleep but somehow
maintaining their sanity.
In contrast to using off-shelf-parts, Wagner’s desire to create his
own hardware to showcase the future offerings from Proven Wicked took
more effort, but in the end it paid off. One of the more extensive and
time-consuming tasks was channeling through the floor and frame for the
side exit exhaust. During the fabrication process Wagner added the
race-spec 4-point bolt-in roll cage and the rear wing load transfer
bracing in the trunk area.
A custom built
4-point roll bar and Sparco seats with 6-point harnesses provide the
driver and passenger with added protection.
Wager designed a bolt-in cage that required minimal demolition that
could easily removed to achieve a stock appearance for the 2010 Camaro.
For the back, the fold down rear seat was taken advantage of, providing a
simple way to reach the weld-in rear shock tower brace. In the front,
the main hoop is hidden underneath the side bolsters resulting in a
tailored look. Thanks to Wagner’s prowess with CAD systems the cage fits
perfectly around the existing factory interior.
Along with fabricating countless parts, Wagner wanted to lighten up
the hefty fifth generation car by making every removable panel out of
carbon fiber. Carbon fiber offers tremendous weight savings and
maintains the strength required to survive the extreme stress in racing
applications. Since the Camaro would be appearing the Seibon booth at
SEMA, Seibon graciously supported the project with a carbon fiber hood,
fenders, doors, the front and rear lips, deck lid and the rockers.
However a largely bare carbon fiber Camaro would not be as visually
appealing to the refined eye, so Wagner enlisted the paint and body
skills of Nuncio Customs.
Wagner wanted to
make sure to thank John McBride at Midnite Octane for his help with the
renderings, designs and graphics on the car. Wagner also wanted to make
sure to thank Catalyst/Raceskinz for the vinyl graphics and paint masks
during the final stages of the paint and body process.
In order to make the Camaro handle like a racecar, Wagner went to
work on setting up the proper suspension package. KW Variant 3
coilovers were added in the front and rear, along with Proven Wicked
Switch Blade front and rear sway bars with Pro-Rigid End Links. With the
suspension setup to tackle the demands of the racetrack it was time to
select a wheel and tire combination that would suit both the street and
track.
A set of HRE P40 Monoblock Wheels with custom center locks in satin
black were selected, and wrapped with Toyo Proxes R888 rubber. In the
front 20 by 9.5-inch wide wheels are fitted with 285/35R20 tires while
the rear 20 by 11-inch wide wheels are treated to 315/30R20 tires. With
the larger 20-inch wheels in place, it provided plenty of additional
room for the Baer two-piece rotors with race calipers.
Although the
engine is mostly stock aside from the supercharger, a set of Moroso
fabricated aluminum valve covers, coil brackets and coil wires were used
to dress up the engine compartment somewhat.
With the handling and braking under control it was time to
investigate power adders and additional performance parts to give the
LS3 a little more horsepower and torque. Typically turbochargers or
superchargers are found on track cars, as nitrous is not well suited to
the demands of the road course; with the demand for additional power to
push the suspension a ProCharger Tuner II supercharger
system was added to the already potent LS3.
By utilizing the power created by the D-1SC on the 2010, the Camaro
would require a few supporting parts to make this addition work right
and create maximum performance out of the combination. With the ravenous
beast under the hood, a Kenne Bell Boost-A-Pump and a set of FAST 65-lb
injectors were added to serve adequate amounts of 91 octane to the
engine. Once the supercharger was installed on the Proven Wicked Camaro,
a trip to see Cody Chapman at WickedHP for custom tuning was in order.
A Pro-Charger
D-1SC was selected as the perfect blower for the Tuner II kit being used
on the Proven Wicked Camaro.
To keep Wagner safe while behind the wheel of the ProCharged Camaro, a
host of safety items were added to exceed the required standards at the
track. With the 4-point roll cage already in place a set of 6-point
3-inch wide harnesses were added to keep the driver safely in the seat. A
set of Sparco Pro 2000 race seats replaced the existing stock seats in
the car. With the additional safety and style added by the race seats,
the rest of the interior had a few modifications as well. DVS Customs
reworked the doors panels with a combination of supple leather and
carbon fiber. Along with the carbon fiber door panels, the console and
mirrors were given the carbon fiber treatment as well.
Since a steering
wheel adapter was not yet availabe for the fifth generation Camaros at
the time of this build, Wager created his own under the Proven Wicked
name.
Wheelin’ Around
Wagner wanted to remove the bulky original steering wheel since the
car would be spending a significant amount of time on road courses and
autocross tracks. During the period of time in which the Proven Wicked
Camaro was coming to life, a steering wheel adapter was not available
for the fifth generation Camaros; this opening gave Wagner an
opportunity to design an adapter under the Proven Wicked name. With the
original intent of being able to return a car to stock form, Wagner
created a steering wheel adapter that would accept the Sparco quick
release hub and steering wheel.
Overall, the custom touches, one-off pieces and attention to detail
make the Proven Wicked Camaro a remarkable achievement for Wagner. With
the level of fit and finish on this 2010, it seems improbable that this
build took only two months including planning, fabrication and assembly
while both Wagner and friends worked full-time jobs during the process.
Making its debut at Seibon Carbon’s booth at the 2010 SEMA show, Wagner
proved that he could create and manufacture race worthy parts in a short
amount of time.
Wagner’s Proven Wicked Camaro made the rounds at 2010 PRI show,
numerous autocross events, track days and the Camaro5Fest. Thanks to the
desire to expand his business it is likely that the Camaro or “test
mule,” as Wagner calls it, will go through further modifications as the
product line continues to expand.
After Seibon
Carbon offered the body panels for the Camaro, Wagner decided not to
overwhelm the car with the distinct look of too much exposed carbon
fiber. He elected to reveal certain areas to showcase the use of the
lightweight material, such as the hood, the fender stripes and panels on
the doors for race numbers.
With the advancement and growing adoption of electronic fuel
injection and other technologies, tuning a race car with a computer or
even a smartphone has become not the exception, but the norm. With the
introduction of mass-air sensing and more advanced ECU’s, electronic
engine control has become more versatile, but demands a strong level of
expertise in order to know how to tune it. Today, the aftermarket
industry has gotten on board with electronic engine control in a big
way, providing racers with more user-friendly tools to tune their
machines than ever before.
AEM Electronics, one of the industry’s leading manufacturers of high
performance products, has launched their new 4-Channel Wideband UEGO
controller, allowing the racer or hardcore street enthusiast to monitor
all eight cylinders (with two units) with accurate air/fuel ratios. Also
it, brings to the table a number of new tuning advancements with the
racer and the hardcore street/strip enthusiast in mind. Today, we’re
going to take a look at the new unit from AEM and give it a run on our
LSX 388 powerplant.
AEM’s 4-Channel Wideband UEGO Controller AEM
Performance Electronics’ new 4-Channel Wideband UEGO controller
allows you to monitor the air/fuel ratio in four cylinders at a time (or
eight cylinders using two controllers). Most standalones rely on one to
two wide band sensors (one in each header) to determine the air/fuel
ratio from a blend of cylinders. By having the ability to input eight
sensors via 0-5 volt inputs, racers and tuners alike have the ability to
fine tune each cylinder to harness the maximum horsepower potential of
an engine…and increasing reliability by eliminating lean cylinders…all
in a compact package with a minimum of wires.
AEM 4-Channel
Wideband UEGO employs four O2 sensors and custon AEM-spec bungs located
in each exhaust header primary tube. Each sensor reads oxygen content to
turn this information into air/fuel ratio indication for that cylinder.
Stainless steel sensor bungs are welded to each
primary tube without causing significant exhaust restriction. Four
sensors detect oxygen content one cylinder at a time, which is directly
proportional to air/fuel mixture. Virgina Speed used two of AEM's
4-channel wideband controllers to tune our LSX 388 motor that is
destined for our 275 Drag Radial fourth-gen Camaro.
What Makes 4-Channel Better?
Ultimately air/fuel varies from cylinder to
cylinder even when safely tuned with a wideband controller, and power
(and reliability) is left on the table.
What makes AEM’s 4-Channel Wideband
controller more advanced is how it reads the air/fuel mixture, which is
known as UEGO or Universal Exhaust Gas Oxygen analyzer.
“Achieving consistent air/fuel ratios on a cylinder-to-cylinder basis
in an engine is critical to efficiency, reliability and power
production,” Lawson Mollica of AEM tells us. “Common aftermarket
wideband air/fuel systems typically include one wideband sensor for each
bank of cylinders and achieve an average air/fuel reading across the
bank at a central collection point like the collector of an exhaust
manifold prior to the exhaust system.”
Mollica continued, “While this is a great tool for engine tuning, it
also stands to reason that you are tuning for an average air/fuel
reading from each bank or all cylinders, meaning that ultimately
air/fuel varies from cylinder to cylinder even when safely tuned with a
wideband controller, and power (and reliability) is left on the table.”
Lawson claims the 4-Channel UEGO is the most advanced and certainly
the fastest-responding type of air/fuel sensor in the marketplace
because it reads air/fuel ratio more precisely than ever before, which
enables your engine to perform more efficiently. What’s more, if you
want to make more power, knowing air/fuel ratio one cylinder at a time
becomes even more important.
AEM #30-2340 4-Channel Wideband Features
Four Unique Analog Outputs (channels)
Exhaust back pressure compensation to correct air/fuel ratio
readings with turbo applications
Multiple units can be paired together for 6, 8, 10 and 12 cylinders
Accurate to 0.1 air/fuel ratio
How Does It Work?
The AEM 4-Channel Wideband UEGO controller looks at air/fuel mixture
one cylinder at a time, enabling you to tune each bore as if it was a
standalone engine. This advanced system is ideal for datalogging, engine
management, and racing applications where individual cylinder tuning is
a must.
No longer are you looking at broad based engine tuning from all
bores, but instead treating each cylinder as a single engine
contributing to collective power. Imagine being able to tune your engine
for an optimum air/fuel mixture one cylinder at a time and with optimum
results. This is done with 0.5-volt analog outputs to each air/fuel
ratio (AFR) channel (sensor) as well as a CAN data stream output, which
helps you track and chart air/fuel ratio. Why One Cylinder At A Time?
Although we have four, six, eight, ten, or twelve cylinders on a
common crankshaft, each bore is as unique as a fingerprint. Port and
combustion chamber shape and size, quench, compression height, swept
volume, dish or dome, and ring sealing all vary. This is why we have to
look at a V8 as eight individual cylinders attempting to dance in
perfect unison.
If you can fine tune injector pulse width to where you have uniform
air/fuel ratio, you have achieved a near perfect state of tune across
the board. To tune injector pulse width one cylinder at a time, you have
to be able to read air/fuel mixture one cylinder at a time.
Here are two AEM 4-Channel Wideband UEGO
controllers in a dyno room. For four-cylinder engines, you need one
controller. For sixes and V-8s, you will need two. Because this is a
four-channel controller, it reads no more than four cylinders per unit.
That means three controllers for 10 and 12-cylinder.
What makes AEM’s 4-Channel Wideband controller more
advanced is how it reads air/fuel mixture, which is known as UEGO or
Universal Exhaust Gas Oxygen analyzer.
How To Get There
First, you need the AEM 4-Channel UEGO controller. And if you’re
reading more than four exhaust ports, you’re going to need two
controllers. Each exhaust port gets a Bosch 4.2LSU oxygen sensor, which
allows the controller its speed and accuracy. These guys are factory
calibrated and never need free air calibration. They’re good to go right
out of the box. If you’re running a turbocharger, there’s an exhaust
back pressure calibration feature, which means you never have to sweat
out measuring average air/fuel mixture across multiple cylinders.
Each sensor tip must be located in the exhaust path right off the
flange and cylinder head for best results. “The sensor must be mounted
at an angle of at least 10 degrees from horizontal in order to prevent
liquids from collecting in the sensor housing,” Lawson suggests, “For
boosted applications, you will need to install our Exhaust Back pressure
Compensation kit.” AEM’s unique bung with an integrated heat-sink
allows the sensor to be within two to three inches of the exhaust port
without damaging the sensor.
Dart Machinery’s Dick Maskin has been in the depths of professional
drag racing engine building for decades; most notably in the hotly
contested ranks of Pro Stock, where he’s been involved in many
championship teams. We say that to let you know, in case you didn’t
already, that he’s a legit racer, and he knows what racers want. His
company, therefore, caters to the hardcore racer, but is also careful to
offer pretty much anything the hardcore street crowd needs to. Dart’s Big M Was Designed For Big
Cubes In Mind
For years now, Dart has offered the Big M engine blocks for the
big-block Chevy – cast-iron blocks with features unmatched in any stock
factory block that allows you to stick in longer-stroke crankshafts and
bigger-bore pistons for big cubic-inches – plus extra iron where it
counts for strength, better oiling systems designed for more intensive
use, and just overall more convenient features that allow an engine
builder to do it his way. Then, a few years ago, Dart released its Race
Series Tall-Deck Big-Block Chevy iron block. This one was far more
hardcore than the Big M, offering spread bore spacing options (4.840 to
4.900 inches), a .600-inch raised cam core, spread oil pan rails (DRCE
style), the same priority main oiling system as the Big M, and a very
high 10.600- to 11.100-inch deck heights that allows the use of long
rods with a big stroker crank. It would accept a crank stroke of
5.500-inch in order to build a real monster motor.
The oil pan rails were stretched .750-inch to
DRCE size. Dart makes its own steel 4-bolt main caps in house. The three
center caps have splayed outer bolts that anchor them to more meat of
the block, the stronger part, and the front and rear caps have vertical
bolts so standard oil pans will clear. The rear cap uses a traditional
two-piece seal.
As if anyone really needs any more proof of just how awesome FAST’s
LSXr 102 manifolds are, here we have a bit of video evidence of the
kind of power gains these manifolds are capable of. This video we came
across on YouTube features a 2005 LS2 Corvette that is far from stock;
sporting a set of American Racing full-length headers, a 3” Borla
exhaust, and a ported throttle body in addition to the FAST 102 LSXr
Intake Manifold. To do the before and after tests with the FAST
LSXr manifold, the car was taken to the New Era Performance shop in
Rochester, New York.
As a baseline run with its existing mods the C6 made a suitable 372
horsepower and 373 pound feet of torque at the rear wheels. After
installing the FAST LSXr intake manifold it was back to the DynoJet,
where the Atomic Orange Vette’s power jumped to 393 horsepower, and the
torque reading jumped all the way to 402 pound feet. That’s a total
gain of 21 horsepower and 29 pound feet of torque just from a relatively
simple intake swap, and as the video points out that’s enough to
produce a “major kick in the pants on the ‘Butt Dyno’.” Be sure to check
out the video, and hit up FAST’s
website for more info on the LSXr Intake Manifold.
Over the past few years there has been a
lot of talk about the explosion of autism diagnoses within the general
population. Afflicting many younger children from birth, autism is an
umbrella term for a variety of mental handicaps that affect different
people in different ways. The fact is that autism affects more families
now than ever, and it doesn’t matter where you’re from and how much
money you make; autism can strike your children too.
To help spread awareness during April, which is Autism Awareness
Month, Crane
Cams changed the cover photo of their
Facebook Page to light blue for Autism Speaks.
The hearts of car guys are often very big, and it is not uncommon for
many aftermarket companies to partner with various charities to help
promote awareness. Now while we’re not sure if Crane Cam’s autism
assistance goes beyond its Facebook page, the almost-3,000 fans of Crane
Cams are given something to think about whenever they log on.
Crane partnered in particular with Autism
Speaks, a nationwide charity that works to spread awareness of the
many symptoms and conditions of autism. Crane Cam’s backing is no doubt
welcome, and we applaud them for stepping up to support such a worthy
cause.
It’s not as difficult as it might seem, as
this video of Route
66 Motorsports installing a Heidts
suspension system on a ‘70 Chevelle shows.
