Going from a philosophy of wanting something "all original
and stock," when he appeared in Wpg Cruise Automotive Magazine's
pages in winter 2004 with his 1969 Camaro SS, Wall turned a
complete 180 and went all out on his twin-turbo 1967 Camaro.
The departure from purist to pure horsepower had one mission
from the outset. "We wanted to be the fastest in the city
on a street car, all pump gas, 91 Octane from Petro Canada,"
Wall explained.
Finding the car in the southern U.S. to avoid the plague
of rust, Wall said the car was essentially stock before he
planned to take it "out of this world."
"Each turbo is capable of at least 900 horsepower. You're
at 1800 rear wheel easily, and that's not firing anything
more yet through it," he explained. "We can go a
lot more boost yet, we can make a lot more power. The power
potential is good for the 6.90 second mark, 7.20 seconds,
in that range. We have the power there, it's just a matter
of if the chassis and the tires will hold it.
"We can go pretty fast with this car."
Deciding to venture down such an unbeaten path towards power-filled
bliss provided challenges needing professional knowledge.
Wall said many of the changes he wanted to incorporate into
the new project were rarely done before.
"When you're working on stuff like this, a lot of it
is a one-off," he summarized. "Not a lot of guys
go twin turbo on such a big cubic inch engine. You're literally
doing all your own R&D, there's no one to ask questions
on or guide you in the right direction." Perhaps the
most shocking part is that the twin-turbo Camaro is a street-legal
car, something Wall said has brought quite a bit of attention,
and provided some unique challenges in driving.
"People always think it probably shouldn't be on the
street, everyone's jaws drop. We've done everything we can
to make it legal on the street," he said. "On the
street it's pretty crazy, it's hard to hold that type of power.
Let me put it this way; it's impossible to hold that kind
of power on the street."
Much like the 1969 Camaro SS that he built, Wall said the
new Camaro will serve as the standard bearer for his shop.
"Being that we can make this much power on pump gas,
and street usage, and turn mid to low 7s, it shows the ability
of the tuning on it," he said. "That's why we built
something so out of this world, to let people know we know
what we're capable of."
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