Just Bolt It Right On. Yeah, That's The Ticket...
If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Necessity is the mother of invention. Patience is a virtue. Stuff runs down hill. Clichs? Of course. But do they hold even a modicum of truth? Anyone that has bolted on anything more complicated than a K&N knows what we're talking about. Manufacturing tolerances, car to car variances and poor product design can try even the most virtuous of speed junkies. It is no secret that modifying a high-performance car can be a rewarding experience. And when it comes to bolt-on speed parts, adding a supercharger is perhaps the most rewarding of all.
Tory Hess has spend the past eleven years modifying and perfecting his black Formula. Since the car was just a few years old, it was no surprise that it was completely stock, though it didn't stay that way for long. After baselining the car (to the tune of 14.70 at 94 mph) Hess started right in on the bolt-ons. "I installed a K&N filter, replaced the catalytic converter with a test pipe and installed a Flowmaster muffler. After one or two mods, I'd go back to the track the next weekend to see what I gained. These mods got the car down to 14.50."
"About a month later, I bought a SuperRam intake," the Newark, Delaware resident told us. "If I knew then what I know now, I never would have put that on the car. The SuperRam is really designed to work with an engine that has a more aggressive cam and better flowing cylinder heads. At the time, that intake cost me well over $1000. But hey, I was young and it looked cool, so I thought it must be the ticket," he laughs. Though hindsight is indeed 20/20, the new intake was still good for a couple of tenths and got Hess some 14.30 timeslips.
Next on the modification list was the addition of a Hypertech chip. This netted another two tenths and a 14.10 ET, but Hess wasn't finished. He also added a throttle body air foil, an underdrive crank pulley, installed a shift kit and a new set of plug wires. With the stock torque converter, 3.27 gears in the 9-bolt rear and still on radials, the black Poncho improved to 14.00.
"I heard of some guys gaining a tenth or two by disconnecting their alternators," explained Hess, "so I thought I would give it a try. Darned if the car didn't pick up another two tenths and run consistent 13.80s. I ended up installing a switch that allowed me to shut the alternator off from inside the car. So it seemed to work well for me."
"Then I went through a phase where I tried every chip I could get my hands on. I must have gone through 3 or 4 different chips, but they all slowed the car down to 14.0 or 14.1. It took me a long time to get the car back to 13.80s, and by the time I did, I found out that the chip might not be the best thing for the car. I had a friend that was running a 5-speed 305 IROC, and he was running a good bit quicker than me, on a stock chip. What he had done was advance the timing and increased the fuel pressure. I figured I had nothing to lose, so I put the stock chip back in, turned the timing up to 12 and upped the fuel pressure to 51 psi." The Firebird responded big time, ripping off a 13.60 at 100 mph. What was perhaps most impressive about this is what the car didn't have. It was still on radial tires, stock manifolds, stock converter, and an unopened rearend.
Are you TPI guys paying attention? If Hess can run mid-thirteens with just these few bolt-ons, you can too! Fast forward a few years. A fresh 355 with Corvette 1.94 heads netted him bottom 13s on horsepower and a best of 11.70 on the jug. Keep in mind that this car was Hess' sole transportation, getting him to and from work and school. The combination was reliable as an anvil.