The ad jockey posted a hell of an e.t.; it was now time to mount the slicks and save a little face. Even though the M&Hs were damn sticky, I felt much more at ease with the slicks on. The Katech Camaro possessed way too much power for some editor with only a few minutes behind the wheel to roast the hides and skate down a dragstrip on treaded tires. To be honest with you ... this car was a bit scary. Not poor-suspension scary. Not even Christine scary (though both Steven King's '58 Plymouth and Katech's Camaro have the power to easily do you in). No, this kind of demented power meant dancing with the devil at every throttle prod, and on treaded tires, the devil had the edge.
The Hoosiers were bolted on and it was back to the staging lanes-our track rental was coming to a close, and I had about 15 minutes to wring this sucker out.
Now packing front skinnies and 28x10x15 slicks, I pulled into the box, set the line lock, and did a massive burnout to fully heat them. The first run was nothing special, an 11.4. While coming back around, I decided to take the same approach with Katech's LS7 as I did with the GMPP LS7 Camaro: big burnout, near redline launch, quick shifts. After the big smokey, I shallow staged, took a deep breath, selected First, and let the revs climb past 6,000 before dumping the clutch. The Hoosiers bit hard, but still not as hard as I was hoping for, and propelled the F-body to a 1.61 short time. The LS7 was liking the higher-rpm launch, and sang loud through three gears, banging out a 10.97/124.63.
But as great as that 10 felt, there was more in it. Though we were officially done for the day, the Milan staff was cool enough to let me make one more hit. A five-second burnout and I was shallow staged and waiting for the tree to come down. Once it did, I took a deep breath ... flattened the throttle until I saw seven grand...and sidestepped the clutch.
The nose shot into the air-it was a perfectly straight launch that yanked the front tires up a couple inches, giving me a priceless view of blue sky. When the front end came down, the Hoosiers screamed bloody murder and struggled to grip Milan's sticky surface. The monstrous LS7 needed another gear, so I fed it Second in a hurry. When it got Third, I'd passed the eighth-mile in 6.9 seconds. The only hiccup happened at the top of Third gear, as the shift light never blinked for Fourth and it hit the limiter. I quickly banged the last gate, and the clock flashed 10.86 126.4.
Three hot laps in the span of eight minutes. Ninety-degree temps. High density altitude. 10.8s...
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Even the most violent monster can be tamed. Katech controls its LS7 Street Attack Camaro with BMR's lower control arms with relocation brackets, Panhard, adjustable torque arm, and extreme duty sway bar. Strange single-adjustable shocks manage to get all that power down. Hoosier 28x10x15 slicks provide the bite for our last run of the day-a 1.52 60-foot-but the Racemasters were pulling the wheels too. |
For video of the Katech Camaro's 10.86 run, log onto www.gmhightechperformance.com. | |