(car engine revving)
(soft music playing)
- So there you are.
You're sitting inside of your beautiful 1970 Chevelle SS
that you've just built into a pro touring car.
You've dropped in a 454 free block,
a five speed transmission,
and some big ol' brakes to help you stop.
You also updated the suspension with the hopes
that you'll be able to go around corners.
Then you drove it, and you realized that,
while you've built an outstanding car,
what you actually built was a restomod
and not the corner carving pro touring car
you actually wanted.
To top that off, you then found out about this event
called The Optima Ultimate Street Car Challenge,
an event that encompasses things like a road course,
a stop start challenge and autocross
and a couple of other events.
You also realized that the car that you just built
would not be competitive.
(engine revving)
So what did you do?
Well, you also realized that a friend of yours
had a 1970 Chevrolet Camaro SS that he never finished.
So, good person as you are, you took it off his hands.
And you decided to build yourself a real pro touring car.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Project ZL-70.
(laughing)
(car engine revving loudly)
Making the decision to build an entirely new car
when you've just finished one is not an easy thing to do.
It comes down to time, it comes down to money,
it comes down to expectations, but more importantly
it comes down to kind of a plan of attack.
Owner Nick Relampagos, when he built this car,
he knew he needed to be competitive.
So before he did anything, he laid out a plan.
He said, "This is the engine I want,
"this is the suspension, wheels, tires, brakes."
He talked to other people that competed in these events,
in autocrosses, in road courses, he did his research.
And when he started to build the car,
this thing came from a stripped shell to this in 18 months.
- When I first started to build the car,
it was still a shell.
I wanted an LS based engine.
But I didn't want to keep chasing horsepower,
so I figured let me start off with a super charged engine
and build off of that.
- And one thing that I want to say,
before all you commenters jump all over this car,
Nick built most of this car himself.
In fact, he did some of the bodywork,
he did not do the interior, but as far as the mechanics,
as far as the engine, as far as all that other stuff,
he built it laying on his back in his garage
with the help of friends and his family.
- So, I built the engine, put a cam in it,
put some smaller pulleys in it, bigger injectors,
different screens, and just necessary mods
to get your horsepower up.
An old pulley went there,
but I used another from the exhaust.
I bought this car as a shell.
So basically the front end was off
and the sub-frame was there, there was no interior,
I didn't even have a back seat.
As soon as I got it to my house,
I started with the mini tubs.
So I cut out the rear mini tubs, widened them.
I used the Detroit Speed mini tubs
and I got the rear end all situated.
And then I started concentrating on the front suspension,
where I used a speed set control arms and spindles,
and started building from there.
- When Nick designed this car,
he didn't want to stray that much
from the stock overall appearance.
You got to hand it to the Chevy designers, I mean,
they kind of crushed the design on this thing.
He wanted to keep it solo and basic
while still putting his own stamp on it.
The original color of this car
when released in 1970 was Hugger Orange.
Nick wanted to stay with that theme,
so as opposed to painting it Hugger,
he painted it Inferno Orange from a 2012 Camaro.
Look at the carbon stripes on this thing.
Before you think that it's a wrap,
or it's a whatever, it's not.
Nick knew that if he was going to be competitive
with his car he wanted to drop weight,
so like all the carbon fiber bits all over this thing
add up to just over, I think, 200 pounds or 250 pounds
worth of weight saving.
Which when you're racing, is a lot.
(old fashioned music)
- I had a choice when I was first building the car,
whether I should just do a wrap
or get the carbon fiber panels.
Spend the money now, buy once, cry once,
and get the real carbon fiber.
It turned out great because I get a lot of great comments.
I get a lot of questions.
Is that real carbon fiber or is it a wrap?
And they look very closely, touch it, they want to feel that
whether it's a decal or not.
- You can actually feel the paint
coating the carbon fiber as opposed to the other way around.
- [Nick] I'm very proud to have it
because it is a very expensive product.
There's carbon fiber front nose, wheel wells,
hood, trunk lid.
A lot of different carbon fiber pieces on this car.
It sets the car apart.
(engine revving)
- He also wanted to be able to remove heat.
So, he was pretty brave because he took a saw
and cut a big hole in the carbon fiber hood
and put the scoop in.
I don't know if I would have the balls to do that.
I'm glad that he did it because it works really well
and you can actually see the heat vacating from it.
But it also adds to the racy look and feel of the car.
- We didn't drive it until it was almost fully built.
My first impression of the car was,
it drives like a regular car.
And I had to wait a little while to get the car tuned.
And once I got the car tuned it was a different animal.
I mean, there was just horsepower everywhere.
It was just spilling horsepower.
I was pretty shocked about what I had built
because it was a lot of horsepower that I didn't expect.
The supercharged engine is probably
one of the best decisions I've ever made.
Because with a regular normally aspirated engine,
sometimes you're searching for horsepower.
You're always searching for horsepower.
But with a supercharged engine, it's all there.
And sometimes it's a little too much.
The horsepower that this car has now
is 682 horsepower at the rear wheels
with 645 foot pounds of torque.
It is a fast car.
- I would go so far as to say,
if we could get our hands on a new ZL1,
and run that together with this,
I'm pretty sure the difference would not be that great.
And when I say difference, I don't know which car would win.
That's how good this car is.
I mean, it's really good.
I mean.
Not for nothing, but you take it,
you pitch this car into a corner,
there is no hint of under-steer or over-steer at all.
The car just grips and goes so you don't have any qualms
about like, you know, like really jumping on it.
Now again, because of the amount of power in this car,
you always have to be cognizant of your right foot, right?
You treat this gas pedal like you have an egg under it
because 650 pound feet of torque in the rear,
don't be that guy.
Don't be that guy that handfists it out of a corner
and then all of a sudden your backwards and you're like,
"Oh my god, I probably should have been driving a Mustang."
Cause every Mustang video goes into the woods.
- I set out to build a street car that I can race.
It's no fun just taking a car to the track
and not showing other people.
I like to go to the car shows,
but now I'd rather take it to a race track.
I just wanted to build a car that could compete.
Early on in my childhood I used to watch
a lot of NASCAR racing and say,
"Wow, one of these days I want to drive a car on a track."
So I started doing local autocrosses and then road courses
and I started doing the
Optima Ultimate Streetcar Competitions.
I learned a lot from a lot of great autocrossers
at the events and they are so willing to share
their experiences and they help so much learning
about how to autocross and how to race.
And I got hooked.
- Ladies and gentleman, just so you know,
if you build a track car and a race car,
you are going to be getting suspensions like this.
Because this is what keeps your tires
planted on the ground when you're going around corners.
- As far as physical demands on driving this car,
it all depends on how much of a race suspension you have.
If you have heavy-rate springs and if you have
very tight shocks,
it does take a lot of strength to turn the steering wheel
and make sure that your car is going right.
And at the end of a race you're pretty much tired.
- We bounce around because race car.
If this thing was a cream-puff, well,
we probably wouldn't be driving it.
This car right here does everything
that Nick said it was going to do and more.
The key to doing that was the plan that he made
before he actually built the car.
He didn't just go to a catalog
and just start ordering parts.
He really did do his due diligence and his research.
And he crafted an amazing machine.
- [Nick] I like somebody that can actually go out,
and get a shell, and build their car,
and go out and race it, and have other people enjoy it
when they go to a car show, and things like that.
- The wheels themselves are beautiful.
They're gun-metal gray.
They were sourced from Forgeline
and they are massive, right?
We're talking 18x11s in the front and 18x12s in the rear.
Tires are BFG Rival Ss, which is a really nice, kind of,
autocross/track tire that you could also use on the street.
Really wide tread blocks has a nice amount of grip.
Now in regards to the size, they're huge.
315/30s up front, 335/30s in the rear.
Ladies and gentlemen, that's steamroller size tires.
This car with 335, right?
So if I stop on the side of the road like this,
this is a Camaro, it's not really a small car.
I make a U-turn full lock, full lock.
This thing has the turning radius of a smart car.
It's kind of ridiculous when you think about it
because I really don't know any cars
with that much rubber upfront that has the capacity
to turn like that.
There you go.
- When I set out to design the interior,
number one, it had to be a race seat.
Something that really holds you in.
Fortunately, I got a set of Recaro's that had headrests.
The 1970 Camaro, there was a one-year only seat
that they had with short a headrest,
so I wanted to incorporate that look into this car.
- The cabin is just as tastefully done
as the exterior of the car.
That's really not an easy thing to do.
But Nick has managed to integrate everything where
it's just kind of a very nice and tasteful place to be.
- I took the Recaro seats and a friend of mine
in South San Francisco, Danny at DJ Designs,
he upholstered the whole car.
So he did all the interior, he did the suede headliner,
and one of the other trick options we did was
when we mini tubbed the car,
we had to shorten the backseat as well,
but in doing so, there were some plastic panels
on the sides that would no longer fit.
What he came up with was let's wrap that in upholstery.
When people look inside the car,
they actually see that massive mini tub in there.
And it became a design element as well.
- So anytime you build a car, I think,
one of the things that people overlook
is how to make a really good package,
that even though you're going to take it on a race car,
it's still enjoyable to drive on the street.
And Nick has really managed to do that with this car.
Oh, the other thing is, as a big dude,
this car has a ton of room.
I have head room, I have leg room.
My legs don't butt up against anything.
It's comfortable.
It really is something that you can get in
and drive 300-400 miles in a day
and not be totally fatigued.
Nick is fortunate, he doesn't have to compromise, right?
He can actually afford to do a car like this
and build exactly what he wanted.
But just make sure that when you guys look at this car
and look at other cars that we're building,
that if you take one thing away, it's to set up a game plan.
Do that correctly and you'll build
exactly the car that you want.
Just like this.
Cause it really is that good.
- When you drive this car in the street,
you get a lot of thumbs up.
"Hey, great car.
"Love that car.
"I used to have one in high school," things like that.
So if I were to die tomorrow,
would I know I built the best car I could?
A lot of people might not have that chance.
Sometimes they'll say, "Hey, I'll build that car next year."
And all of a sudden they get sick
and they never get that chance.
- [Mike] Yeah, I could drive this pretty much all day.
Before I leave today, I want you to think about something.
I want you to think about how the license plate
on the back of this car says ZL 70.
Then I want you to think about how you can walk into
a Chevrolet dealer and drop your money down
on a brand new ZL1 Camaro.
Both cars, 650 plus horsepower.
Both cars are tuned for the track.
And both cars sound like the gods of war
when they open the taps.
But you have to ask yourself one question,
and that question is do you build it or do you buy it?
I know which I'm leaning towards.
Can you guys see those?
You getting turkeys?
Like this is why we don't cannonball on this show.
Cause if you, he just mooned us.
Cause when you come around a corner, and you see
60 pounds of turkey in front of you,
you hit it, that's not good.
(car engine revving)