1972 Camaro SS396

1972 Camaro SS396, 1 of 978 made that year. Plain car, standard front, spoiler option, no gauges, standard interior, originally 4 speed. All original sheetmetal, no rust ever, 13,000 original miles on car, raced by original owner since new, taken off street in ‘73 and motor changed out for 425 hp 427, ran mid 11’s. Car was at one time black, but now is back to original flame orange color w/ black tail panel. Current 6 point rollbar by S&W racecars, done in their own shop updated to a cage later by John Little. The stock hood had a hoodscoop and was painted w/ the car, but the 532 came later and now it has an unpainted Glastek 4" cowl hood to be painted someday...

All interior is stock and present except for a Grant steering wheel. Even seats are stock, driver’s side has holes cut for harnesses.

Engine: This was the first engine Rod Saboury installed in his 1957 Corvette of Hot Rod's Fastest Street Car racing fame in 1991-92, featured in many magazines; ran 8.50s in his 2500 lb car. Heads, intake and carb were on the later 632 that Rod used w/ nitrous to become the first street legal car ever in the 7’s. It is a 532 BBC, bowtie short deck siamese block bored 4.600, GM 454 steel crank, ATI super damper, brass bushed GM dimple rods, Manley 13.3:1 pistons, Dart intake and Brodix BB-2 heads ported by Tom Slawko, Jesel rocker shafts, Comp Cams .726/.714 292/282 @ .050 super gas cam, Pete Jackson gear drive, CSI elec. waterpump, 1425 cfm Carburetor Shop Holley dominator, Moroso 8 quart pan, MSD 6 ignition w/ 2 step. dynoed 814 flywheel open headers@ 7200, cam goes to 7600, chassis dynoed 615 rwhp in full street trim peaking at 7000 rpm due to exhaust. No nitrous (yet). Engine mounts are the .250" Moroso race mounts bolted to ‘71 camaro frame mounts. Radiator is currently stock BB.

Fuel: Jaz 8 gal fuel cell in trunk, BG 5000 filter, BG 400 pump w/ step down box for street, AN-10 line to front, Superflow 4 port regulator at carb.

Drivetrain: ATI Proglide PG w/ transbrake and manual valvebody, ATI Fuel & Blown 8" 5500 stall converter, Shogun converter fan, MW Spicer 1350 driveshaft & yokes, ‘70 Z28 12 bolt w/ axle tubes welded to housing, Strange 33 spline posi and 40 mm proStock end axles, Zoom 4.10 gears, Summers Brothers steel carrier caps, LPW girdle and support rods, Strange c-clip eliminators.

Suspension: Stock A-arms, all components are in stock location, poly A-arm bushings top and bottom, Competition Engineering shocks all around. Moroso front superstock springs, Chicago Super Stock leaf springs staggered to all end within 6" of front eye, alum. bushings in front of leaf spring. CE slapper bars await installation.

Wheels: 15x5 / 15x10 (5" bs) corvette rallys- we’re going for a docile 13-sec. car look. Front tires are older PRO-TRAC street fronts in 7.5 size. Rears are GY D3 11.5x28.0 slicks- the D-3 compound is important to my traction I believe, and I run 12-14 psi. I’ll also be trying 11.5 M&H and 10.5 MTs. Eventually I will get a set of MT ET streets in 11.5 or so.

Exhaust: Hedman 2 ¼" prim/ 4" coll. headers, one tube had to be relocated to clear steering rod due to Brodix head raised exhaust. DON’T buy these headers unless you have GM heads, which ironically don’t need a header this big unless running nitrous- shop around first- Doug’s Headers might have good set, most others just have 2 1/8". From collector it’s straight 4" pipe tapering in the last 12" to a 3.5" Dynomax Race Magnum circular muffler on each side. Outlet then reduces to 3" for Torque Tech’s pre-bent factory style tailpipes in 3". Not ideal, but I wanted it to have a real exhaust and look stock... Tailpipes were cut beveled to look stock. The tailpipes needed much work to fit right, but the front part wasn’t designed for the tailpipes which hurt matters more. after much cutting and fitting it all clears fine.

Car has made 6 passes so far, all from 10.45-10.88 backing out at end w/ engine problems that turned out to be fouled plugs. Initially tire pressure was too low and car pulled hard, causing me to back out beginning and end, still running 10.60s-80s. An actual full pass will occur this summer, and we are still exploring ideal lauch RPM, 4500 isn’t enough. MPH off throttle thru traps was 135.

Other Views

• Side view
  
• Slight traction problems
  
• Storming off the line
  
• Side view with slicks