Speed Ink
This 10-second Camaro is the rolling test bed for one of the midwest's most prolific F-body speed shops.

By Chris Endres
Photography: Johnny Hunkins

When you name your shop Speed Inc., you damn well better have the goods to back the name, particularly if your enterprise calls the mean streets of Chicago home. In the EFI high performance biz for nearly four years now, proprietor Tom Izzo figured it was time to have a fast, clean, street-worthy rolling business card. For Izzo, the car of choice was obvious: a 2002 Sunset Orange Metallic Z28. "I decided to order this car for a couple of reasons. First, that this was the last production year of the Camaro. Second, I wanted a unique color." Izzo's car was destined to go fast right from the get-go, as its options list is nearly non-existent, with rear defroster being the lone box checked. "I wanted to keep the car as light as possible from the beginning. That meant no leather, no CD changer or T-tops." The car's hardtop body structure also pays dividends in increased chassis stiffness over the glass top models.

Unlike most projects of this magnitude, Izzo's car came together quite quickly over the span of just a few months. "The car was built over the summer of 2002 in our shop. Basically, I ordered a brand new car, took delivery and drove it straight to the shop and strapped it to the dyno." Bone stock, the car belted out 285 horsepower and 315 lb.-ft. of torque. With that formality out of the way, it was time for the bolt-ons. "Basically, we installed a K&N FIPK, Z06 mass airflow sensor, off-road pipes (bolted to the stock manifolds) and a Corsa cat-back." Power jumped to 323/347, and it was time to hit the track. "We ran the car with stock 2.73 gears and the original RSA tires and it banged off a 13.04 at 107 mph with a 2.0 60-foot. I was pleased." He was not, however, pleased enough to leave well enough alone.

Izzo drove the car for approximately 1000 miles while final preparations were underway for the "big build." Izzo recalls: "Larry Hamilton and I put a lot of thought into this, and we decided to build it using off-the-shelf parts. The only custom pieces on the car are the cogged drive belt system and the boost gauge holder in the center console." Indeed, the car is not loaded to the gills with exotica, but the parts that are there are proven performers. A Lunati 4-inch stroke crankshaft was laid into a 6-liter iron block. Low compression JE pistons were mated with Lunati Pro Mod rods and dropped into the cylinder bores, which had been machined to 4.060 inches. An Agostino Racing Engines ported oil pump ensures an ample supply of liquefied dinosaur carcass to the King bearings, ensuring the big 414-inch engine a long life.

While the short-block was going together, RGR was working over the large chamber, 6-liter aluminum truck heads with a thorough port job and upgraded valves. New seats were installed and prepared to mate with Ferrea 2.055 intake and 1.60 exhaust valves. Comp dual valve springs and titanium retainers keep the valves in place. The remainder of the valvetrain consists of Comp chro-moly pushrods and a Jesel shaft-mount roller rocker system. "Once the engine was ready, we spent most of our spare time over about two weeks assembling the car, with Dan Marks doing the majority of the wrench work," Izzo explains.

An ATI D1-SC Procharger supplies compressed atmosphere to the engine, by way of a pair of air-to-air intercoolers. Unfortunately, the big blower proved to be one of the more challenging areas of the build. "We had a ton of belt slippage and belt breakage problems. There was a point where we were killing a belt after just two or three pulls on the dyno. Even then, it was virtually impossible to get more than about 8 psi of boost. This is what brought us to work up the cogged drive." And work it did. With the cogged drive in place boost nearly doubled, jumping to a much more respectable 15 psi. "The car made 699 rwhp and 714 rwtq at 4,200 rpm." Engine speed sound a bit low? "We started with 50-pound injectors," Izzo recalls, "but once we got around the belt slippage problems, we found the injectors were going static by 4,200 rpm! Jim Moran has great skill with LS1 Edit, but there was no way to get more fuel into the engine until we went to the 83 pounders." The new Siemens 83 lb.-hr. injectors are commanded by the LS1 Edit-massaged PCM, through the use of an impedance converter. A Charged Air Systems aluminum fuel tank was selected because it has a built-in sump and accepts the stock fuel level sender assembly. Braided stainless line and a Bosch pump send fuel forward to the CAS regulator and Sikora Precision billet fuel rails. There's a Texas Nitrous Technology Power Ring in there too, adding up to an additional 100 horsepower.

While exhaust systems typically aren't the most glamorous part of a build, in the case of Izzo's Z28, it is certainly worth a look. Things start out ordinary enough with a pair of Hooker 1.75-inch long-tube headers, but it is the Speed-fabbed 3-inch X-pipe and true dual exhaust system that are notable. "We've started doing these on customers' cars now, and they work out really well,"Izzo says. Extreme Automatics in Cincinnati was given the unenviable task of building a 4L60E that would live behind the planned 800+ (flywheel) horsepower. They came through with flying colors, though, as the trans has been subjected to dozens of passes at the strip and more than 70 dyno pulls with nary a complaint. A series of torque converter failures ("they were turning to slop" Izzo says) led to Precision Industries and their stalwart Vigilante converter. Set up for 3,800-rpm stall speed, it too has proven itself equal of all the abuse thrown its way.

Not surprisingly on a car of this stature, the chassis and suspension mods are extensive. Billingsley Racing fabricated one of their trick panhard rods, while BMR Fabrication sent out nearly every component in its Xtreme product line. Starting with subframe connectors, lower control arms and a torque arm, a tubular K-frame and control arms were also added. "We used a ton of BMR stuff on the car," Izzo says. No kidding. QA1 supplied the shocks and springs.

Inside is an LRT-built 6-point roll bar with removable sidebars. The lightweight carpet looks stock, but removes some dead weight in an unobtrusive manner. While on the topic of weight reduction, some sharp-eyed readers will no doubt have noticed the lack of air conditioning and ABS on this car. This may lead to howls of "That's no street car!" from some quarters, but Izzo's heard it all before. "It was a practical way to reduce weight, and I've got to tell you, I really don't miss either of them!" Alrighty then.

Paint and bodywork are minimal, consisting of a GM SS spoiler and hood. The car was turned over to the capable hands of John Weeden and Christian Galloza, who performed the necessary prep work and painted the pieces. Behind those lustrous Simmons wheels and sticky Nitto doughnuts are monster Wilwood 6-piston (front) and 4-piston (rear) brakes.

"Once we got a cogged supercharger drive setup installed, we put it back on the dyno," Izzo explains. "We were able to run it up to 15 psi, but only to 4,200 rpm before maxing out the 50 lb.-hr. injectors. The car made 699 rwhp in that configuration. Since then, we made the change to the Siemens 83-pounders, a slightly smaller cam and a loosened converter. The guys thought the cam [236*/246*, 114* LSA-Ed.] was too much for the combination. They were thinking that with the tight LSA, it had quite a bit of overlap and was bleeding off boost. I agreed, so we put in a smaller cam with 117* LSA (and therefore less overlap) and the boost jumped from 15 to 20 psi. With this new combination, we feel confident we'll see more than 725 rwhp and some mid-9-second timeslips. Once we have this combo maxed out, we are planning a CAS twin turbo system using a couple of 60mm hybrids. It should be pretty quick."