Most people build cars strictly for pleasure … and they certainly do
it for bragging rights. But some do it for expediency. In Minnesota,
there are a couple of young lions who crafted this Camaro as a marketing
tool more than some sort of a personal triumph. They don’t adhere to
the norm. They buck accepted wisdom. But they wanted to burn rubber as
badly as we do and get that 2x4-whacked-in-the-middle-of-the-back
sensation. Frankly, they considered the coupe a portal to another realm.
Chris
Carey (30) and Kyle Nelson (29) are the co-founders of Modern
Automotive Performance (MAP) up there in the Minneapolis bedroom of
Cottage Grove, hard by the Mississippi River. Historically, these guys
built quite a following in the sport compact cosmos, especially with the
enhancement of or addition of turbocharging, and were ready to explore
territory uncharted. A little piece of Americana would do nicely, they
thought, constitute a righteous platform instantly identifiable and
cherished beyond words.
Their refrain was familiar. “Not only did we want it to accelerate
faster, we also wanted to turn faster and stop faster all the while
enjoying modern amenities like air conditioning, so the car was built to
accomplish two things. It’s a demonstration of MAP’s capabilities and
to help us expand into a new market, including domestic vehicles and
LS-based platforms,” said Chris. “The ’69 Camaro, as the chassis was in
our price range and would certainly garner attention.” That the
first-gen has been thoroughly used up in the popularity contests did not
seem to deter them.
The philosophy was such: While there are
enthusiasts who prefer originality, there are many more who don’t want
to slog through all that matching-number crap and willing to trade that
for a more modern setting with improved fuel economy, capability, and
reliability. Even the envelope was respected. Chris: “Blemishes in
regards to the body and paint were left untouched as we intended for
this car to be driven without fear of tarnishing show-quality paint. We
did want to make sure that it looked and performed well. We wanted to
prove that this was in fact a 10-second car. On the track, it ran a
10.70 at 129.”
An eBay listing drew their attention to the Camaro. The owner was
local but the car was a Deep South refugee, hence relatively
uncompromised by the ages and the weather. Since MAP is a full-service
facility, in a little more than a year the boys were able to compose
this poem for about $55,000 and a bucket or two of sweat equity. In a
world where appearance counts for way too much, we applaud these lads
for their demeanor, their reluctance to be universal, and for their
function-over-form perspective. It smells sweet and it smells wholesome
and they did it much like a CHP reader might. They used an economical
engine, an offbeat transmission, and some of the latest handling and
stopping tricks, and those giant wheels on the back. Not a lick of
bodywork or paint. Ha! They nailed it.
Who would start off with an
obscure truck motor in the first place? The 5.3L is cheap and strewn
across the landscape in dog-poop proportion. To support the turbo app,
they might have taken the cast-iron cylinder version (LM7) but an LM4
with an aluminum case is what they got. They kept the tune-up out of
Kamikaze territory and they changed out all the fasteners with ARP
stuff, especially in the area of cylinder head sealing. That 12 psi
positive manifold pressure threshold is arbitrary. There is no need for
more—but, hey, turning up the wick is a rudimentary alternative.
Most of the thought in this combination focuses on the power system.
As has been proven time and again, even the cast components in the
lowliest LS engine can withstand the adversity of juice or boost in
great quantity without shedding a single tear or drop of oil. In this
instance, the MAP men crawled the motor and custom-built a kit that
includes tubular manifolds and a Turbosmart 45 wastegate and 50mm
blow-off valve. They used one Precision Turbo 7675 turbocharger and
plumbed it to a 3.5-inch thick MAP heat exchanger (with billet end
tanks) at the front of the car. Ancillaries include a MAP-ported
throttle body and a mandrel-bent exhaust aft of the turbocharger.
Can
a GM car coexist with parts originally meant for a Ford? In another
marked departure from the everyday grind, Mr. Carey and Mr. Nelson
deemed an AOD transmission as the proper choice and sourced it from one
of the leading proponents, FB Performance in Bay Shore, New York.
To contain the grunt and keep its operation controlled and linear,
the MAP men maintained subjectivity and built the suspension system with
a variety of pieces rather than adopt someone else’s ideal wholesale.
Furthering the Pro Touring ethic was not the primary agenda; creating
their own device was. They included components from Global West, QA1,
Classic Performance Products, Unisteer, Summit Racing, as well as TCI’s
new torque-arm rear suspension to consolidate the chassis and help set
the stance. Detroit Speed mini-tubs accommodate those critical 12-wides.
Although
they avoided the outer body, they smoothed the firewall, removing the
original A/C box and they cleaned and painted the undercarriage proper.
They simplified things with a Vintage Air GEN-IV system that operates
with microprocessors rather than “analog” cable controls. As for the
wiring matrix, MAP modified the OE harness and tucked away all the
tendrils (including those for the motor) for a clean, uncomplicated
finish.
Carey and Nelson have firm belief in word-of-mouth,
realize the vast potential in “social media” and they have reacted
accordingly. But they are doers, not spiteful couch potatoes, so they
merge with the world in active participation and foster MAP’s Boost For A
Cure, the MAP Proving Grounds sessions (two this year) at Brainerd
International Raceway, Car Craft’s Summer Nationals, Powercruise USA (at
BIR), and they materialize at the Cars & Coffee gatherings every
month. They are stuck in this stuff like a wooly mammoth with two feet
in a tar pit.
No comments:
Post a Comment