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00:00 [music]
00:07 Hey, I'm David Freiburger from Hot Rod Magazine, and I'm sitting here in my office working away.
00:12 Okay, I'm actually posting on Facebook right now.
00:14 But what we're doing is getting the Crusher Camaro ready for a big road trip that you're going to read about
00:19 in an upcoming issue of the magazine, probably May 2011.
00:23 That is the Crusher Camaro then, but you should see it now.
00:26 In fact, let's go check it out.
00:28 [music]
00:31 Stop, I've got a Coke on the way.
00:33 [music]
00:39 And so that's the Crusher today in all its street machine glory.
00:42 In the December '09 issue of the magazine, we took it from a pro-touring car
00:47 and turned it into sort of a late '70s, early '80s street machine.
00:52 And right now we're getting it ready for a road trip.
00:54 But if you don't know the history of this car, here's like the 30-second version of that.
00:58 In about 1993, 1994, I actually bought this thing out of a lot where Chevron was crushing cars for smog credits.
01:07 I got this from the second owner and paid 700 bucks for it.
01:11 Right after that, I left Hot Rod Magazine as a staffer and moved on to 4WD and Off-Road,
01:15 and the current editor, Rob Canan, picked it up and did a complete build-up on the car
01:20 showing how it could be smog legal but still pretty fast.
01:24 Right now, the emissions deal is completely out the window. Let's check it out.
01:29 [music]
01:31 When we left off with the car in that December '09 issue, it looked really cool,
01:34 but it still had a bunch of stuff wrong with it.
01:36 And that's what Finnegan and I are kind of dealing with right now is fixing that stuff so that we can hit the road.
01:41 Here is the deal with the car right now.
01:44 This engine is a 489 cubic inch big block Chevy, and it's really tame,
01:50 despite the fact that it looks like it's all hanging out.
01:53 It has a little 230/236 hydraulic roller cam in it from Comp.
01:57 It's about 9-to-1 compression, Holley oval port heads, and of course,
02:01 the luscious and wonderful Wyand 871 supercharger topped by a couple of 850 Holleys.
02:08 It makes only about 5 pounds of boost and 650-675 horsepower,
02:13 which, believe it or not, is weak for a big block Chevy.
02:15 But you know what? It makes it so that we can drive it.
02:18 Right now, what we're dealing with is a massive oil leak,
02:21 which made us get these old-school cork valve cover gaskets so that we can fix that.
02:26 And there's a couple of other things to fiddle with here underneath the hood.
02:30 Another thing that we did when we were turning it into a street machine is picked up the front end.
02:35 It's got that nose-high stance. When we first did it, you would launch in the car,
02:40 and it was all brutal, but when it came down, the fender actually hit the tire and locked them up,
02:44 and that wasn't great.
02:46 So we just put a set of Chevelle springs in the front of it in the highest weight rating that was offered by CPP,
02:52 and so now we've got, like, acres of tire clearance.
02:55 I actually hope it comes down about 2 inches when we're driving it, but it does have the look.
03:02 The interior of this thing is also super cool.
03:05 When you check the Grant steering wheel, that is an implement of directional adjustment if I've ever seen one.
03:12 And check the Auto Meter Sport Comp Tac.
03:15 That was the type of tac that was just it before the Monster Tacs came in.
03:19 That's what I wanted in high school, and that's what I've got right now.
03:22 You will also note the factory gauge delete that I put in the car just because I didn't want to deal with it.
03:28 This car used to have a Turbo 400 automatic in it,
03:31 and the torque converter was the same one that I had in my 383 small block that was in the car,
03:36 and so it revved to the moon with the big block in it.
03:40 And with 457 gears, this thing tacks on the freeway hard.
03:44 And so we're in the middle of putting a Gearstar 4L85E automatic overdrive tranny in it,
03:49 and we have to install that B&M Ratchet-style shifter in the car, the kind I like,
03:55 and still ready to do this jungle of wiring,
04:01 which goes to the TCI fast computer, which controls that 4L80E.
04:06 And we need to get this done soon. That part scares me a little bit.
04:10 Another issue that we had to deal with is the fuel system.
04:15 When this thing had an all-aluminum 632 in it, it had a pretty good setup with an AeroMotive A1000.
04:21 The problem was it was mounted in such a way that today we can't get an exhaust system on it,
04:26 and the stock gas tank that had been modified was a complete leaker, and it just wasn't working for us.
04:30 We wanted to set the car up so that we could put any engine in it in the future
04:34 and have the fuel system work without having to mess with it again.
04:37 So, we installed this Rock Valley Automotive all-stainless gas tank,
04:43 which doesn't really fit the retro nature of the car, but it's just so cool we had to have it.
04:48 This thing is loaded with baffles and things inside, and it has an AeroMotive drop-in A1000 fuel pump.
04:55 It's actually in the tank, and we'll keep it running quieter and cooler and feed that big block no problem.
05:01 I mentioned that I had some 457s in the back, and we're going to throw in this 350 gear set
05:09 so that it cruises better on the freeway, because we are going to hit the road.
05:13 We think we're driving it to Arizona, and that's going to be a treat that I'm not going to reveal just yet,
05:17 but it is going to be an adventure.
05:20 But there's still a lot to do to the car.
05:23 Then I'm going to get back to work.
05:25 There's so many little details. This looks done, but we're going to die here in the next day or so.
05:32 Moments.
05:33 Okay.
05:36 I'm going to sit in it and make engine noises.
05:45 Dominator scoop.
05:47 Adaptrix 4150s.
05:49 [Music]
05:56 [BLANK_AUDIO]