Imagine you just built what you thought was your dream car. But then
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00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:18 So there you are.
00:19 You're sitting inside of your beautiful 1970 Chevelle SS
00:22 that you've just built into a pro-touring car.
00:26 You're driving a car that's a little bit more
00:28 than a car.
00:30 You dropped in a 454 big block, a five-speed transmission,
00:34 and some big old brakes to help you stop.
00:36 You also updated the suspension with the hopes
00:39 that you'll be able to go around corners.
00:41 And then you drove it, and you realized
00:43 that while you built an outstanding car,
00:46 what you actually built was a resto mod,
00:49 and not the corner-carving pro-touring car
00:51 you actually wanted.
00:54 To top that off, you then found out
00:56 about this event called the Optima Ultimate Street Car
00:59 Challenge, an event that encompasses things
01:01 like a road course, a stop-start challenge, an autocross,
01:05 and a couple of other events.
01:07 You also realized that the car that you just built
01:10 would not be competitive.
01:12 [ENGINE REVVING]
01:14 So what did you do?
01:15 Well, you also realized that a friend of yours
01:18 had a 1970 Chevrolet Camaro SS that he never finished.
01:25 So, good person as you are, you took it off his hands,
01:28 and you decided to build yourself a real pro-touring car.
01:32 Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Project ZL70.
01:38 [ENGINE REVVING]
01:40 [TIRES SQUEALING]
01:42 [ENGINE REVVING]
01:45 [BEEP]
01:46 [ENGINE REVVING]
01:49 [TIRES SQUEALING]
01:52 Making the decision to build an entirely new car
01:54 when you've just finished one is not an easy thing to do.
01:58 It comes down to time.
01:59 It comes down to money.
02:00 It comes down to expectations.
02:02 But more importantly, it comes down
02:04 to kind of a plan of attack.
02:06 [MUSIC PLAYING]
02:09 Owner Nick Galapagos, when he built this car,
02:13 he knew he needed to be competitive.
02:15 So before he did anything, he laid out a plan.
02:18 He said, this is the engine I want.
02:20 This is the suspension, wheels, tires, brakes.
02:22 He talked to other people that competed
02:24 in these events, in autocrosses, in road courses.
02:27 He did his research.
02:29 And when he started to build the car,
02:32 this thing came from a stripped shell to this in 18 months.
02:38 When I first started to build the car, it was still a shell.
02:41 I wanted an LS-based engine.
02:43 But I didn't want to keep on chasing horsepower.
02:45 So I figured, let me start off with a supercharged engine
02:49 and build off of that.
02:51 And one thing that I want to say,
02:53 before all you commenters jump all over this car,
02:56 Nick built most of this car himself.
02:59 In fact, he did some of the body work.
03:01 He did not do the interior.
03:03 But as far as the mechanics, as far as the engine,
03:05 as far as all that other stuff, he
03:07 built it laying on his back in his garage
03:10 with the help of friends and his family.
03:13 So I built the engine, put a cam in it,
03:16 put some smaller pulleys in it, bigger injectors,
03:19 different springs, and just necessary mods
03:21 to get your horsepower up.
03:23 No bolts were there, but I used them as a [INAUDIBLE]
03:27 I bought this car as a shell.
03:28 So basically, the front end was off,
03:30 and the subframe was there.
03:32 There was no interior.
03:33 I didn't even have a back seat.
03:35 As soon as I got it to my house, I started with the mini tubs.
03:37 So I cut out the rear mini tubs, widened them.
03:40 I used the Detroit Speed mini tubs.
03:42 And I got the rear end all situated.
03:46 And then I started concentrating on the front suspension,
03:48 where I used the Speedtech control arms and spindles
03:51 and started building from there.
03:53 When Nick designed this car, he didn't want to stray that much
03:58 from the stock overall appearance.
04:00 You got to hand it to the Chevy designers.
04:01 I mean, they kind of crushed the design on this thing.
04:04 He wanted to keep it somewhat basic while still
04:06 putting his own stamp on it.
04:09 The original color of this car, when released in 1970,
04:12 was Hugger Orange.
04:14 Nick wanted to stay with that theme,
04:15 so as opposed to painting it Hugger,
04:17 he painted it Inferno Orange from a 2012 Camaro.
04:21 Look at the carbon stripes on this thing.
04:24 Before you think that it's a wrap or it's a whatever,
04:27 it's not.
04:29 Nick knew that if he was going to be competitive with this car,
04:31 he wanted to drop weight.
04:32 So all the carbon fiber bits all over this thing
04:35 add up to just over, I think, 200 pounds or 250 pounds
04:38 worth of weight saving, which, when you're racing, is a lot.
04:42 I had a choice when I was first building the car,
04:46 whether I should just do a wrap or get carbon fiber panels.
04:51 Spend the money now, buy once, cry once,
04:54 and get the real carbon fiber.
04:56 It turned out great because I get a lot of great comments.
04:59 I get a lot of questions.
05:00 Is that real carbon fiber or is it a wrap?
05:02 And they look very close.
05:03 They touch it.
05:04 They want to feel that, whether it's a decal or not.
05:08 You can actually feel the paint coating the carbon fiber
05:10 as opposed to the other way around.
05:12 I'm very proud to have it because it is a very--
05:15 expensive product.
05:17 There's carbon fiber front nose, wheel wells, hood, trunk lid,
05:21 a lot of different carbon fiber pieces on this car.
05:24 It sets the car apart.
05:26 He also wanted to be able to remove heat,
05:35 so he was pretty brave because he took a saw
05:39 and cut a big hole in the carbon fiber hood
05:41 and put the scoop in.
05:42 I don't know if I would have the balls to do that.
05:44 I'm glad that he did it because it works really well,
05:47 and you can actually see the heat vacating from it.
05:50 But it also added a racy look and feel to the car.
05:53 I didn't drive it until it was almost fully built.
05:58 My first impression of the car was it drives like a regular car.
06:01 And I had to wait a little while to get the car tuned.
06:05 And once I got the car tuned, it was a different animal.
06:08 I mean, there was just horsepower everywhere.
06:11 It was just spilling horsepower.
06:14 I was pretty shocked about what I had built
06:17 because it was a lot of horsepower that I didn't expect.
06:20 The supercharged engine, it was probably one of the best decisions I've ever made
06:27 because with a regular normally acerated engine,
06:30 sometimes you're searching for horsepower.
06:32 You're always searching for horsepower.
06:34 But with a supercharged engine, it's all there.
06:37 And sometimes it's a little too much.
06:41 The horsepower that this car has now is 682 horsepower at the rear wheels
06:46 with 645 foot-pounds of torque.
06:49 It is a fast car.
06:51 I would go so far as to say,
06:54 if we could get our hands on a new ZL1 and run that together with this,
07:00 I'm pretty sure the difference would not be that great.
07:03 And when I say difference, I don't know which car would win.
07:07 That's how good this car is.
07:10 I mean, it's really good.
07:12 I mean...
07:13 Not for nothing, but you take it,
07:18 you pitch this car into a corner,
07:20 there is no hint of understeer or oversteer at all.
07:24 The car just grips and goes.
07:26 So you don't have any qualms about, like,
07:29 you know, like, really jumping on it.
07:31 Now, again, because of the amount of power in this car,
07:35 you always have to be cognizant of your right foot, right?
07:38 Don't take this gas pedal like you have an egg under it,
07:41 because 650 pound-feet of torque in the rear,
07:44 don't be that guy.
07:45 Don't be that guy that ham-fists it out of a corner,
07:48 and then all of a sudden you're backwards, and you're like,
07:50 "Oh, my God, I probably should have been driving a Mustang,"
07:52 because every Mustang video goes into the woods.
07:55 I set out to build a street car that I can race.
08:01 It's no fun just taking a car to the track and not showing other people.
08:05 I like to go to car shows,
08:06 but now I'd rather take it to a racetrack.
08:09 I just wanted to build a car that could compete.
08:12 Early on in my childhood, I used to watch a lot of NASCAR racing
08:17 and say, "Wow, one of these days I want to drive a car on a track."
08:21 So I started doing local autocrosses, and then road courses,
08:31 and I started doing the Optima Ultimate Street Car competitions.
08:35 I learned a lot from a lot of great autocrossers at the venues,
08:40 and they are so willing to share their experiences,
08:43 and they helped so much learning about how to autocross and how to race.
08:48 And I got hooked.
09:03 Ladies and gentlemen, just so you know, if you build a track car and a race car,
09:08 you are going to be getting suspension like this,
09:11 because this is what keeps your tires planted on the ground when you go into corners.
09:16 As far as physical demands on driving this car,
09:19 it all depends on how much of a race suspension you have.
09:23 If you have heavy-rate springs and if you have very tight shocks,
09:29 it does take a lot of strength to turn the steering wheel
09:33 and make sure that your car is going right.
09:36 At the end of a race, you're pretty much tired.
09:39 The Vatsaran becomes a race car.
09:41 If this thing was a cream puff, well, you probably wouldn't be driving it.
09:47 This car right here does everything that Nick said it was going to do, and more.
09:56 The key to doing that was the plan that he made before he actually built the car.
10:00 He didn't just go to a catalog and start ordering parts.
10:03 He really did do his due diligence and his research.
10:05 And he crafted an amazing machine.
10:08 I like somebody that can actually go out and get a shell and build their car
10:14 and go out and race it and have other people enjoy it when they go to a car show and things like that.
10:19 The wheels themselves are beautiful.
10:25 They're gunmetal gray.
10:27 They were sourced from Forgeline, and they are massive.
10:31 We're talking 18x11s in the front and 18x12s in the rear.
10:36 Tires are BFG Rival S's, which is a really nice kind of autocross/track tire
10:43 that you can also use on the street.
10:45 Really wide tread blocks, has a nice amount of grip.
10:48 Now, in regards to the size, they're huge.
10:52 315/30s up front, 335/30s in the rear.
10:57 Ladies and gentlemen, that's steamroller-sized tires.
11:00 This car with 335s, right?
11:07 So if I stop on the side of the road like this, this is a Camaro, it's not a really small car.
11:12 I make a U-turn, full lock, full lock.
11:16 This thing has the turning radius of a smart car.
11:20 It's kind of ridiculous when you think about it,
11:23 because I really don't know any cars with that much rubber up front
11:27 that have the capacity to turn like that.
11:29 When I set out to design the interior, number one, it had to be a race seat.
11:40 Something that really holds you in.
11:42 Fortunately, I got a set of Recaros that had headrests.
11:47 The 1970 Camaro, there was a one-year only seat that they had with a short headrest.
11:52 So I wanted to incorporate that look into this car.
11:55 The cabin is just as tastefully done as the exterior of the car.
12:02 That's really not an easy thing to do.
12:05 But Nick has managed to integrate everything where it's just kind of a very nice and tasteful place to be.
12:12 I took the Recaro seats, and a friend of mine in South San Francisco, Danny at DJ Designs,
12:18 he upholstered the whole car.
12:20 So he did all the interior, he did the suede headliner,
12:23 and one of the other trick options that we did was when we mini-tubbed the car,
12:27 we had to shorten the back seat as well.
12:30 But in doing so, there were some plastic panels on the sides that would no longer fit.
12:34 What he came up with was, let's wrap that in upholstery.
12:39 When people look inside the car, they actually see that massive mini-tub in there.
12:44 And it became a design element as well.
12:47 So, anytime you build a car, I think one of the things that people overlook is
12:51 how to make a really good package that even though you're going to take it on a race car,
12:56 it's still enjoyable to drive on the street.
12:58 And Nick has really managed to do that with this car.
13:01 Oh, the other thing is, as a big dude, this car has a ton of room.
13:08 I have headroom, I have legroom, my legs don't butt up against anything.
13:12 It's comfortable, it really is something that you can get in and drive 300-400 miles in a day
13:17 and not be totally fatigued.
13:19 Nick is fortunate. He doesn't have to compromise, right?
13:24 He can actually afford to do a car like this and build exactly what he wanted.
13:29 But just make sure that when you guys look at this car and look at other cars that we've built,
13:33 that if you take one thing away, it's to set up a game plan.
13:36 Do that correctly and you'll build exactly the car that you want, just like this.
13:40 Because it really is that good.
13:42 When you drive this car on the street, you get a lot of thumbs up.
13:48 "Hey, great car! I love that car! I used to have one in high school!"
13:52 Things like that.
13:53 So, if I were to die tomorrow, would I know I built the best car I could?
14:01 A lot of people might not have that chance.
14:05 Sometimes they'll say, "Hey, I'll build that car next year."
14:11 And all of a sudden they get sick.
14:13 And they never get that chance.
14:15 Yeah, I could drive this pretty much all day.
14:19 Before I leave today, I want you to think about something.
14:24 I want you to think about how the license plate on the back of this car says ZL70.
14:28 Then I want you to think about how you can walk into a Chevrolet dealer
14:32 and drop your money down on a brand new ZL1 Camaro.
14:36 Both cars have 650+ horsepower.
14:40 Both cars are tuned for the track.
14:42 And both cars sound like the gods of war when they open the taps.
14:46 But you have to ask yourself one question.
14:50 And that question is, "Do you build it or do you buy it?"
14:55 I know which I'm leaning towards.
14:58 Can you guys see those? I'm getting turkeys!
15:02 This is why we don't cannonball on this show.
15:05 He just moved us.
15:07 Because when you come around a corner and you see 60 pounds of turkey in front of you,
15:12 when you hit it, it's not good.
15:14 (car engine revving)