duk007

2009 Z06 3lt 10k miles

I thought I'd share my experience with my recent (as in this week) upgrade with Race Proven Motorsports.

I picked a 09 z06 this January with the intent of using it as a all around performance "event" car. I am in my element on a road course, but enjoy it all... Drag, Autocross , 1/2mile, Hillclimb,Flashlight Drags, Time Attack... I'm game for all of it.

I used to be a track junkie a decade ago but my business and kids have kept me busy and away from cars. I used to have a Viper and loved it but I felt a C6 z06 would be the best bang for the buck for my current needs.

I was pretty happy with the performance of the car, but always had that ticking time bomb feeling in the back of head, and decided to get the heads addressed.

I did a lot of research and finally selected RPM in Delaware to do the work. I live in Pittsburgh, and turned the process into a mini vacation for the family. We dropped the car off on Monday morning at 10:30am after a 5hr drive from Pittsburgh. I barely had the trailer packed back up and they had the car on the dyno for the baseline. It was pretty hard to leave the place honestly, but I had the family with me so I dropped the trailer in their lot and got back on the road.

We drove to Hershey Park ,which is a little under 2 hrs away, and spent the rest of Monday and Tuesday with my boys and the wife enjoying chocolate and amusement park rides. I called Bill on Tuesday night to check progress and he said things were going well and on schedule. Spent the day at the water park on Wednesday and left Hershey around 3pm, arrived at RPM at 5pm.

Bill greeted us and said "you just missed your car", "he took it for a quick shake down run after the dyne pull". I chatted for a few minutes and then went to get the trailer hitched back up. A few minutes later a car that looked like my black z06 , but sounded a lot meaner than I remember , pulled up behind my trailer. The guy driving (still with a laptop plugged in) got out and said she was a little low on the baseline, but she's good now. I told him I noticed a bit of a power loss when I added the headers recently, and thought I was 20hp shy of the pre header install. The guy behind the wheel turns out to be Fran the owner, who also did the tuning and follow up test drive. He showed me around, answered my questions and was very accommodating .

So to make a long story short:

Drop your car off on Monday , spend a couple of quality days with the family, pick up a transformed car on Wednesday. Not a bad way to spend the week.



Final result.....just shy of 600rwhp (591hp, 513tq)

Advanced Induction Heads
Brian Tooley Racing Valve Springs
RPM B-3 comp cam
Custom Tune

Kooks 1 7/8's headers w/cats & Halltech CAI already installed.

Stock intake, throttle body & through stock mufflers.


I'm very happy with the outcome. Also can't say enough good things about the guys at RPM. Solid car people , with a great facility packed with some pretty badass c6 and c7 cars. Several big Fi cars in progress, several completed cars on display.


They get " it "... go take your car there...now!



Updates and pictures when the rain stops.

AzDave47

Great service and numbers. How is the drivability?

What was the baseline with headers and other items (list)?

southspeed

Really nice. Thats great numbers for stock intake and tb. Are you on the stock clutch?

FSTFRC

Nice results, enjoy your new power!

duk007

Baseline was low 420hp, but Ike I said I noticed a drop in power on the low end with just the headers before the baseline.

The only mods were headers , and Halltech CAI .

Can't speak about drive-ability yet, as I only took it for a quick ride around the block, but it seemed smooth as butter. Sounds angry, drives well. I'll comment again once I put some miles on it.

duk007

Yes, for now. The car only has 10k and I'm the 2nd owner. 1st owner was 78years old and i don't think he was doing a lot of 6000rpm launches at the strip. I'll replace it when needed. I may take it to the strip tomorrow night but that's not generally my thing so I think I'll get some life out of the stocker.

duk007

Pictures and Dyno Sheet Added

needaz06

Why didn't they pull it to 7k? Looks like power was still climbing.. Your car looks sick with those wheels btw

duk007

I'm not sure, Fran would have to answer that question.I assume he thought there wasn't any additional power up there, as I'm sure this wasn't the only pull, since he was tuning the car at the time. I didn't really study the Dyno sheet till the next day when I got home. I was happy with the 591 (although 600 would be better just so I could talk round numbers!)

I'm planing on adding a Mamo MSD in the future and changing out the injectors, then I'll be done with the motor. That should bring me past the 600 mark and I'll be there for that pull.

Thank you for the complement, I really struggled to find a "street" wheel that I liked and wasn't 7 grand a set. I don't drive the car enough to justify that kind of investment and I already have a set of CCW's for the track . It's rough getting the right finish/color for a black car.

JayplaySS2

Stock intake, stock TB, stock mufflers and cats! Great results RPM!

duk007

Yea, makes you wonder what those additional mods will do!

tdeweese

Really nice results!!! I just finished mine this week with similar setup:
AI heads
MAMO MSD
Johnson short travel lifters
Halltech 103

Mine goes on the Dyno this Wednesday.
I live north of Pittsburgh, do you track at Pittsburgh raceway complex? Would be nice to meet up with other Zo6 modded owner, not many of us around here!!

Tim

duk007

Yes Tim, I try to make as many events as possible . I do all of the scca track night nights (next one on the the 11th) and do the Pitt Race HPDE's when I can ( next one on the 15th). I'm also going to try to make the orange cone muscle car event on the 18th-20. Come over and say hi, I'm pretty easy to find at the track...black truck, black trailer, black z06, that now rocks with a slightly nasty cam rumble!

There is also a flashlight drag event at the Waynesburg airport this Sunday at 12 that I think we will goto if the weather holds out.

tdeweese

Nice!I have built my car to do just those types of events as well. I just rebuilt my motor with forged pistons, Stage IV RPM transmission and Rear end with 3.73 gears. Basically my entire drive line is brand new, I'm actually breaking everything in this weekend, if it stops raining here. I may try to make a couple events yet this year, PM me on which ones you go!!

duk007

Will do !

LsxFan1

What did it cost to get this done? Im considering very similar mods.

SlowBusa08

I just installed that same B3 cam in my new ERL short block which I also got through RPM. Great guys to work with, and i'm really excited to see how it performs, even though my CR is lower than stock.

Frans96ss

Glad you were happy with everything. Let us know how the track goes

duk007

Yes, very happy. My wife did ask why the car rocks back and forth at idle !

I just had my first road racing event since the upgrade and the car is much faster around the track. Kept up with a new ACR down both of the long straights at Pitt Race but that f'n aero whips my *** in the higher speed turns. Didn't have an issue with much anything else there that night and I lowered my lap times by a few seconds. I never got a full lap without some kind of traffic and I had a passenger I was instructing in the passenger seat each lap, but I still was still several seconds faster per lap on a damp track. I wasn't even pushing the car very hard.

I also took it to a flashlight drag event a couple of weeks ago but got my *** handed to me by a pro street chevelle and a GTR. The event is only 1/8 mile and I have a major traction issue with r888's at the launch, but once I get going I was pulling on both of them, just didn't have enough real estate.

I've got a set of Hoosier drag radials on the way , so I'll post my 1/4 times once I get to run the car with a real tire on the back.

Love it so far, thanks for the great work. We'll do the intake and TB & injectors this fall and try to the 630 range.

Thanks again

duk007

Track update:

Went to my first 1/4 test and tune last night. Started out on brand new un-scuffed Hoosiers with a couple of ***** launches to start=

12.1@ 120mph. 2.4 60foot,

I started pushing it harder and realized I had 35psi in the rears. Aired them down to 19psi and started dropping times to :

11.3 @ 123 1.7 60 foot 2350da

I know the car has more, but I was pretty happy since I haven't really been at a 1/4 track in 15 years. I pulled the fastest et of the "street" class that night, and by the end of the night none of the Mustangs and Chargers would pull up next to me, I had to race trucks that could care less about their times.


Looking forward to see what it will do once I learn how to drive it in a straight line.