2010/2011 Camaro Z-28 LS7 Deadly Fast !!!

As I stood atop the media tower at Memphis Motorsports Park, I couldn't help but listen in on a group of bench racers standing nearby. As each car came under the tunnel, someone in the group would comment on how fast it would be or how much they liked it, you know, the normal trackside banter. Just as the black Fastlane 2010 Camaro pulled past the water box I heard "You know, these new Camaros are too heavy to be fast. They take too much power to go anywhere; plus, this one looks like a roller skate with that GM body kit." Admittedly, at idle, the Fastlane car doesn't sound like much. In fact, thanks to what is under the hood, it was probably the quietest 2010 on the grounds. As the light turned green, with a calm, somewhat boring launch, it took off. For the first 200 feet, my bench racer friends remained unimpressed. "You can't go fast on a 20-inch wheel," they said. "You can't run with a fourth-gen in one of those, not with the IRS," one of them murmured. But then, about 300 feet out, everyone got quiet. Right as Nick Field of Fastlane really started applying power, the 2010 began accelerating at warp speed. Out the back door, it ran a 10.86 at 127 mph. The crowd went wild and my newly humbled friends got very quiet.

Nick Field would go on to pilot Sean West's Camaro to the top of the 2010 Camaro Shootout that weekend, making it the fastest fifth-gen in Memphis and winning them an LSX block, an LSX jacket, and an entire year's worth of bragging rights. So, what did it take to get them to the top? Quite honestly, not much, just a quality plan, a couple of well thought-out parts, and an eye on making useable, reliable horsepower without breaking parts or spinning tires. "We built this simply to compete in the Shootout." Starting with a stock Camaro, Fastlane first had to decide on an appropriate power adder, a choice that was fairly simple considering its expertise in turbocharging. "We build our Fastlane ZL1 turbo kit for stock motors, providing GM reliability and big-block power." The heart of this system is a 72mm BorgWarner extended-tip turbocharger, which helps make a massive amount of power on the otherwise stock engine.


"We received this Camaro brand new, right off the showroom floor. It came to us in black, with the GM Accessories ground effects already installed." And with it in the Fastlane shop, the team began tearing into it, first to see what could stay and then to see what needed to go. As you may well be aware, the new L99/LS3 engine is a killer piece in stock form, coming from GM with enough power to run high 12s to low 13s (stock). With 6.2 liters to draw from, they really don't need too much work to get going, but going isn't what Fastlane was after-they wanted to win. With everything up in the air, the team decided to pull the stock camshaft, replacing it with a top secret, custom hydraulic roller that, interestingly enough, still retains the stock "Displacement-On-Demand" (DOD) lifters and the cam phasing ability.

With the new stick installed, and ground specifically for boost, it was time for the real work to begin. For Fastlane and owner Sean West, this meant installing one of its ZL1 turbo systems. With the stock exhaust manifolds removed, Fastlane fabricated a new pair of turbo manifolds, which merge inside the engine bay right behind the driver-side headlight. With the BorgWarner 72mm turbocharger bolted to the manifolds, the team turned its attention to heat management and exhaust routing. To keep the underhood temperatures down, a turbo blanket was wrapped around the hot side, which is placed just far enough away from anything not worth burning. The exhaust starts as a 4-inch downpipe, which is quickly merged down to 3-inches before heading out of the engine bay, where it is eventually split to meet up with a custom 3-inch catback exhaust, with twin 3-inch MagnaFlow mufflers. Because this car came with the optional GM ground effects package, the crew decided to keep the stock tips, which gives the rear a nice, classy touch.


Of course, a turbo is only useful with a quality intake tract, and Fastlane took its time here to build a quality intercooler system that would allow for big flow, while keeping charge temperatures under control. "We build a custom three-core air-to-air intercooler, which sits almost completely hidden behind the stock grille." Once air passes through the intercooler, it is sent up a 3-inch mandrel-bent charge pipe, right into the stock L99 Drive-By-Wire throttle body. Believe it or not, all of this air is balanced perfectly by a set of stock injectors, which are fed fuel by the Fastlane dual fuel pump module known as "The Deuce." Using OEM pumps custom-mounted in a dual bucket, The Deuce allows Fastlane to keep the stock tank, along with stock driveability and reliability. Tuning is all done in-house, using EFI Live software to keep everything in check.

As the turbo spools, power is transferred to a Circle D 3,000-stall converter, which is the only part of the drivetrain that has been touched. That's right, from the converter back; everything is stock-including the driveshaft, rearend, and axles. In fact, for the LSX Shootout, even the wheels were stock, wrapped in a pair of 20-inch Nitto NT555R drag radials. Of course, the tires do get some help, in the form of some well-placed suspension pieces. Front and rear, this car sports a set of Pedders coilovers, which not only help transfer power, but complete the killer stance. Out back, a pair of BMR trailing arms help keep the tires planted and out of wheelhop, a major advantage when trying to track one of these new Camaros.


Interestingly, it seems another major advantage when racing one of these new Camaros is to keep it simple. As many others found out during the 2010 Shootout, having all the bells and whistles also means having to fix them, and in racing, sometimes just going rounds can keep you at the top. Of course, Fastlane happened to win by maximizing on both fronts, building a solid, reliable race car that also happened to be deadly fast. Remember when a 10-second car had to be a race car? Those days are long gone, with Fastlane shattering the 10s, winning the Shootout, and heading home with the A/C blasting and the full interior intact. It's almost impossible to not be impressed, even if you weren't a new Camaro fan.