Curt Connors and his family are well known around the Mid Michigan Motorplex. They are die- hard bracket racers that make the weekend a family event. Curt’s wife Melissa and his parents all spend the weekends at the track most of the summer.
Curt’s 84 Monte Carlo is back halved, with a Mild Steel Cage. The Dana 60 houses 4.56 gears spinning 14×32 Goodyears. The car is all steel except for the hood and decklid, with stock glass throughout, but Curt has managed to get the weight down around 2700lbs. Just right for the Transmission Specialties Powerglide and 8” race converter to do their jobs.
The engine combo is a straightforward setup. It is 403 CID, based on a 6.0L LS1 truck engine. The stroker kit consists of 4” stroke Callies Compstar crank and 6.125 rods, and Autotec flat top pistons. Final compression ratio is a hair over 13 to 1. The heads are CNC Ported RHS units from Competition Components, with 230CC Intake runners, 2.080/1.600 stainless valves, and optional solid roller springs. The cam is a custom solid roller, with 260ish duration, and .750 lift. Lunati roller lifters and Trend heavy wall 5/16 pushrods make sure all of the cam’s lift gets to the T&D 1.7 ratio rockers. The engine is topped off with a hand ported Edelbrock Super Victor intake and a Holley 950 gas carb. The stock LS coil packs are run by an MSD timing controller. Headers are modified Schoenfeld Circle track headers, that were coated at QC Coatings in Utica, MI.
Curt’s first time out with the new combo was at the final test and tune day in 2012. Baseline passes were in the 9.80’s @ almost 138MPH. There wasn’t any time for any real tuning, just a few shakedown runs. For those first few hits, Launch was 5200RPM, and shift points were 6700. For next season, Curt has a new converter from Lenny at Ultimate Converters in the works, as well as some other refinements in the works. We are as excited as Curt to really put this combo to the test during the 2013 season. Stay tuned for more results!
On Board Video: http://youtu.be/pgWMkRRLcKg
