Interior appointments start with reproduction no-frills vinyl seat coverings and door panels, plus headliner and carpet from Classic Industries and PUI; the interior was crafted by Wanda's Upholstery. Items such as control knobs and the various handles come by way of Classic Industries and D&R Classics. D&R was also extremely helpful when it came to locating hard-to-find items such as brackets and original parts that are yet to be reproduced. Their Camaro experts also provided new side window glass as well as the cowl-induction hood. An original front windshield and rear backlight came by way of Discount Auto Glass in Michigan.
When it came to adding a touch of modernization to the cockpit, Dakota Digital rose to the occasion with a complete set of their cool digital gauges. Included are separate Odyssey II monitors for fuel level, volts, water temp, oil pressure, fuel pressure and boost, as well as the large tach and speedometer. The tach and speedo are mounted in the stock location via a repro bezel from Classic Industries, while the smaller gauges get split into two sections for better viewing: four in the console-mounted pod from Auto Meter and two in a trick one-off carbon fiber-like center bezel designed exclusively for us by John Covan of Covan's classics.
Vintage Air provided one of their custom A/C systems, which utilizes the stock A/C openings. It also features an electronic control panel that fits nicely in the Covan center bezel. Custom Autosound created the entertainment with one of their brand-new Hidden Audio systems, featuring a trunk-mounted 10-disc CD changer and kick-panel-mounted two-way speakers. They also provided a set of their new seatbelts, replete with retractable shoulder harnesses for front seat passengers. Power windows were added from Electric Life, as was a Dakota Digital cruise control system. Shades of late-model comfort, for sure!
Though 300 horses under the factory-style steel cowl hood is more than enough for this cruiser, as hot rodders we sure didn't mind the opportunity to add a few more. With Vortech's help (and our own R&D program), we stepped up the power production by 100 ponies with their first F-body "blow-through" supercharger system. This technically advanced setup (if not gorgeous) uses a Demon 750-cfm carburetor in a box mounted on an Edelbrock Victor Jr. intake manifold. With a hair shy of 10 pounds of boost being pushed through the polished aluminum centrifugal huffer, the system required no less than 91 octane fuel (and a healthy dose of tuning from carb guru Bob Vrbancic) to run efficiently, but is a blast when the billet go-pedal from Lokar is mashed to the floor.
Feeding fuel to the hyped-up mouse is the responsibility of the Product Engineering trunk-mounted bypass electric fuel pump. A mix of Russell aluminum and stainless steel braided lines routes the fuel from the reproduction gas tank to the Product Engineering four-port regulator. An MSD BTM boost retard ignition system and small cap billet distributor fires the mix. Cooling is no problem with the components such as a huge four-core aluminum radiator from Fluidyne, Flex-A-Lite electric fan, and Edelbrock aluminum waterpump. Keeping all of the electric components running up to par is the job of the Powermaster 130-amp, one-wire alternator, attached to the supercharger mount by a custom bracket machined by Mr. Vrbancic and adjusted by a Zoops spherical rod adjustment shaft. Pulleys are a mix from Billet Specialties, March, and Vortech. Finishing off the underhood goodies are a remote power steering sump from D&P Performance and a Raybestos 1-inch brake master cylinder. Russell again provided all of the fluid transfer lines.