Mr. Kaiser came all the way from Ohio, some 1,200 miles away, to bring his Chevy Corvette C7 Z06 to a tuning shop and left home with 800 horsepower. But that’s just temporary. He is on his way to 1,000. The Vette is just a weekend toy for him.
The customer wanted his car to look good and be more fun than it was the moment he got it delivered. He also wanted it to sound better than it already did. Mr. Kaiser is definitely a car guy. He had Camaros and a couple of race cars, too, in the past. Now, he takes his Corvette out for a joy ride every weekend.
To get the joy ride of his life every weekend, he drove over 1,267 miles from Oberlin, Ohio, to Houston, Texas, to hand over his car to Steven and his team. He does not live far from where Rick Conti works. Conti is a kind of Corvette guru, who has been promoting, selling, and servicing Corvettes for ages.
Once you pop up the hood, it is clear that the car belongs to someone who enjoys driving. A message written in there reads "Get in, sit down & shut up." It is what Steven, the head of Late Model Racecraft, told him the second they got on board. It was the first time for him in the passenger’s seat in his own car and he felt like he was on the wrong side of the car.
A 1.7-liter supercharger showed up under the hood. "It runs as good as it looks," the owner says. He went for an 800-horsepower package. There are no E85 fuel stations where he’s living, so he will have to do with 93 octane.
Photo: Late Model Racecraft | YouTube
The stock Chevy Corvette C7 Z06 puts 650 horsepower (659 metric horsepower) and 650 pound-feet (881 Newton meters) of torque to the ground for a run from 0 to 60 mph in 3 seconds flat and a top speed of 207 mph (333 kph).
There is no info on what the upgraded Corvette can do right now. Steven takes him on a tutorial drive, and the first thing he recommends is not turning the traction control off before he can properly feel and control the car. Because the way it drives right now makes it a whole different beast than it used to be. He notices that people are staring.
He hasn't even experienced the new oomph of his Corvette from the driver’s seat, and he is already planning to do the switch to 1,000 horsepower around Christmas time. That is when Late Model Racecraft is going to install a Magnussen supercharger and perform some mods on the fuel system for the 200-horsepower gain.
The car has 90,000 miles on the odo. But it looks like Mr. Kaiser is going to add a few thousand before he returns for the extra oomph.
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