For the second year in a row, the Year One/Next Generation Project Z28 made the 10-day trip across the country with the other Long Haulers. We’d done plenty of upgrades on the Camaro before this year’s trip, and, as usual, it was a bit of a thrash to get everything completed in time for the Tour.

So what’s changed on the car? Well, since we’re typical gearheads around here, we decided the 383-inch LT4 engine didn’t have quite enough steam (it only ran a 12.60 on top of the mountain at Bristol last October!), so we decided to go the forced induction route with the car.

Two or three months prior to the Power Tour, we strapped a Vortech T-Trim supercharger blowing through a water-to-air aftercooler onto the stroked LT4. Due to the relatively high static compression ratio of the LT4, which is just shy of 11:1, we stayed a little conservative on the amount of boost churned out by the supercharger. Still, with only 7.3 p.s.i. entering the intake, Project Z28 made 505 horsepower at the rear wheels before leaving for the trip.

Speaking of horsepower figures, Dennis Roberts, our VP of Sales/R&D and official “Keeper of the Z”, put the Camaro on the chassis dyno at the Effingham, Illinois stop of the Power Tour. The car responded with 478 rear wheel horsepower, won the daily dyno contest (high number of each day got a special trophy), and once in San Bernardino the Z won the award for the most power produced by a Long Hauler! Trophies are all well and good, but why, we wondered, was the Power Tour figure some 27 hp off the earlier number? No real worries was the consensus. It seems dynos can vary a good deal, and, mix the inevitable differences between dynos with the higher ambient temperatures on the Tour, and POOF, there goes 30 horsepower.

Along with the newly added power, we upgraded the suspension of Project Z28 with a number of items from Dick Miller Racing. These included a chrome-moly torque arm, lower rear control arms and a panhard rod.

Last but certainly not least, we felt it was a good idea to upgrade the rear axle in the car. The factory 10-bolt was certainly not going the handle the blown 383 up front, so we installed a heavy-duty 12-bolt assembly from Moser Engineering. To keep things safe, and further stiffen up the car’s structure, we added a Wolfe Racecraft roll bar.

What’s next for Project Z28? Well, after a well-deserved rest, we still have to hit the track to see how those power numbers translate into speed on the drag strip. Traction will undoubtedly be an issue, but with plenty of motor, a healthy 12-bolt out back, and some chassis tweaking and tuning we should bring back a few low-11 second timeslips. We’ll let you know how it turns out!