The new Spiro Pappas Camaro... the most insane Camaro ever? Nick Scavo

[Kevin O]

Long-time street car drag racer Spiro Pappas already has one of the fastest street-legal drag '69 Camaros in the world, but for 2008, he's added a second car to the lineup... and this one is off the scale.     Powered by a 540 cubic inch Sonny Leonard hemi-headed big block Chevy assembled by Fast Times Motorworks, the focal point is the pair of 88mm turbos on the front of the engine.    No horsepower ratings are public, but driver Nick Scavo points out that it should crack 2500 horsepower without any real boost!    The amazing car was built by Skinny Kid Racecars and painted by Performance Restrorations   and makes its debut in March at the Memphis NMCA race.   The team of Pappas driving his first car and Scavo running the new Camaro should put a shiver in anyone's spine.... especially those who square off against them!     We'll post race results and exclusive interviews and videos here throughout the 2008 season, along with the race schedules where you can go see these cars run when they come to your town.   The two Camaros are slated to participate in NMCA and ORSCA races in '08.    These build pics are courtesy of Performance Restorations.

Spiro Pappas Camaro #2:



Spiro Pappas Camaro #1:



More Pics of Camaro #2:

[Kevin O]

OK, so there have been lots of questions and comments about the new Camaro, so I decided to call Nick Scavo and chat with him for a few minutes about the inside story.     Click the link below for the whole 26 minute conversation about the new car, Outlaw 10.5 racing, and some history of Spiro Pappas and how this whole thing came together.    He mentions a couple other names in the story, "Chuckie" is fellow racer Chuck Samules, "Jeff" is Jeff D'Agostino of Fast Times Motorworks, and "Dan" is Dan Bills, fellow racer and dyno man at Finish Line Performance. 

Nick Scavo Interview

[Kevin O]

Here's a shot of what's inside those monster heads... dig the size of the pushrods!

[NICK SCAVO]

well we're on the dyno this week....  I'll send a few pics

[Kevin O]

Awesome... I'll post 'em here.

[Kevin O]

Nick just sent me this email...

"Well, after 80 hours of work, we finally got it on the dyno and running.....only pulled it a little (between 4000-7500) just to warm it up to we could lash the valves and check everything
 
The Fast Times built, Sonny headed, 548 cubic inches, with twin 88's with ONLY 2 pounds of boost( waste gates wide open), it made 1009 horsepower at 7500 and it still hadn't gotten to peak torque, so it looks like the motor will go to 9000-9500 or so and with some boost it should make a little more...lol
 
the goal is a reliable 2800 horsepower at only 25lbs of boost.
 
I'm gonna have my hands full this year....LOL
 
Nick"

[PRO TORQUE CONVERTERS-TN]

Thats a killer looking car. Nick whatever happend to the impala? thanks jamie

[Kevin O]

Spiro, Nick, and crew went racing this past weekend in Memphis... I'm sure Nick will post an update here soon, but the car is going to be insane.   It didn't qualify well because of some boost controller issues, but went 7.01 at 207 or so on its second pass... the race was not part of a series, so no points, but it was a good first time out!

[NICK SCAVO]

Memphis.?..well here is how it went...lol

we didn't even finish the car until Saturday, so we couldn't test it on
Friday. So I only made one qualifying run on Saturday, and with only 1.5 lbs
of boost it ran 9.57? @ 137...just to try the brakes front end alignment and
parachutes...everything seemed to go well

But by running so slow in qualifying, I had to face the number 2 qualifier (Jimmy Blackman)
in the first round.

He ran a 6.96? @ 210 and I ran 7.01 @ 207 in the first round, I was ahead of
him...but that's because I staged too deep in the beams causing me to
redlight by .067 of a second, it didn't want to stop in the beams because we "tuned it up", and it had enough power to drive thru the brakes. Now that I know this, I will push the brakes 'HARD" to make it not roll too deep. The boost controler wasn't the problem, I think we have something wrong in our end as far as activating it, its something we will fix this week in the shop

All in all the four link was very good, the tires rubbed on the rear of the wheel lips (so I cut the quarter panels with a saw....haha) the converter seemed close, maybe a little tight, but Im sure we will put more power in it  to correct that. the car was basicly in NMCA form this weekend, I still need to add 150 more lbs. to be NMCA legal. but we were running the small (88mm) turbos. I think we are on the right path.

NMCA is in 3 weeks, and I don't think we did bad for a first full run in a car that wasn't even finished
until Saturday

[Kevin O]

Another shot from Nick's camera phone on dyno day... .

"I needed a breather tank fast!!!"

[Ten_Bucks]

Nick, good luck with this car this season. I hope you and Spiro do well. Also, I know that the PSCA has an Outlaw 10.5 class and I was wondering, will there be any plans to make it to one of their events at all this season? With me living on the west coast its difficult to make it to the NMCA and other events because they don't come out this way.

Scott

[Memphis]

Any news on this beast? 

[Kevin O]

The short version of the story is that Spiro was not up for running 2 cars in 2008, so the twin turbo car wasn't used that much over the season, and Nick is now behind the wheel of another Camaro for 2009.     Look for a new thread on the D'Agostino / Scavo ex Samuel "Purple Car" here soon...

[Kevin O]

Here's the "Purple Car" thread... http://www.v8tvshow.com/forum/index.php/topic,3468.0.html

[Kevin O]

Unfortunately, Spiro crashed this car over the weekend in Bradenton... he's OK, but the car's going to have some major repair work ahead of it!