Clark's Indy Airstrip Experience: A Look at the Camaro and its Engine

As Clark arrived at the Indy airstrip, he couldn't help but feel excited about his latest project – a fifth-gen Chevrolet Camaro with a Steve Morris-engine, specifically the SMX 525. This engine is based on the 481x but has been sport-jacked to be a pro-mod engine, essentially the same as Bailey's setup. Clark explained that they decided to upgrade to this engine because LS motors don't last at high RPMs, and with this setup, he can push the car to its limits.

When asked about the setup, Clark mentioned that it features 94 Garrett turbos, which would be ridiculous in a dragster but perfectly suitable for his Camaro. He also noted that the car's top speed is around 42 mph, and since it's only half a mile long, he can reach high speeds with ease. However, when asked what prompted him to choose this particular engine over other cars, Clark explained that he had previously driven a fourteen Camaro, which was better than his current setup.

Clark took the opportunity to discuss his approach to drag racing with a car like the Camaro, stating, "I think I'll kill it. This car makes around 3500-4000 horsepower." He then revealed that during one of his early runs, he let out early and only achieved 200 mph before getting square. Clark acknowledged that this was smart but also showed the difficulty in handling such a powerful engine.

As for tire preparation, Clark explained that they didn't touch the tire that would be used for the burnout. Instead, they decided to try something new – making a homemade tire softener using transmission fluid, acetone, and mineral spirits. The process involved heating up the tires with a torch, which seemed like an unusual but interesting approach.

Clark's first run with the modified tire resulted in a 203 mph finish, which was still impressive considering it was their first attempt. However, he noted that the tire didn't quite work as intended and continued to spin throughout the track. Clark explained that they are missing something – likely related to the all-wheel drive system of other cars – but also mentioned that Lamborghini drivers get 260 mph with street tires, which is a significant difference.

To address this issue, Clark decided to take some additional measures for his next run. They turned off traction control and disabled various safety features to allow him to trust his foot more. The result was a consistent speed around 203-204 mph, bringing him closer to the 200 mark. Clark mentioned that with a front diff installed in the car, he might be able to reach this mark by next winter.

Clark's Indy airstrip experience showcased his determination and creativity when it comes to pushing the limits of his Camaro engine.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwhat's up mr clark how are you doing doing pretty good today good out here at the indy airstrip attack and this isn't your first half mile right no you've been to a few of them yeah half mile and staying mild but we've seen you at drag week a bunch of times as well oh yeah how many drag weeks have you done approximately uh since it was six holy crap okay so 15-ish 14-15 it's kind of nice to have a year off right yeah but this this black camaro we got behind you is a monster like complete opposite car what we know from originally obviously it's got a steve morris engine yeah the new smx 525 oh that's right you upgraded the engine recently oh my god wow okay so tell us the story about what that engine's all about how many cubes is it 525 large jacketed probably based off a 481x but it's sport jackson and we're literally a pro mod engine pretty much same as bailey's guy but we did it because ls more don't last at 2500 so now this will last a long time for what we're gonna use it for gotcha that's uh that's pretty serious oh yeah yeah and what what kind of turbos you have strapped to this thing uh 94 garrett and a like in a light car like a dragster or something that would be that set up to be a ridiculous et in the quarter mile yeah if i ever got sick of this car i could just buy pro mod chassis and yeah what's the quickest gt in this car so far probably no 775 180 so we playing on the high sixes this is a whole different game yeah high six is in this car like literally 42 stock bodied until you look at the front bumper we got a different bumper for that yeah this looks like you're your top speed bumper for half mile stuff yep completely different aero game here right yeah why did you choose the camaro over other cars obviously you had a camaro previously i'll be uh we bought 2010 camaro and my 95 is at its limit so we decided to find the fifth gen and found this one as an engine fire and ah absolutely back in 2010 actually so came from florida it was almost new yeah yup bought it sold all the stuff out of it pay for the car itself so nice so i didn't cut up a nice car yeah that's good so what's your goal this weekend 210 215 would be nice but 210. you've already didn't done 200. you got to get the next if you gotta get the traction down then you're good yeah awesome yep well weather's nice and cool this morning if i have about an hour of it or so so yeah hopefully to take advantage of that you got it we will we'll be ready good luck today yup i think thank you so all right we're fine we're fine 201 miles an hour holy he just did 201 hell yeah oh whoa you're freaking crazy struggle tracking it yeah good timing on the shoot pole oh my god yeah another ride yeah good time how fast uh 201 wasn't it yeah 201 yeah we uh left slow we're digging at the end and something happened there didn't like it did it spin bad or was it something it's been in there i think the lockup kicked in and that put me sideways oh at the wrong time yeah gotcha but hey good driving do what it is we're still here what was your fastest pass 204 trillion so you're just underneath that yeah yeah you got to draw it back so hey yeah we're all good yep but my wife is probably scared yeah a good driving park hey thanks so much we saw the car going this way and i'm like shoot tall sideways like oh this ain't gonna be good i wasn't let up and came back around super i know my sideways would be beating me with a stick right now that's dry yeah she's on her way over here you might want to hide she said i just can't get it she said i wouldn't face him no it's like it didn't see she predicted this right here yeah drive her mod buddy drive her mind i didn't know and the sheets came out at the same time so i didn't know if it was the just from the shoots or what and then they said no that he got off the track and he went sideways and keith was telling me that he can see the right side of his car i don't think he gives himself enough credit for oh yeah he's a driver yeah he's a good driver he's got a lot of experience yeah so what do you decide on the last run uh go back out do it again just spun too much uh the lock up didn't help much so okay we uh turned it off gotcha a little bit smoother on the top end this time you got it perfect good luck man what do you think you see a drag wheat car like a big boy drag week card to a half mile because this is clark and that's what he's doing with it i think i'll kill this this car makes like 3 500 4 000 something like that i think you let out early on that one he did over 200 before 141 sorry uh he did over 200 before and it got really squarely there so i'm guessing he just got out of it didn't want to risk it which is smart but uh yeah that car on kill makes like 4 000. 191 all right so not quite the 200 mark but he also doesn't want to get square that i could do that one time so not bad for like a car that drives like a thousand miles in a week and does like sevens all week or sixes whatever not bad in the half mountain all right now what the hell are you doing here fire's way to do it are you prepping tires or what what's that oh yeah great thanks what's that yep didn't touch the tire that's on there so we can't do it burnout and obviously these tires got to have a burnout so we ain't got nothing to lose so it's like screw it we're gonna give it a shot i hope you ever seen anybody do that made the first pass brand new tires went 204 and then it spun and then it spawned more and then it spun more and it's fun more and keep on taking power away power away power away and it just gets worse and worse so obviously we got the wrong tire i didn't know there was a first step to this what do you do well this is technically the first step okay but we just made our own homemade tire softener for it so what's that consist of transmission fluid acetone mineral spirits man epa approved epa approved right here goes crazy clark they just got his tires all heated up in the lanes with the torch let's see how it works out for them 203 points for our buddy clark in that thing would you bring me not very loud but uh over 200 is pretty good how's it going it's going it hooked up yeah but still 204 i know dang let's go forward not fast i'm impressed by the tire prep job though it seemed like it worked pretty good like that yeah it's nice oh my god i didn't even see that that's what it left it's like spins all the way down the track yeah you still can't get it to work geez you know the lambo guys get 260 on a street tire i'm just saying i know there's something wrong like on a 30 series maybe 35 i don't know yeah all-wheel drive all-wheel drive even the corvette's down there there's something we're missing something part of the difference though is the lambos were meant to go 200 from the factory yeah you're driving a 5th den camaro which is better than fourteen camaro big 201.79 you still spinning clark oh yeah i can't imagine why steve made so much work part of his engines that's what too much torque funny problem to have we're gonna go back up one more time take the traction control off we did some other things turn stuff off so just trust your foot yeah got a nice tailwind just kicked up i'll help a little bit you're getting pretty consistent around 203 204 so we're in 200 so yeah it's still fast as i hell you just need a front diff in here exactly drive tomorrow maybe this winter he's out of it 103 though you\n"