Jason Keller 's ZL1 Inspired 1985 IROC-Z Build | Hawks Motorsports

[Music] all [Music] hey guys this is Tyler with Hawks Motorsports coming to you guys today with my good friend Jason Keller we're going to talk to you guys in regards to a 1985 irck that we just got finished building for Jason what I want to talk about today with you guys is me and Jason are going to go over his racing career uh some of his accomplishments in racing what brought him to Hawks Motorsports for us to build uh his dream of the 85 irck Z and just to go over what his goals and expectations were and what his thoughts were on delivery of the vehicle so I want to talk to you a little bit about to let everybody know who you are what you come from tell me what got you into racing uh what your most memorable race was in Bush series and in the grand national series and kind of give you a little bit of background on yourself well uh all of it started with my dad you know you've met him several times and I know you're real tight with your dad as well and uh pop and I started back uh racing when I was 10 years old racing go-karts all around the southeast really all around the country and I I often laugh and say that I would I would go to sleep in in Virginia on a Friday night after a race and and and uh and and then I wake up in you know three states over and uh and race the next night so uh that all led to the bush series and just the progression of going through the late models at at at I started at Anderson Speedway on the asphalt and different things and uh had a had a lot of success there and he never was my dad would never was a guy that just was was content to uh win track championships or do anything he wanted to always progress and that that's what moved us over into the uh to the bush series then at the time there wasn't a truck series so uh we were able to buy a car and uh put a group of just local guys together and that's what was so special about our first win at Indianapolis IRP in 95 because I'm not still looking that picture and I still look at the suit on the wall and the trophy and and the and the flag and I go I don't know that we were supposed to be there you I don't know that we were supposed to to to have that kind of success and I think if we thought about it at the time we probably wouldn't had that much success because we were just doing what we love to do and that's the only thing we knew to do um and and really that wi was a combination of all of the laps at at at Anderson and all of the wins at Anderson and even prior to that all of the laps around the dirt tracks around the Carolinas and and different things so that win and for and for my dad to be in Victory Lane with his car yeah you know that was the coolest thing so it that for me they're all special don't get me wrong I was very very fortunate to win uh several races I won one from from Bristol all the way to Talladega so those type race tracks are special just because of what they are but for me personally the team aspect that I had and when I won that first one in '95 was uh was really special and and it was my wife was there so really the we didn't have kids at the time but we found out a week later that she was pregnant for the first time so I can see that picture and see all of those stories and see all everything that no one else sees or knows and and how special it was and looking back at that it seems like yesterday but it seems like you know years and years ago so it was but lot of lot a lot of good memories kind of so you said your first first car was a 85 irck so tell me a little bit about that and and kind of what uh how that come to be well my my dad early on even when I started racing about that time he was very specific to make sure that I didn't do a lot of Street Racing so it was it was one of these things you know uh I had I had big stereo I had I had a lot of cool you know shine on it and wheels and and and really it was my pride and joy but I was actually even I starting a dirt race at the time local so he said you you race on the track and and you and you cruise and and you sound good and you look good on the street so uh was able to do that and and I've had just so many wonderful memories in that car and and and what another thing that led me back to that as I went to car shows I realized that most of the people there had a personal connection with her car mhm so for me it was hard to get the feeling and the personal connection of other cars because I didn't have a story about it I didn't have a a a background about with it and so the 85 irck I've got those stories I got the stories driving it to the beach you know you know first week I've got all of those and this generation may not remember that but I mean that's what that's what us old guys used to do you know we used drive to the beach and just have fun with it so those are the stories that I wanted to go back and feel uh I was very adamant to you don't change the steering wheel you know this steering wheel is is something that I wanted to to feel in my hands and uh uh we changed the seats a little bit but you and I were very specific on don't don't I don't want you know this that and you guys really accomplished everything and every feel that I wanted my first car was a 1985 irck so it kind of takes me all the way back to there and that was one of the reasons I came to Hawks was because uh I wanted that Nostalgia back to that and and I really I knew you guys uh at Hawks but I didn't know um everything about you so when I started researching this build I'm like they're just you know not far away from me so I had to really uh it just kind of everything lined up and and uh it's been a great experience with Hawks and uh definitely exceeded every expectation I had you know I really wanted to tie it in with the performance of and and the the racing background I know one of the first things I talked to your dad about and a lot of people kind of pushed me away from it I like exposed carbon so we were able to you guys not we you guys at Hawks were able to incorporate some of the things performance- wise that I felt was really cool back in the day for me early on in my racing career and tie it into this IR Rock and and tie it into an 85 ey Rock which was my first car to tie all of that in together and here we are you know 20 minutes away from each other your shop and here and uh it just couldn't have come at a better time and and with a better better group so going into the engine bay of the car now we're going to talk about the engine itself the details we done for the engine tying into Jason's racing background and the Motorsports background of a lot of the small details that we' done that you'll see at a car show if you're working on the car and all the little tiny things that you'll see you always find something new on this car so going back to the suspension we talked about earlier this is the Detroit Speed Caster camber plates uh that we use from Detroit Speed that comes with their Speed 3 kit uh we do utilize bare brake systems on the car so this is their remaster master cylinder and they adjustable proportioning valve uh we used a trick flow external regulator we did use the 99 to2 style tank but with the fuel supply of this car being on pump gas 93 and E85 we did have to have an adjustable fuel pressure regulator U we did a custom 5 in to 4 and 1/2 in cold air intake to supply the Kong ported LSA blower with a Nick Williams 103 throttle body uh through DSX tuning and Synergy Motorsports we were able to get rid of the factory LSA zo1 lid and we used a Billet ls9 style lid that helps keep our intake air temperatures down for more horsepower so and we use CNR uh intercooler bricks inside of the lid we utilized again our Hawks 2-in primary headers because we want to cram all that boost in the engine we got to have enough to get out of the engine uh LSX Innovations accessory drive system on this car we utilized a 2 three upper pulley and a 9 1/2 in overdriven lower crank pulley um wizard cooling system on the car so we usize their third gen 82 to 92 radiator and brushless Spa fan combo and we did a in fittings on everything of the car so every aspect you see of this car from the blower lid and the heat exchange changer system to the upper and lower radiator hoses the catch can every fitting the fuel system is a in on this car -8 6 10 12 even 20 we went up to on the cooling system we did a custom fabricated in-house heat exchanger tank and coolant overflow reservoir uh with everything going on in this engine bay it was hard for us to keep those Factory big bulky third gen coolant reservoirs and washer fluid tanks so what we did is we did utilize a custom fabricated tank for the heat exchanger system for the supercharger the coolant overflow and the windshield washer fluid itself um this is a street car that was a big thing with Jason that we discussed was we wanted to keep AC on the car so that goes back to the LSX Innovations with the car does have ice cold AC uh that was one big thing for us building street cars at Hawks Motorsports is what's a street car without AC you got to have it uh the bottom end in the motor is a stock bottom botom end LSA uh we have done ARP head studs in the engine we utiliz the BTR stage three positive displacement cam shaft and we utilized a uh stock LSA cylinder head but with all the supporting components the Dual valve spring kit for the cam shaft the CH truning kit for the rocker arms so a lot of the engine bay details that we had on the car for Jason was ARP stainless Hardware uh when Jason come to us and he said I don't want this to be your typical just LS swap third gen I want all the detail to be there to really wow people that was one thing we did so all the hardware on the engine has been ARP stainless steel Hardware from the blower lid bolts the coil pack bolts the valve cover the engine bay Hardware that holds the fenders the front bumper the front supports the upper radiator shroud every piece of Hardware you see on this car is ARP stainless Hardware uh the JK logo was a big thing for us that we wanted to incorporate on this car so we wanted small details that really showed you Jason that this was his car and this was his dream of a car so what we did is we had the JK logo engraved on the blower lid uh we also had the racecraft lid uh done for the heat exchanger so we have all these race components that are tied into the engine bay from the racecraft lid it ties into everything that we have on the engine that is race inspired the aend fittings the specific components wizard cooling system the turn one steering box we tried to keep all of this stuff really race inspired for Jason on this car where to the outside you see a typical eyck but when you get to the guts of this car it really is a true Motorsports race inspired ick all that's left on this car that is original is the chassis itself and the interior itself everything else has been either touched replaced um built better so we're going to go through all of that so what we did um starting with the suspension and we're going to go through the drive line and the rear end of the car on the front of the car we used a Detroit Speed speed three front kit on it um so it utilizes their a ARS the jri uh single adjustable shocks we did uh a turn one steering box on the car all moo front suspension components steering linkage uh the Detroit Speed sway bar we used a Tac Magnum F T56 transmission uh made it to the engine by moud rxt twin disc clutch we used our Hawks LSX swap cross member uh we used a stainless works we work with them and they do a private label 2-in primary header 3 and 1/2 in wi pop to a 3 and 1/2 in exhaust system for us this is a nice system where it keeps everything very tucked clean underneath the car uh gets great ground clear clearance and just really fits the car really nicely so wanted to keep the quality there that was one thing that we did with Jason is talking about the quality we wanted to tie into the racing uh we had this fully ceramic coated uh we had the full exhaust system ceramic coated moving on back we utilized a drive shaft shop 3 and 1/2 in aluminum drive shaft uh Umi performance F length torque arm on the rear of the car moving to the rear end of the car itself we have one of our Hawks 8 eight rear ends we did do a little bit things differently on this rear end as we tied into Jason's uh racing background some we did some lightweight aspects on this rear end we used a Detroit Speed 3 kit in the rear with the remote reservoir jri shocks their lower control arms Detroit Speed sway bar and pan hard bar uh we did utilize a Umi upper pan hard bar on the car for a little bit more exhaust clearance and utilized bear brakes on all four corners we did one of our Hawks intank twin 450 L per hour fuel pump systems utilizing a 99-02 LS1 rear fuel tank so talking about the exterior of this car we originally started with a 19,000 mile all original 85 irck Z we did want to throw in some nice touches in there uh to incorporate the build we were going for but we didn't want to get away from the factory look of the irck so what we did was we utilized one of our 5-in Hawks rear spoilers Forge Line Custom oneoff iro Z ZL1 Wheels bare six piston brakes on all four corners 14 in in the front and 13 Ines in the rear Starbuck Innovative designs front fog lights and functional brake ducks to keep the brakes cool if Jason decides to autocross and Roads course the car as well as one of our Hawks irck reproduction grills it really tied in the whole build to this car when we put on the ultracarbon irck Z Hood with the track spec louers that really helped show everything for the actual racing background the custom forge Line Wheels that they did for us are 18 by 10 A2 on all four corners we wrapped those in a falcon aenis 315x 30800 tread wear Street and autocross Tire the stand the car we wanted to keep where we still had ground clearance but we wanted to try to get this car on the ground as much as we could uh just for the simple look of it and aerodynamics of the car if Jason really wants to start racing and getting after it on road courses and um autocrosses with this car so with the combo that we have in this car and all the modifications that we've done to this LSA 6-speed combo uh we do have this car again on Flex Fuel so it's runs on pump gas 93 or E85 so I wanted to give you you guys some numbers of what this monster [Music] [Applause] [Music] made on pump gas 93 it made 722 rear wheel horsepower and 665 ft-lbs of torque and on E85 made 795 horsepower 720 ft-lb rear wheel [Music] [Music] torque

Channel: Hawks Motorsports

Views: 11,656

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Id: VNcyUNJ3Um4

Length: 16min 54sec (1014 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 21 2023