Video: Evolution Performance First To The 8’s With 2013 GT500

Our friends over at Evolution Performance are at it again. This past weekend at the NMRA Maryland International Raceway stop, team driver Nelson Whitlock absolutely crushed the 2013 GT500 record with an insane 8.94 at 159 MPH. The car relies upon one of L&M Engines‘ finest bullets, topped off with a set of Slawko-ported cylinder heads and a Kenne Bell 3.6L liquid-cooled supercharger to go along with the Kenne Bell 168mm oval throttle body. Also onboard in the power generation department is one of JLT True Cold Air‘s “Super Big Air” 155mm cold air intakes and a set of American Racing Headers‘ with two-inch primary tubes.

The Evolution team still has, if you can believe it, a factory (!) Tremec TR6060 six-speed transmission in this beast to go with a SPEC twin-disc clutch and aluminum flywheel. Using these pieces Whitlock even managed to pull the wheels on the 1-2 shift in the process. Even more incredible, the car weighs in at a portly 3,734 pounds with Whitlock in the seat. Fore Innovations provided a triple-pump return-style fuel system, and Barton‘s billet short-throw shifter allowed for the gearchanges. Dynotech Engineering supplied an aluminum driveshaft capable of handling the 1150-plus horsepower, while JRS Fabrication installed the 10-point roll cage in the car. It rolls these huge numbers on a Steeda Hardcore suspension system, and is tuned by none other than Jon Lund of Lund Racing using Sunoco E-85R race fuel.

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In order to achieve the incredible performance, the team was stuffing 22.8 pounds of boost through the engine, and in conversation with Evolution’s Fred Cook, he explained, “The car was put together in the week before the event – we’re so busy with customer cars we had a last-minute thrash to put this thing together. It was only on the dyno the Thursday right before we left. This combination was never run prior to last weekend. We still need to do lots of work on the suspension, and we’re planning on taking it to Atco for a test session to spend some time tuning it in. We’ve got a Kenne Bell 4.2L supercharger to go on it shortly, and we figure it will add another 150 to 200 horsepower at that point.” Cook explained that they’ve been working with Slawko Cylinder Heads for years, and have custom-developed cylinder head and intake manifold ports for this particular combination in conjunction with Tommy Slawko. Cook says the car idles at 22 inches of vacuum, and with the installation of a cat-back exhaust (it currently has turndowns) it would be completely streetable. The car even still features a complete interior and air conditioning. With no drive time on the car, they managed to go to the semifinals at this past weekend’s Terminator Vs. GT500 shootout at the NMRA event. We’ll be interested to see what kind of numbers this car can pull off with some more time in the Evolution shop, and that new 4.2L blower under the hood.

About the author

Jason Reiss

Jason draws on over 15 years of experience in the automotive publishing industry, and collaborates with many of the industry's movers and shakers to create compelling technical articles and high-quality race coverage.
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