Tom Heatley Making Some Serious Changes To His Drag Radial/True Street Camaro

Tom Heatley has undeniably come a long way with his ride. For a few years preceding its 2009 debut, this 4th gen was under the knife for quite some time, but it all paid off once it hit the track, becoming an impressive True Street performer. The twin turbo big block gave him an easy 1800+ Horsepower, and a dead nuts reliable street car that he could go grab a bite to eat at the local burger joint with.

Unfortunately, back in May as the 2010 season was just getting rumbling for Tom, his car went down in flames during a test session at Jackson dragway in TN, prompting a somewhat delayed, yet interesting rebuild for Tom. Follow the build status on Yellowbullet.

First stop for Tom was picking up a newly-designed nose from DMC Racing, then having the motor brought to Bill Malcom for a rebuild with a twist. The 477 will get a fresh set of pistons that’ll bump the compression ratio from 8.2:1 up to 9.5:1, as the team looks to increase their power while still running 18 pounds of boost. Keeping up with the ever-improving competition, Tom looks to also shed a lot of weight from this “pig,” by ditching the rear mount twin turbo’s and going with one large single, he estimates he’ll drop about 60 pounds from the car. Ridding the car of long oil lines, intercooler piping and excessive underbody temps were just a few reasons persuading Heatley to make the turbo change.

As much as we’d like to see the car back out soon, Heatley admits his 2010 season is pretty much over, but will definitely be right back in the hunt come next year. This Camaro just keeps getting better and better. Will Heatley gain the power to muscle into the 4’s in the 1/8th in street legal trim? He wouldn’t have it any other way!