Every car guy has that one unicorn vehicle they want more than anything else. Sean Madden’s dream car is a black-on-black C7 ZR1, a rare and high-priced GM icon. Since a C7 ZR1 just isn’t practical for Sean, he did the next best thing, he built a 2016 Z06 that has the potential to become the quickest and fastest H-pattern stick shift car in the world.
Sean isn’t new to the Corvette game. His white Corvette is an absolute animal in the stick-shift racing circles, but he was reaching the limits of what the build was capable of. It was time to find something that would help him reach his goals. A fresh start with a new car was the best course of action to make that happen.
“I made a Facebook post asking if anyone had a Corvette project car for sale. I found this car in Pennsylvania and it was rough. The car was basically a rusty shell with missing parts, but I bought it anyway since I made the trip. We brought it back home to my shop and got to work on the build,” Sean explains.
Sean and his good friend Taylor Thurston got to work turning the Corvette into a fresh ride. Taylor handled a lot of the fabrication, including the floors, windows, carbon work, tubs, and front suspension. The rearend is a Hammer Concepts floater weld-together kit that Taylor built. Up front, Taylor built a custom front suspension that integrates the OEM Corvette-based geometry into the rest of the chassis. Menscer Motorsports shocks were selected for all four corners of the Chevrolet.
When it came time to make some serious horsepower, Sean turned to Dave Visner at Visner Engine Development for the parts to build a killer 498 cubic-inch 4.84 bore space small-block Chevy. The carefully curated selection of parts was then sent to Jonathan Atkins at JA Competition for assembly. A Waterman fuel system feeds the mill a healthy diet of race-grade methanol through a set of FuelTech injectors. A Holley Dominator ECU controls the car.
Power is sent to the rear tires thanks to a Tick Performance T56 with a PPG gearset. Sean used a Black Magic clutch to round out the H-pattern setup.
All of the fastest H-pattern stick-shift cars in the world have used some type of turbo setup for a power adder, that is, until Sean debuted his Corvette. A crank-driven F-4 136 ProCharger hangs off the front of the small-block Chevy, and the thought process behind using it makes sense.
“With a clutch car, a ProCharger makes sense. As RPM increases, boost increases, just like how a clutch applies more force as rpm goes up. With turbos, you can get inconsistencies like boost spikes and blowing through the clutch. That creates tuning issues. With a ProCharger, I know exactly what the boost is going to be every time. It’s mechanical. That consistency is huge. Also, nobody had really done it before, and I like doing things differently,” Sean explains.
Well, being different paid off. Sean’s Corvette laid down a best run of 6.55 at 214 mph, making it the fastest stick-shift Corvette in the world right now. On that pass, the car went 4.30 to the eighth-mile, so clearly there is more left in the combination. Sean thinks that 6.40s aren’t out of the question.
Sean wants to have the quickest and fastest H-pattern stick shift car in the world. However, there’s an even bigger goal on Sean’s to-do list, and it’s a doozy.
“My ultimate goal is to go a 3.99 in the eighth mile with a T56 transmission. If I do that, I’ll feel complete. This car might be able to do it, but that last little bit to dip into the three-second zone is going to be hard. We’re certainly going to try,” Sean states.
Sean Madden might not own a C7 ZR1, but it’s safe to say his Z06 is a pretty impressive ride. With the goal of reshaping the face of H-pattern stick-shift racing, Sean is going to be busy with his sinister new ride.
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