Photos: Red Sled Motorsports

The WCHRA Spring Nationals at Famoso this weekend brought out some of the sweetest doorslammers on the west coast. A good workin’ track, perfect evening temperatures and an all around friendly crew working the event equaled something that all racers alike can admire. In the Outlaw 10.5 class Chris Kephart has one of the most unique rides in his ’62 Impala SS.  While making a strong presence in the PSCA series, they’ve been working closely with Vortech to get their unique setup as optimal as possible.

At Famoso this Sunday all the stars aligned for Chris, running out his best run to date with a 7.39 at 202 mph, with far from their best 60 foot time (1.4x). For more on this classic Outlaw 10.5 contender, check out Red Sled Motorsports.

What makes this so special?  Vortech’s presence in Outlaw 10.5 hasn’t been huge, but Chris has shown us that it’s far from impossible to be competitive with it. Chris, along with tuner Josh Deeds worked closely with Vortech on this prototype V28-123mm unit atop their 509 BBC engine and it’s starting to pay off now that they’ve got the chassis sorted out – it’s been a lot of work to get something unique as this Impala sorted out. Chris was running in A/Gas to gain valuable testing data for the future as well as supporting the WCHRA race. After taking a loss in the semi-finals, Tim Rigby offered Chris a final shot at breaking the 200mph mark as the final car to make a pass during Sunday’s festivities. That final run was all it took for Chris, and it was smiles all around after that.

How did Chris power this ‘62 Impala into the 200 mile-per-hour plus range? With the help of the new modular V-28 123 supercharger featuring a unique, ultra robust drive system and impressive peak efficiency (isentropic) of 82%.

An efficiency number in the 80+ percentile is nearly unheard of in the realm of supercharging, and has allowed Vortech to develop superchargers that perform on the upper level of centrifugal blowers. The development of compressors with super high efficiencies should be of no surprise to anyone in the industry.

As a testament to this technology, rear wheel horsepower in excess of 2000 was developed utilizing a compressor with a smaller inducer diameter (just 123mm) than what was previously required to reach such a milestone speed in the quarter mile.

What else went into this unique, badass Impala to get it to this point? Inside that BBC is a set of BME rods, DART heads, Lunati crank, finished off with FAST fuel injection – backed up by a Monster Glide from Mike’s Transmission. Chris estimates the car is shaking out about 2000 horsepower on C-16 fuel. Look for Chris Kephart to be taking home some trophies this year in Outlaw 10.5 events across the west coast.