Video: Ray Bulach’s Fourth-Gen Camaro Smashes GM Six-Speed Record

Records are set to be broken, right? Even if they just so happen to be your own. You may remember Ray Bulach’s blue Camaro that set the GM six-speed record at 8.63 at 178 mph a couple of years ago. Well, that same Camaro has continued to improve in both setup and ET and now has smashed its own record once again with an 8.06 at 181 mph—tantalizingly close to the 7s.

When we first caught up with the fourth-gen Camaro and Ray, back in July of 2014, the car was running an iron-block 364 cubic inch setup with a 7675 turbo stuffing 27 psi down the mill’s throat. According to Bulach, at the time, the car had just recently made 1,000 rwhp at 23 psi and they decided to turn it up a bit for the car’s debut run at the Street Car Takeover in Indianapolis.

The car was still unproven at the time, having only made 10 previous passes on the turbo setup, and Bulach even remarked that even he didn’t know what it was capable of because he hadn’t “run it out the back door yet.” He also mentioned that he was still dialing in the tune at the time. However, the car ended up breaking the GM six-speed record with an 8.63 at 158 mph pass—beating out the previous record of 8.69. Not bad for a car that was still technically doing some shake down passes.

The second time we caught a glimpse of this badass six-speed car was back in September of 2015, at Holley LS Fest. While the car was still running the 76 mm turbo that it had set the original record with, the engine had been ditched in favor of a 367 cubic inch mill from Texas Speed & Performance. The setup was good enough for an 8.33 at 168 mph. Later, in an interview with BigKlieb, Bulach mentioned that he’d take the car “as far as the RPM T56 will take me. As long as we can keep it together, we’ll keep pushing the combo and see how low we can go with it.” Sentiments that were not soon forgotten by Bulach. 

Fast forward to just two weeks ago, when the Camaro smashed its own record yet again, and you will find a familiar similar setup. The F-body is still running the RPM-built T56 six-speed transmission that is fed power via a Monster LT1-RR twin disc clutch. The 367 cubic inch mill—built by Texas Speed & Performance—is still in place but is now being fed liberal doses of atmosphere by a Garrett GT5588 that has been specially prepared by Custom Racing Turbos. The car even still has the loudest two-step we’ve ever heard in place. 

This time around, the car was making well north of 1,200 rwhp. The fact that this car is still running a six-speed is a testament to Bulach’s iron will to take the car faster than any manual GM car before it. You’ve got to give this guy respect for even being able to get the car down the track with that much power, much less getting it to put all of that power to the ground.

For anyone out there that still says “manuals impress high school girls, but automatics win races”, we’d like you to tell that to Bulach. It’s only a matter of time before this fourth-gen becomes the first six-speed GM car to ever go 7s—and that’s pretty damn impressive in a stick car, so consider us high school girls.

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About the author

Chase Christensen

Chase Christensen hails from Salt Lake City, and grew up around high-performance GM vehicles. He took possession of his very first F-body— an ’86 Trans Am— at the age of 13 and has been wrenching ever since.
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