Impetus
Motivational Engineering of Carson, California, built the 377-inch motor (4.155 x 3.48) with a rocklike Motown block. Mike built his short-stroke wonder off the machining skills of partner-in-crime Team C (Bellflower, California). He based the short-block on an Eagle forging, 5.85-inch Groden Racing (Sapulpa, Oklahoma) aluminum connecting rods swinging 14:1 Diamond pistons with Ackerly & Childs Xtreme ring packs. The custom-ground Comp solid roller sports a hefty 0.728/0.707-inch lift and a fat 274/286 degrees duration at 0.050. Mike captured the front of the block with a Jesel beltdrive and closed up the bottom with a Hamburger oil pan and a Melling high-volume pump. The 377's lungs are prodigious: AFR 227 castings hold 2.10/1.62-inch stainless valves, Isky springs and roller lifters, Jesel shaft rockers, Manton 3/8-inch pushrods, and Isky titanium retainers and locks. Another of Mike's buds is CFO Enterprises (Lancaster, California), who did the porting and polishing. All this ensures good, clean pulls to at least 9,500 rpm. Saiki's a juice-head, no doubt, so he assembled a combo of an Edelbrock Super Victor intake manifold, a C&J Engineering-prepped (Whittier, California) 800-cfm Holley, and an Edelbrock single-stage nitrous plate engineered by Steve Johnson's Induction Solutions (Spring Hill, Florida). Fuel delivery is the province of a Product Engineering pump (Cape May Courthouse, New Jersey) and Russell braided lines. On the motor, the MSD Digital 7 box induces 42 degrees. When the juice is detected, it knocks the timing back to 27. Saiki funneled the Dan Lemons-built 2 1/8-inch primary pipes into 4-inch Burns stainless steel merge collectors and mufflers. To manage the torque consistently, Mike called on Steve Sharp (Torrance, California) for the Turbo 400. Sharp left the ratios stock and didn't include a transbrake at Mike's request. Saiki launches cowboylike, with a violent, wheels-up lunge off a Coan 8-inch converter built with a whopping 7,000-stall speed. Grunt rockets down a 31/2-inch steel prop shaft as prepped by Cooks Machine (City of Industry, California) to 1350 U-joints. B&M provided the fluid cooler and the Pro Magnum shifter. Tom's Differential (Ponderay, Idaho) is another of Mike's cronies, and Kenny there built him a Ford 9-inch with Tom's ends, a ball bearing retainer, a nodular iron case, a 4.11:1 gearset on a Tom's spool, and 35-spline axleshafts.
Skin
Since the body was pristine when the Saikis bought it, they stripped it down to the metal before handing the shell to Siggy's Auto Body (Los Angeles), who took a mere week to shoot the scheme. Siggy's applied the PPG Royal Blue and Pure Silver stripes, which appear a great match for the Weld hoops.
Inner View
As a strip car, the Camaro's interior serves one purpose, but happily it isn't as a dungeon. It doesn't look much different from a street piece. A Painless Wiring system gets most of the spaghetti out of view. Auto Meter Ultra-Lite gauges reside in a Covan's panel. A Flaming River tilt steering column with a Grant wheel and Kirkey race seats complete the tableau. An RCI harness keeps ol' Mike's butt where it belongs.