After Mast Motorsports got done with the L99/LS3 engine in Paul’s ’70 it boasted 416 ci. It owes the distinction to a 4-inch-stroke Callies crank and Mahle 4.070-inch forged pistons linked by Callies H-beam connecting rods. That combination with the Mast CNC-ported LS3 cylinder heads yields a snappy 11.4:1 static compression ratio. This Mast mill has a trick up its sleeve: variable-valve timing. The ECU advances the Mast-spec roller-tappet cam to make the engine twist out 540 lb-ft at 5,400 rpm; it retards the cam to pour a full 605 hp at 6,300. Mast adorned the engine with an LS3 manifold. A 90mm DBW throttle body with an eight-layer Mast filter element feeds it and a Mast-calibrated M-90 ECM commands the system. The 140-amp alternator on the Vintage Air accessory drive ensures the twin Engineered Machine Products electric fans sufficient power to draw air across the Be Cool radiator at low speeds. DSE fabricated the 17/8-inch diameter stainless headers. The 3-inch diameter stainless tubing they feed features an X-pipe and shorty Borla mufflers. Those pipes flank a Tremec TKO-600 five-speed transmission. A Centerforce clutch couples it to the engine.
This car is exceptional in many ways, but one really got our attention: He didn’t have to touch the body. The car’s prior owner, Wes Bennett at Bennett’s Lower Valley Collision in Wapato, tended to the few details the body needed and applied the PPG base/clear Cortez Silver urethane. To make it even better he sold the car to Paul minus running gear. About the only changes include stainless plumbing and a DSE stainless 18-gallon fuel tank with an internal Walbro GSS340 pump.
Paul’s ’70 rolls a set of Forgeline ZX3 wheels. The fronts measure 18x10 with a 6.4-inch backspace; the rears, 18x12 with a 5.4-inch backspace. The wheels wear BFGoodrich KDA hides, 275/35R18 and 335/30R18, respectively. Peeking through those spokes are Baer Claw Extreme-Plus six-piston calipers. They exert force upon 14-inch-diameter Baer rotors.
The chassis description reads like a catalog of DSE’s finest equipment. It replaced the subframe with one of its hydro-formed units, an assembly that imparts more modern camber and caster curves to older cars. That subframe wears the company’s tubular control arms, steering rack, splined antiroll bar, and Corvette C6 steering knuckles. A DSE four-link rear suspension pins a Ford 9-inch to the car. It sports a 3.89:1 gear on an Eaton Truetrac limited-slip gear carrier and transfers its power by 31-spline axleshafts. Both ends of the car benefit from mono-tube, remote-reservoir, coilover dampers.
A sports car asks a lot of its driver and the driver’s interface—the cockpit—shows it’s all business. An eight-point DSE ’cage serves as its backbone. Schroth Profi II-FE harnesses pinned to it restrain occupants in the Recaro Specialist S seats. The car came with an OEM tilt column that Paul topped with a MOMO Mod 07 14-inch leather-wrapped steering wheel. Through its spokes he can read the Auto Meter Pro-Comp Ultra-Lite gauges. For a touch of class, DSE had the dash and door panels clad in French-seamed leather and adorned them with its mill-dimpled inserts. Behind the dash lives a Vintage Air Gen IV climatecontrol system and when the mood strikes Paul can pull down an access panel below the dash to reveal an Alpine CDA-9886M head unit. An American Autowire harness distributes power throughout the car. The ’50s-era Daytona square-weave lends the cockpit a decidedly classy charm.