Donald Hardy
There's no substitute for cubic inches. Car-builder Donald Hardy used a Lunati stroker in a 6.0L block to discover a displacement of 421 ci. Here he is blowing out some cobwebs at Red River Raceway near Shreveport, Louisiana.
The most advanced of the trio presented here, car-builder Donald Hardy's (Lubbock, Texas) sinister '02 Silverado features a 6.0L cylinder block bored 0.030-over and stroked to 4.125 inches via a Lunati crankshaft. With 10.5:1 compression, CNC-ported LS6 cylinder heads, LS6 intake manifold, and 32-gph injectors, the engine puts out 520 hp at the flywheel (450 hp at the wheels). The exhaust system is composed of Doug's long-tube headers with 15/8-inch primaries that dump into a 2.5-inch pipe with a Flowmaster muffler. The Comp XR269HR hydraulic roller was installed 4 degrees advanced. Donald's tune-up is old school only in the "there's no substitute for cubic inches" adage.
Hailing from west Texas, Hardy can really stretch the legs of the this 450hp (at the wheels) dude without fear of The Man. Ported LS6 heads and intake manifold help it breathe, and a tweaked 4L60E seems to fit the overall package better than a manual transmission.
Throttle response with the 3.73:1 axle is instantaneous and lusty. A 2,200-stall converter shuttles the torque with alacrity, but the upshifts don't jar your wig loose and are muted and comfortable even under the harshest whip. On the other end of the spectrum, Donald enlisted Baer Eradispeed brakes, and 245/40 and 295/40 BFGs on sublime machined-surfaced 20-inch Budniks to work with the Air Ride suspension system.
While we've seen and experienced the good and the bad attributes of airbags, Donald's Silverado could be the Air Lift poster child. It feels like conventional springs are working underneath. It doesn't bobble, bump, or wallow no matter what you do to it, even though the sidewalls on those 20s are rubber-band skinny. Regardless, Hardy has built a cogent, intelligent everyday driver that defies most of the modern cues and reels in 18 mpg.