SS021 had been previously been upgraded with a modified radiator, fan package and air intake system designed by Unique Performance. We will be installing our Air intake system, our upgraded cooling system, ignition system, front and rear suspension upgrades, and parking brake system. In addition to these standard upgrades we will be installing our Electronic Fuel Injection system, prototyping an intercooler system and installing a 3" exhaust system. We will also be installing our power brake system upgrade to improve braking power while retaining the original Shelby brake system.

The project of SS021 has grown as we have once again learned from our work. In our work with SS016 we saw that by improving the airflow through the engine we had lost 3 lbs of boost as the Vortech V2 supercharger was undersized and over driven for the smaller 468ci engine.  Now as we prepared to not only improve the airflow on this larger 482ci but add intercooling and EFI we had to face the realization that this supercharger would not do. Upgrading this supercharger would be no small task as the engine accessory brackets were made to provide the minimum of clearance for the small V2 and any upgraded head unit would also increase the scroll size.  So as any good builder would; we did our math, we talked to our vendors, and dove in! 

Our initial inspection uncovered a surprise better found soother rather than later- an engine knock.  We found that somewhere in its life the total timing on this engine had been set to 70*!  Once our rough fabrication requiring the engine was complete it was removed, crated up and sent to our good friends at Gessford Machine for rebuilding.  The Shelby 427 FE wizards at Gessford are taking the opportunity to rebuild this engine with their own flavor; higher efficiency pistons, bearing clearances re-toleranced, new valves and springs, port matched EFI intake.  This reborn stroker FE will be able to take full advantage of the boost we provide.

As of this update all of our rough fabrication is complete and we are awaiting the return of the engine from Gessford Machine to begin our final assembly.  To solve our supercharger clearance issue we have fabricated our own Vortech V7 upgrade bracket (soon to be offered as a kit for sale!!)  We relocated the supercharger up and inward and re worked the supercharger belt idler and tensioner location for improved belt management.  With minor modifications we fit our intercooler inside the stock GT 500 E body work and fabricated our intercooler plumbing through the fender aprons and back to a modified Vortech carburetor enclosure to maintain the vintage supercharged Super Snake look.  Of course as with all of our upgrades, everything will be built serviceable, and will look as if it came off the assembly floor this way.  SS021 received our upgraded oil cooler system, power brake upgrade, upgraded cooling system, 3” exhaust system, upgraded fuel system, and a dual disk clutch with our upgraded hydraulics to handle that additional horsepower.  Fuel management will be handled by a FAST XFI sequential fuel injection system with custom parts we have developed.  Enjoy the pictures!

SS021 or Tiny as he has been so named has quickly become the star of the shop.  Anyone that comes to visit that has heard rumor or has seen fabrication pictures of this behemoth always ask to see it in person.   Upon opening the hood of this vehicle everyone is amazed at the sheer size of the 4” intake tube feeding the large V7 Supercharger until the notice the nearly 15’ of intake tract running out of the passenger apron to the intercooler, into the driver fender where it appears into the engine bay on its way to the carburetor enclosure.   Carburetor enclosure you say?  Better now referred to as a Throttle body enclosure, for this beast is fuel injected by a FAST XFI sequential system pulsing a set of 82 lb injectors in time.  Sure, others have done the EFI system on 60’s muscle cars without the enclosure.  Sure, making the enclosure fit with all of the plumbing took more work.  Sure, it was a pain to route wiring, sensors, and vacuum lines through the enclosure.  But to us, nothing completes that vintage supercharged look like a carburetor enclosure; without it the engine bay looks empty and it doesn’t look like a Super Snake.

Tiny is the #1 of our first 3 Super Snake Super Car package upgrades.  On top of our regular chassis upgrades he has received our 3” exhaust system, our Super Snake cooling package, our power brake system, our dual disk clutch upgrade, and of course our V7, Intercooled, EFI upgrade pumping the computer estimated horsepower to 950hp and a hair over 1000 ft/lbs.   We are currently building our basic program for the XFI system and dialing in street drivability.  Although Vortech claims this head unit can produce 30lbs of boost, with our selection of pulley ratio we expected to see around 15 lbs of boost by the time it reached our heavy breathing 482ci monster through the intercooler.  On our maiden tuning voyage this week we did a MILD half throttle roll in at around 40mph to see how fast the boost would come up and instantly saw 15lbs of boost with zero lag as the rear tires went up in smoke and Tiny started drifting sideways.  We have larger pulleys on order to slow down the V7 and make Tiny at least semi-drivable.  I’ve also advised Tiny’s owner to buy stock in a performance tire company.

Success!

Tiny is the first Super Snake to receive our complete Super Car package upgrade.  On top of our regular chassis upgrades, he has received our 3” exhaust system, our Super Snake cooling package, our power brake system, our dual disk clutch upgrade, and of course our V7, Intercooled, EFI upgrade pumping the computer estimated horsepower to 950hp.

Our first supercharger pulley selection boosted the engine so rapidly that we reached 15 lbs of boost at half throttle violently producing so much power that the vehicle was dangerously undrivable on the street.  To make the vehicle more streetable we downsized the pulley so that we would be closer to our original goal of 15 lbs of boost at full throttle and the resulting package is more than enough to make an experienced driver tighten his seat belt harness anywhere past half throttle.  As a comparison the original V2 supercharger was only able to produce 5lbs of boost after our upgrades without an intercooler and judging by the first pulley this current system could easily surpass 20lbs at full throttle.   And yet the street manners of SS021 are so docile (under half throttle) that the owner came out and drove the vehicle on its maiden road voyage with the current boost level and was ecstatic with how easy it was to drive.

The dynamometer testing was icing on the cake.  With vehicles of this caliber and the power levels we play with it can be easy for a vehicle to feel more powerful than the numbers it can put to the ground.  Dyno tuning is always part of our protocol to be sure that these vehicles can perform for our clients under all conditions.  With SS021 this was the first time we had been able to hold the vehicle in full throttle long enough to tune the higher RPM ranges.  With only a handful of pulls on the dyno, our FAST XFI sequential fuel injection system easily allowed us to dial in the high end of the RPM range.  Our best pull put down 771 hp and 718 ft/lbs of torque at the rear wheels!!    With the typical 20% driveline loss we see across the board with these UP vehicles it gives us a crankshaft horsepower of 963 with the supercharger pullied to 12 lbs and a conservative street safe tune and a lot more HP in reserve should we ever decide to turn up the boost!

Here a video of a dyno pull so that you can hear how Tiny roars.

Our success with SS021 even made the digital pages of the DuPont Registry Online!