1989 Chevrolet Camaro Iroc-z on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Hagerty kicks back with Ringbrothers for a look at the Recoil

Over the years, Ringbrothers has shown the ability to mix a meticulous eye for style and serious amounts of horsepower with customs like the Pantera-based Adrnln. The company's recent project, a tuned 1966 Chevrolet Chevelle called Recoil, is some of its best work yet and already has Jay Leno's denim-clad stamp of approval. Now, Hagerty is taking a look, while digging into the history of the actual Ring brothers: Mike and Jim. The two guys grew up in a small town where owning a car was practically a necessity, and the brothers were already wrenching before they could even legally drive. Eventually, that passion grew into a business, which led to wonderfully customized performance vehicles like the Recoil. Hagerty gets a fascinating look into Ringbrothers tuning philosophy in its interview. Of course, the real interest lies in this custom Chevelle, and there's a chance to hear the absolutely ferocious sound from the Recoil's supercharged V8 in this clip.

Next-gen Chevy Camaro ZL1 teases big changes under its camo

With work complete on the lighter, stiffer 2016 Camaro, it's time for Chevrolet's engineers to really start having fun by developing the next, ZL1 version. Here it is for the first time. Unfortunately, the muscle car is still wearing quite a bit of camouflage, but the concealment isn't enough to hide some of the meaner model's more obvious performance tweaks. Starting from the front, this Camaro now wears a much more aggressive front fascia with bigger air inlets. Managing the airflow around the engine bay is clearly a big deal because another photo reveals a fairly large extractor in the hood, as well. Moving down the profile, the lower side sills and orientation of the camo suggest some blistered fenders in the back to cover wider rubber, and at the very rear a much larger wing further suggests the need to keep things planted to the road. Check out the comparison images in the gallery for a better look at the tweaks. What will power the next ZL1 is still entirely a mystery, although sticking with a supercharged 6.2-liter V8 could be a possibility, especially if you take the big extractor in the hood as a hint. Whereas the current ZL1 makes 580 horsepower and 556 pound-feet of torque, the LT4 in the latest Cadillac CTS-V pumps out 640 hp and 630 lb-ft. Combined with the Camaro's other improvements, we're thinking that this new ZL1 will be quite a hot ticket, and based on these spy shots, we can't wait to find out.

'Killing a Duramax' Gale Banks YouTube series methodically tunes a diesel to death

Learning or perfecting a skill by watching YouTube videos is known as attending YouTube University. GM Authority picked up on one of the video site's more fascinating courses, hosted by Gale Banks; in a fair world, he should be referred to as Professor Banks when it comes to diesel engines and truck tuning. A few months after GM introduced the updated L5P 6.6-liter Duramax diesel V8 in the 2020 Chevrolet Silverado HD and GMC Sierra HD that ships with 454 horsepower and 910 pound-feet of torque, Banks decided he wanted to methodically tune the engine to death. The purpose of the resulting series, called "Killing a Duramax," is to push more power out of the engine in order to discover which parts break and when — or, as Banks puts it, force-feed the Duramax "until the crank hits the street and the heads hit the hood." With that knowledge, Banks can figure out all the weak points on his way to building what he calls a "Superturbo," that being a supercharged, twin-turbo race engine with more than 1,000 hp. What makes the series fascinating is Banks' knowledge, paired with the company's comprehensive iDash engine monitoring system that keeps tabs on a glut of parameters every step of the way. So for instance, you get Banks explaining the differences between inches of mercury and barometric pressure, how those are different from the water content of the air measured in grains, then showing those readouts on the iDash, then explaining in detail how they affect the air density in the Duramax system. The stock Borg-Warner variable turbo gets a lot of airtime — Banks accuses it of being "out to lunch" because he feels it's the weakest link on the engine. That turns into a turbo teardown and a deep explanation of performance pitfalls, such as when air pressure on the turbine begins to diverge from the boost pressure coming from the compressor. Banks says he can keep close tabs on where power's coming from, because the iDash monitors the horsepower contribution provided by the ambient air, the turbo, and the intercooler separately. The major changes so far are a stouter Precision 7675 turbo and TurboSmart wastegate (episode 5), a twin intake (episode 6), a custom liquid-cooled intercooler from a marine engine, a new GM oil cooler and synthetic oil (episode 10), and new injectors (episode 11).