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Eddie Blackwell – Naturally Aspirated 451ci C5Z
WORLDS FASTEST NATURALLY ASPIRATED LS ENGINE IN THE HALF MILE
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Just a good old boy from Huntsville Alabama with a passion for goin fast “ALL MOTOR” aka naturally aspirated. Eddie’s story with Vengeance Racing started off in 2007 with his 2002 C5 Z06 and has had many chapters along the way… Eddie came to us way back in 2007, just a year after we opened our doors, to build a 440 LS7 stroker for his street driven C5 Z06…. Just a few months after completing this build we had just finished an RHS 474 tall deck engine that was simply too much for Eddie to resist… Out went the barely broken in 440 LS7 and in went the new RHS 474 cubic inch solid roller power plant.….This was A LOT of engine for just cruising around Huntsville so we decided to attend a local ½ mile event hosted by WannaGOFAST in Clayton Georgia. Our first event Eddie won the Naturally Aspirated class running a handful of 169mph passes. Keep in mind at this point the car was mostly stock with the exception of the 474 engine/clutch/headers etc. Eddie was still rocking 19” CCW wheels with full interior and a stock six speed transmission.
While high 160s was fun, this wasn’t fast enough for “The” Eddie Blackwell….a nick name earned over the years jokingly as Eddie has become quite the celebrity at ½ mile events as well as online. With the ½ mile addition in full force it was time to transform this unmolested street car into a competition worthy/record shattering race car. Initially we took small steps such as upgrading the factory transmission to an RPM Transmissions Face plated TR6060 and replacing the factory ECU with an AEM Infinity aftermarket ECU that would allow us to turn some additional RPM while offering better control over the engine. These two changes picked up 3-4 additional mph putting us at 172-173mph at our next event. The next obstacle was traction. We convinced Eddie to let us remove his beloved CCW wheels that were wrapped in road race rubber and replace them with a 15” Weld Racing Wheel/Mickey Thompson Drag Radial package. This change alone put Eddie into the 175-176mph range. To give you an idea of how fast this is in the “1/2 mile world” Eddie was racing (and winning) against forced induction Corvettes producing 900-1000rwhp.
We wondered how much faster we could go if we were not dealing with an H pattern gear box and were also able to keep the engine operating in a higher rpm range with a closer ratio gear set. We reached out to Dave Gammon of PPG and ordered their sequential set up with sixth gear being 1:1. We then shipped their system to RPM Transmission for fitment into our TR6060 transmission case. We have been rocking the sequential ever since and have not looked back. The engine loves the close ratios and the added gears. With the PPG in place Eddie was clicking off 179mph passes, which was another 4mph over his previous best with the H pattern in place.
Eddie proved he could drive the wheels off of his C5Z and it was decided we would take things to an entirely new level. Knowing horsepower was hard to come by with not being able to change a nitrous jet or turn up the boost, we went with the most logical approach of removing weight. Eddie gave us the green light to strip his C5Z to the bare bones and put it back together in pure race car form. The one stipulation we had was to ensure the car remained “easy on the eyes” meaning keep it clean and be detailed with the build quality. This was no concern to us, so we dove in head first…. Strange Race Brakes/Skinny’s up front/Kirkey Seat/TRZ tubular front set up were all added to the mix. We also took this opportunity to replace the AEM Infinity ECU with a new Pro EFI 128 engine management system. Pro EFI offers much greater control over the engine, has many more “fail safes” to protect our engine and has traction control to help us put down as much power as possible while keeping the nose pointed toward the finish line.
Our first event with all of these changes in place was again with WannaGOFAST, but this time in Ocala Florida. Our first pass off the trailer resulted in 191.4mph pass!!!!! Eddie had just reset the LS Naturally Aspirated ½ mile WORLD RECORD and broke into the 190mph club on his very first pass!!! Needless to say Eddie won the Naturally Aspirated class as he has at almost every ½ mile event he has attended since getting started. There is only one problem with running 191mph…. Its not 200mph
By now Eddies 474 power plant has a few hundred ½ mile passes on it and years have gone by. Technology has advanced, new parts are available and engine combinations are making more power. With all that being said we sat down with Eddie and our friend Bryan Neelan from Late Model Engines to develop a new engine combination that would push us over the 200mph mark that was now within sight. After many lengthy conversations and a lot of math we settled on a smaller 451 cubic inch LSR short block topped with a set of Mast Motorsports MOZEZ canted valve cylinder heads. This engine should make almost 200 additional horsepower over our dated 474 and safely turn 10,000rpm. So as they say…. Out with the old and in with the new……
With the new 451 LSR in place we travel to Dallas Texas to join WannaGOFAST yet again for a crack at the elusive 200mph club. Eddie made six runs at the event with four of them being 199.xx, but wind/weather was not on our side to crack 200mph. That said, we were up over 8 mph from our previous best so we know this new engine is making some serious power!! We are still on our quest to see Eddie join the 200mph Club and to ensure that happens we are going to focus our attention on aerodynamics by visiting a wind tunnel and collecting data on where we can make this world record holding C5 Z06 slip thru the air with less resistance.
Eddie is not only our longest running customer at Vengeance, he’s also our new 2020 General Manager. We truly appreciate all of his support over the years and happy to work with him on a day to day basis. If you have not had the honor of meeting Eddie Blackwell, please do not be afraid to introduce yourself at an event. He loves to talk cars, especially when “big cubes and big cams” are the topic.
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HALF MILE WORLD RECORD – Naturally Aspirated LS
900+RWHP
½ mile 199.7 mph
CURRENT PERFORMANCE MODS:
VR/LME Spec LSR Tall Deck 451 Cubic Inch LSR
Mast Mozez Canted Valve Cylinder Heads
Dual 8500 Throttlebodies
Vengeance Racing Custom Spec Fuel System
Custom Fabricated Tri Y Stainless Headers
Monster Clutches Quad Disc Clutch Kit
PPG/RPM Sequential Transmission
RPM Differential
Pro EFI 128 ECU
Weld Racing Wheels
LG 15” Conversion
VFN Single Piece Front End w/Forward Facing Scoop
