A big hello to all you Smokin Vette from Tri Star performance!

We are very glad to be on board as one of your latest Smokin Vette sponsors!

A brief history .. Growing up on the south side of Chicago and spending my summer during college years in Bloomington Illinois, I never missed a Bloomington Gold Corvette show through the 80's. During one show in the early 80's I remember seeing a black on black 1969 L89 coupe in the corvettes for sale area. It needed restoration but had the number matching aluminum head 427 with tripower still in tact. The owner was asking $12,000 for it. I remember everyone saying .. "a non midyear over 10k needing restoration .. is this owner nuts??" I will spare you my other Corvette stories (not) like the 66 convertible 427 4 speed vette with a 67 L88 motor all under a tarp in the front yard just outside of Dallas Texas. I tracked it down by way of rumor and actually found the car as rumored .. took a few pictures (pictures of body and motor) as the owner ran me off saying he would never sell it. How about the 66 427 convertible I found with experimental factory heads (only 5 sets made) . Proteam bought it before I could round up the cash. I do have pictures of the head castings numbers) Bottom line I had "Corvette fever" bad !!

My own personal Corvettes over the years:
68 Convertible 350 / 350 4 speed Nassau Blue (triple blue)
69 Coupe 427 / 390 4 speed Orange
72 coupe 350 auto white
74 coupe 350 auto black
75 coupe 350 4 speed Maroon
After college .. BA in aircraft maintenance and management .. on to Atlanta for 16 years as an aircraft mechanic and management positions. Sept 11 sent the cost of fuel up and airlines went down. This created an opportunity to turn my hobby into my profession. Two other mechanics along with myself picked up our pennies after the airline went bankrupt and started our own shop. Today Rob and myself run the performance division of TriStar Automotive. We are in our second year and have focused on LS based vehicles. We are heavy into the GTO's building and testing power combinations on LS1 and LS2. Please take time to check out some of our completed projects from Z06 LS7 cold air and tune to 465hp .. to full twin turbo builds on otherwise stock LS2's at 550hp 560tq .. to cam packages at 430hp / 400tq .. to hand built stroker motors at 500+rwhp all motor (all numbers are at the wheel)

My wife .. Hmm .. She has over 350 passes in our Spitzer rear engine dragster at 5 seconds, 135mph in the 1/8th .. That should tell you what kind of gal I snagged! Did I mention she is hot as hell also ?? The rail is undergoing a 1200hp engine conversion .. we will see if she can handle a 4 second blast (1/8th mile) as good as she drives the 5 second pass.

From our top of the line Hunter alignment machine to the DynoJet chassis dyno we are looking forward to supporting the Corvette community in any way we can

Robert VanDerZalm
Tri Star Performance
Tyrone Georgia .. just south of Atlanta

www.tristarperformance.com
www.tristarauto.net

Great numbers tristar! Thats one heck of a shop you have there. ;) Any way I'm a newbie also just looking around.

Welcome to smokinvette Tristar. Very impressive back ground, aircraft mechanic? Damn might as well be NASA working on my car! I have had an interesting time out here with the shop I bring my car to and always keep an eye out for new shops. The only downside is the ones I like are no wheres near Utah! :p

Thats a nice collection of Vettes, good stuff tristar!

Thats one cool shop! Not to copy what someone else I believe stated, looks like you could eat off the floor! :D Talk to you guys soon.

Good stuff, will you have GM parts and after market parts for sale?

"5 seconds, 135mph in the 1/8th" that pretty quick!

"5 seconds, 135mph in the 1/8th" that pretty quick!

Actually thats mid stream for a rail .. at 1600 pounds and 17 inch slicks it dosen't take much to be fast. I built a gen 6 big block Chevy (468ci) under aluminum bowtie heads and a Rons terminator alcohol injection system. I thought it would rule the track only to find us chasing many 4 second rails. Bottom line .. with 800hp in our class we found ourself as just a beginner. Here are a few pix .. rail with two paint jobs .. current motor .. and an injected blown 540ci Rodeck .. 2000hp that came with the rail when I bought it. The previous owner showed me a time slip .. 3.89 sec .. in the 1/8th ... OUCH! :eek:

Thats one cool shop! Not to copy what someone else I believe stated, looks like you could eat off the floor! :D Talk to you guys soon.

We are very laid back .. "zero pressure type atmosphere" ... it is not uncommon to find Rob and myself sitting on the floor of the dyno bay having a sub sandwich hanging out with the owner of a half installed head cam package etc. We are a bit opposite most shops when it comes to performance work. It is not uncommon to have owners working on their car right along with us if they wish. They gain knowledge as we show them details of the job. When we tune it is always at least half a day of road tune to trim idle and part throttle before it hits the dyno for full power settings. Often (if they wish) the owner will sit in the passenger seat with the laptop on their lap watching functions of computer real time. When the car is complete the owner not only receives a modified car but a large amount of knowledge. Due to this we have seen LS1 and LS2 GTO's and Corvettes from Florida, Alabama, South Carolina, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Maryland ..

Robert

Actually thats mid stream for a rail .. at 1600 pounds and 17 inch slicks it dosen't take much to be fast. I built a gen 6 big block Chevy (468ci) under aluminum bowtie heads and a Rons terminator alcohol injection system. I thought it would rule the track only to find us chasing many 4 second rails. Bottom line .. with 800hp in our class we found ourself as just a beginner. Here are a few pix .. rail with two paint jobs .. current motor .. and an injected blown 540ci Rodeck .. 2000hp that came with the rail when I bought it. The previous owner showed me a time slip .. 3.89 sec .. in the 1/8th ... OUCH! :eek:

Will that engine fit in my Vette? :D Kudos! 3.89 secs 1/8 mile? man that is FAST!

Tammra and Robert, I'll say again impressive shop, great photos. It has been a pleasure speaking with you folks. N/A, supercharged, turbos you do it all! I know I'll be picking your heads for Q&A in the future! :)

Welcome to smokinvette tristar, I've been here for a few months and its nice to what as things keep growing. That is one nice shop! I'm ever in your area, you can count on my swinging by! :D

Actually thats mid stream for a rail .. at 1600 pounds and 17 inch slicks it dosen't take much to be fast. I built a gen 6 big block Chevy (468ci) under aluminum bowtie heads and a Rons terminator alcohol injection system. I thought it would rule the track only to find us chasing many 4 second rails. Bottom line .. with 800hp in our class we found ourself as just a beginner. Here are a few pix .. rail with two paint jobs .. current motor .. and an injected blown 540ci Rodeck .. 2000hp that came with the rail when I bought it. The previous owner showed me a time slip .. 3.89 sec .. in the 1/8th ... OUCH! :eek:

Thats one cool set up you have on that drag car! You guys build custom engines to customer specs?

Thats one cool set up you have on that drag car! You guys build custom engines to customer specs?

I just finished a 2006 LS2 build .. I removed his 3500 mile LS2 .. Stripped it to the short block .. honed the cylinders to set the piston to cylinder wall clearance correct for a set of forged pistons .. clearanced the block by hand to take a forged stroker crank .. H beam rods .. In goes a balanced forged stroker rotating assy .. 402 cubes

On top went a set of GM non ported L92 heads and an out of the box L76 intake. I remove the valves from the heads and have the heads milled down by a local machine shop to bring the compression back to stock LS2 levels. I also have the spring seats milled down to yeild the correct spring installed height. When I get the heads back from the machine shop I hand clean up any factory flaws in the ports and bowl areas. Then on they go.

We tuned the low RPM areas .. set the rev limiter at 3800 and gave it back to the owner for 700 miles to break in. We got it back last week for final checks and full power dyno tune.

500.80hp and 475tq with cutouts open .. good for a budget build .. non fancy factory heads on a limited intake manifold.

I am wrapping up another build that I just set back in the chassis today. It is a LS1 to stroked LS2 conversion .. new LS2 block .. Balanced forged 402 rotating assy .. Comp cam .. roller rockers .. Trick Flow heads .. FAST intake .. 90mm TB .. etc This build has about 2500 more cost in parts above the block than the L92 build .. We will see what it can put down but I expect north of 500 rear wheel no problem.

Yes I build custom motors .. to customer specs, well maybe .. If I like the combination and feel it will hit the expectation of the customer then I will build it. If I don't think the combination will reach goal I won't build it.

Example .. I had a LS2 owner come into the shop a few months back .. he had to have our LS2 cam package that has yeild many 430HP / 405TQ rear wheel cars. For this combo to work it has to have a cold air intake and long tube headers with high flow cats. This owner would not give up the restricted airbox, shorty headers and stock cats. The motor could not breath .. the combination fell way short of goal .... That will never happen again.

Very :cool: :cool: :cool: that LS2 engine looks great, nice build Tristar!

500.80hp and 475tq with cutouts open .. good for a budget build .. non fancy factory heads on a limited intake manifold.

Good numbers ;)

Here is the other 402 build. Just thought I would add some eye candy since I spoke about this motor in this thread. In one picture it is next to the LS1 that was removed. I installed the 402 today .. should fire it up tomorrow .. dyno results a few weeks out after 700 miles or so !

Here is the other 402 build. Just thought I would add some eye candy since I spoke about this motor in this thread. In one picture it is next to the LS1 that was removed. I installed the 402 today .. should fire it up tomorrow .. dyno results a few weeks out after 700 miles or so !


Hi Robert and Tammra! Great photos! I'll be uploading some new photos from myself here shortly. You mind uploading these into the Vette Gallery under the C6 or C5 engine? What sort of numbers you aiming at with this motor?

Talk to soon!

Alex

Here is the other 402 build. Just thought I would add some eye candy since I spoke about this motor in this thread. In one picture it is next to the LS1 that was removed. I installed the 402 today .. should fire it up tomorrow .. dyno results a few weeks out after 700 miles or so !

Very nice, remove that fast 90 from the top of that and slap a supercharger on that!

Very nice, remove that fast 90 from the top of that and slap a supercharger on that!

Funny you mention that ... We have two booked ..

First is a 99 FRC Corvette currently running a STS twin turbo on the stock LS1 .. He will drop off soon for a LS2 block conversion with a forged 402ci internals .. then we will spool the turbos higher an try to boost the 402 to 12 - 14lbs.

The second is a LS2 in a Pontiac flavor .. We will be installing a GenTTR twin turbo .. stroking the original LS2 to 402 and running it to about 12lbs. Both projects will be monsters!

I will post plenty of the Corvette FRC turbo stroker build .. the owner made it clear he wants to see north of 700hp .. should not be a problem. :rolleyes:

Thanks

"the owner made it clear he wants to see north of 700hp" --- I like this guy already!

We are very laid back .. "zero pressure type atmosphere" ... it is not uncommon to find Rob and myself sitting on the floor of the dyno bay having a sub sandwich hanging out with the owner of a half installed head cam package etc. We are a bit opposite most shops when it comes to performance work. It is not uncommon to have owners working on their car right along with us if they wish. They gain knowledge as we show them details of the job. When we tune it is always at least half a day of road tune to trim idle and part throttle before it hits the dyno for full power settings. Often (if they wish) the owner will sit in the passenger seat with the laptop on their lap watching functions of computer real time.

Robert

You must be talking about me.

Hello everyone. Not a vet owner-just a supporter of Tri Star and can definitely tell you their work is top notch.