Black Sunshine

[Boilermaker]

Black Sunshine is my daily driver, business vehicle (carries up to four clients), drag racer, auto-x'er and road racer. She currently has a lil over 185,000 miles on her odometer. I drive her about 50,000 miles a year from Canada to Seattle to Florida on business.

I bought this car on EBAY 2-1/2 years ago. It was a clean, bone stock 15 second car. After adding a "chip and pipes" she got into the 13's. We fabricated a sheet metal intake and ran an M-112 blower on the stock engine for about sixth months. Pulled the engine to stroke it and installed twin turbos. The stroker and turbos have over 20,000 miles on them now. The best time she's run was a 12.1 with the ol' Stage II transmission slipping badly and me letting off early. The tranny's been replaced now and we expect mid to low 11's with good traction. This means I'll be getting thrown off some tracks for not running a roll bar in my 4,400 lb. business car.

Everything works GREAT! Just got back from the Daytona Spring Fling Car Show and had no problems cruising in start and stop traffic for hours on the Strip and even got to shame a few Dodges, Bimmers and Furds along the way.

Exterior Mods:

Clear corner turn signal lenses, Sequential turn signal tail lights, Sequential brake lights, SEO wiper arms, Upgraded lights all around, Custom GTO red painted grille insert, White SSLED grille bow tie, Custom Impala headlight covers, ’61 Camaro crossed fender flags, Impala SS rear deck badge, Custom passenger side rear view mirror (“Objects In Mirror Are About To Disappear”), Polished OEM wheels

Interior Mods:

Bonneville seats (six way) - front, Bonneville covers w/ Bonneville arm rest on Impala frames - rear, Gene Bennett 5 point driver’s racing harness, Pioneer CD head unit, Radio antenna control, XM radio, Laptop computer mount, GPS, OEM full size spare wheel/tire, Window Tint, Front door sill dust shields, Trunk insulation and fender/hinge cover kit, Custom Trunk Lid Cover, Custom Impala SS floor mats, Fire extinguisher

Mechanical Mods:

OBD1 ECM conversion, Bryan Herter PCMFORLESS.COM programming, MPE Racing Fabrication 383 Stroked Small Block 10.6:1 (balanced and blueprinted), Stock iron heads with porting, Comp 1.5 Roller Rockers and Beehive Springs, Comp custom grind cam, Graphite push rods, Forged crank shaft, Forged H-beam rods, Forced induction pistons and rings, LT4 knock module, Home plate / first base intake baffle delete, High flow racing air filter, TB porting, MPE Racing Fabrication Twin Hybrid T3/T4 turbos (0-28 PSI), Internal waste gates, Stage II Intercooler, Snow alcohol injection, Air pump / piping delete, Mezier electric water pump, BECOOL radiator, Blacked-out resevoir bottles, Rustic Racing ignition wires, AR103 spark plugs, Proportioning brake bolt, Coolant freasebleeder valve, Blackout Racing (Sweden) 4L60E Stage III transmission, Custom superior shift kit, Custom ATI 2800 stall lock-up torque converter, Deep transmission pan, Solid boby u-joints, Hotchkis front (1-7/16”, hollow) and rear (1-1/4”, solid) anti-sway bars with Hotchkis experimental mounting kit, Blackout/Rustic Racing instant center axle brackets, Body bushing upgrade, ZQ8 bump stops, 9C1 front springs, Custom wound rear springs (184 lbs.), Moog problem solver idler arm, 2-1/2” down pipes, 3” exhaust pipes, H-pipe, Flowmasters mufflers, 3” under axle exhaust pipes, 3” x 3-1/2” x 24” stainless steel exhaust tips exiting behind tires, 9C1 front brake calipers, High performance pads, High performance TRW directional rotors, Rustic Racing stainless braided brake lines (blacked out), Bridgestone Fuzion 275/40/17 tires

[ricefed]

Nice ride man it's nice to see another force induction V 8 here. You should check out www.missl.org its another impala site.

[Goldfever]

Wow thats a nice ride!! I see you have a lot of miles on it. How long do you expect it to last? I bet you can catch a lot of people by suprise with those turbos!

[IndyHBK]

sure caught me by suprize Gold fever considering he had the motor stroked he is looking to have it for a while

now my buddy is drooling over the fact he should have kept his impalla
I like it alot Very nice

[Boilermaker]

Thanks for the props, folks.

I know some of the MISSL guys from past events. I travel extensively on business and get to interact with lots of Impala clubs across the country plus I'm on the Board of Directors for the Impala SS Club of America. You could say I'm hopelessly hooked.

I buy cars to drive them. Drive them till the wheels fall off. Retired the last vehicle after 260,000 miles. This one will probably be in the family forever.

Sold his Impala?!?! How could he?

Yes, it is a super sleeper. \;-) If you see the red grill, PLEASE pull to the right lane. Wouldn't want to hurt anyone.

[ricefed]

Do you knowLJ (quicsan)? I've got 110,000 on my camaro. Mine is also a daily driver. Can't stand when people just let their cars sit in a garage.

[Boilermaker]

Can't say as I've met him.

[IndyHBK]

yea he sold it and now regretting ever doing it lol he had it for about 2 years few mods with his CB it looked like he was undercover ;) i have 100,000 on my 90 Indy i cant wait to have it finished i already posted pics cant wait for the new paint job:) Impala is a Beaut even if it dies dont ever get rid of it like im doing with my Indy i will have it for a LONG time 16 year old car and im happy

[Boilermaker]

Yea, I like to drive mine. It's a business tool but no one said I couldn't have some fun, too, right? This is the first car that I've ever taken to this level. A few sponsors, some good deal hunting and a lot of luck mean that there's no way I could ever reproduce this set up "on the cheap" like I have this one. She's a member of the family.

[Boilermaker]

Thought I'd throw up some more pics (some from the "archives") in celebration of makin the monthly finals. PLEASE VOTE!!!

This was my setup with 1.6 roller rockers and headers.





Then we installed a custom sheet metal intake and an M-112 blower I got on ebay from a Lightning owner.





God, I hate polishing!!!!







Then the bad piston that I nursed with the blower for six months finally gave up the ghost and we puuled the engine and did a 383 stroke with forged bottom end.



more......

[Boilermaker]

While we were doing the engine a kid came into the shop, saw my intake/blower kit on the floor and bought it on the spot. Looked at my partner and asked, "OK, what do I do now?". He walked over to a cabinet and opened it revealing about six of these. I said, "Sure, why not? I'm game."



Let the fabrication begin! We did the complete job from scratch in 3 days and had it at Englishtown Dragway on the 4th.













Keith made up some beautiful monster stainless turbo headers and his cool stainless down pipes with integrated waste gates. He's one hell of a fabricator. You think my car is bad, you should see his back halved Turbozilla! Forged, filled block 363 stroker with twin 91mm turbos! Can you say 8 second 1/4 mile?

[Boilermaker]

Some show and travel shots.





This was a road trip. From IN on Wednesday at lunch to Vegas at 4 pm Thursday. Set the cruise at 110 mph for an 1-1/2 hours going thru Nebraska at 2 am. :-)



Staging at the Las Vegas International Raceway.



Auto-x in the casino parking lot on the strip.



Road racing at the raceway.



Our car club, DeepSouthSS.

[Boilermaker]

Thanks for all the votes, guys! Here's some more eye candy I've collected.







Wearin my "snow shoes" for the Winter season.





Brrrrrrrr!



Ouch! This cost me about $2000 for a Stage II tranny build and driveshaft loop.



Damn retreads!

[sonsfire]

How can the car be TT and only be in the 12's. I have a few friends with big bod impalas that run low elevens on mild boost(6-7lbs.) superchargers.

[sonsfire]

Not to mention the 383 should put it into mid to low 12's alone. with out a power adder.