Erik Bentley certainly knows his way around late-model muscle; from LS and LT powered Camaros and Corvettes, to Hellcats. Most of the time, he’s wrenching on a customer’s vehicle while manning the help of his shop Florida High Performance.
Even once in a while, we get to see an example of his own iron; in this case, a 2019 Camaro 1LE ZL1 that he calls “Bad Punk’n.” Covered in the rare and desirable Orange Crush hue, it’s a car that Erik picked up just recently already featuring a RotoFab cold-air intake and a CORSA Performance catback exhaust.
However, Erik is obviously not one used to leaving things as they are. He’s planning a full engine build, flex-fuel, and much more. But also he’s looking to improve what’s already there.
With an aftermarket catback already attached, the next logical step was to implement 2-inch diameter primary long-tube headers from American Racing Headers. Erik and the crew at FLHP have been swearing by ARH pipes for years, citing their American-made high-quality construction.
With the RotoFab intake kit breathing in additional air over the actors air box, it only makes sense to break out the HP Tuners, and swap in a fresh set of NGK spark plugs and get the car’s ECU properly calibrated. Sure, you could technically bolt everything up, call it a day and hope for the best. But Erik, like every other professional car builder and tuner out there, wants everything he puts out on-point.
With HP Tuners’ software and his on-site Dynojet ready to go, Erik managed to squeeze out 600RWHP and 652 ft-lbs. of torque to the rear whees. Keep in mind, this is a nearly 25 hp and 90 ft-lb increase over his original baseline (577/552), with basically just long-tubes and tuning. The torque is the most impressive part, though, as it’s the torque that puts you back into your seat, and gives you that off-the-line acceleration.
Moving forward, a larger RotoFab cold-air kit, a fully-built stroker engine, more boost, and a severe increase in octane level will be the ultimate result of this project. How much power will it put out then? We shall see in future installments. Keep it locked here for more update in the near future!
Rick Seitz is the owner and founder of GMEFI Magazine, and has a true love and passion for all vehicles. When he isnāt tuning, testing, or competing with the brandās current crop of project vehicles, heās busy tinkering and planning the next modifications for his own cars.
