JohnnyBravo
Enthusiast
All I can say is WOW.
When I first bought my 1998 GTS, it was bone stock with 12,000 miles. It didn't even have so much as K&N's or smooth tubes. In fact, it still had the original tires on all 4 corners. It was the perfect, pampered car for my first Viper.
Within about 3 months, I'd already purchased a Roe blower, water methanol kit, and a few other little goodies. I installed everything myself and tuned it with the VEC2 over the phone with Sean Roe. The car obviously had more in it than I could get out of it, so the car went to PBJ in St. Louis for a 10 lb pulley, 1.7 rockers and a PBJ tune. The car came home making 630/675 on pump gas with the methanol.
Frankly, I didn't think I'd need more power than that, so I was content...........for a while.
The next plan was simply to add a set of heads to the Roe and see how much power I could pick up. After waiting several months to get in to the shop, I finally decided that I could wait no longer and started calling around to other tuners. I stumbled across the UGR thread about the $15k blower kit, installed and tuned. I called Kevin Howeth at Underground Racing and talked to him for quite a while. I found Kevin to be extremely knowledgeable about Vipers and racing in general. I immediately had a comfort level with Kevin and felt like he really understood my racing goals.
I called Exotic Transport and shipped my car to UGR for the Paxton treatment. While it was there, Kevin and I talked regularly about my racing goals both on and off the track (on closed courses). I told him what I was looking for as far as power and reliability. After several dozen discussions about what they could do and what I could afford, a decision was made to stay with the Paxton setup but to put it on a much more wicked motor.
The motor was pulled and sent to Proline for a full 510 stroker upgrade. UGR built for me essentially the same motor that was in Garth's car when it ran 7.98.
After the motor came back, UGR installed a set of JM Stage 3 CNC heads and a custom split duration blower cam.
Wanting to make sure the car had some "show" to go with the "go" Underground Racing had the intake and valve covers powder coated and installed a polished Paxton unit, polished fuel rails and other polished pieces to liven up the engine compartment.
With the motor complete and the blower installed, UGR finished the build using the AEM, the custom fuel system, and the water/methanol.
I was constantly updated with pictures and progress reports as the build moved forward. Kevin would either email me, call me or even text message me to make sure I always knew what was going on with the car and discuss what I wanted and make sure I was happy with what I was getting.
When the car was almost done, my fiance and I flew out to Charlotte to meet Kevin and KC, check out the shop, meet their techs and to hang out and learn more about the car. Brian (2MANYTOYS) and his wife drove over from Ashville for the weekend to hang out with us, as well. When we arrived on Friday night, Kevin picked up my fiance and I from the airport and took us to our hotel. We met up with the Andersons and headed over to the shop to see what was shaking at UGR. The place was PACKED with Vipers. There were no less than 18 Vipers in various stages of modification, along with a couple of Viper trucks, a Ford GT and a Lamborghini Gallardo.
After hanging out at the shop for a while, we all headed out for dinner. Brian and his wife, KC and his girlfriend, Kevin, my fiance and I all had a blast at dinner and at the end of the meal, Kevin picked up the tab for all of us. That was a very nice surprise after having just met everyone a few hours earlier.
Saturday morning, while the girls were shopping, Brian and I headed back to the shop to watch them dyno tune my car. After a couple of test pulls, Brian and I hopped on the back to hold it down and let KC work his magic. It only took 2 more pulls before the car was tuned perfectly.
Pump gas and water methanol:
Those are SAE corrected numbers, with torque curve and air/fuel. No funny business. That's the genuine article.
I couldn't have been happier. According to the AEM data logs, the car is only making about 10 psi even on a 15 psi pulley because of how much air the motor/heads flow. If there was a way to get more boost out of that blower, the numbers would be even higher. Suffice it to say, though, 962/914 on pump gas and only 10 psi was WAY more than I expected.
Fortunately for me, they knew that the car was going to make some good power, so before I got there they suggested to me that I upgrade my toasted Centerforce clutch in favor of a new McCleod Twin Disc with billet flywheel and replace my stock rear differential with a new Quaife unit. I'm glad they did.
Kevin unstrapped the car from the dyno and took the car out for a drive with KC monitoring the AEM on the laptop from the passenger seat. After about 20 minutes of driveability tuning, they brought the car back and handed me the keys.
The car fired up immediately and idled like stock. Although there was slightly more pedal effort required, the clutch engaged very much like stock and off I went. There was no bogging and no chatter in the clutch at all. I took a short test drive and made some highway blasts with the car. My Kumhos never stood a chance. I could light them up at will from an 80 mph punch. My jaw hurt terribly because I couldn't quit smiling. It was time to head back to the shop, change my underwear and go out for dinner again. We met up with another couple from North Carolina and all 8 of us headed out for a nice steak dinner. It was a hell of a weekend getaway. All in all, I feel like we made some great new friends, learned a lot about the Viper and saw first hand what the guys at UGR are capable of.
I can say this much. The car is an absolute beast.
Anyone who says that a Paxton can't make power down low has never driven a UGR Paxton car. As you can see, my dyno looks like a Roe blower on steroids. There is no place in the rpm band where it doesn't make huge power.
UGR loaded my car back on the trailer this morning and I expect to see it home in the next few days.
I honestly could not be any happier with the work that Underground Racing did for me and I can't imagine going anywhere else for work on my Viper.
When I first bought my 1998 GTS, it was bone stock with 12,000 miles. It didn't even have so much as K&N's or smooth tubes. In fact, it still had the original tires on all 4 corners. It was the perfect, pampered car for my first Viper.
Within about 3 months, I'd already purchased a Roe blower, water methanol kit, and a few other little goodies. I installed everything myself and tuned it with the VEC2 over the phone with Sean Roe. The car obviously had more in it than I could get out of it, so the car went to PBJ in St. Louis for a 10 lb pulley, 1.7 rockers and a PBJ tune. The car came home making 630/675 on pump gas with the methanol.
Frankly, I didn't think I'd need more power than that, so I was content...........for a while.
The next plan was simply to add a set of heads to the Roe and see how much power I could pick up. After waiting several months to get in to the shop, I finally decided that I could wait no longer and started calling around to other tuners. I stumbled across the UGR thread about the $15k blower kit, installed and tuned. I called Kevin Howeth at Underground Racing and talked to him for quite a while. I found Kevin to be extremely knowledgeable about Vipers and racing in general. I immediately had a comfort level with Kevin and felt like he really understood my racing goals.
I called Exotic Transport and shipped my car to UGR for the Paxton treatment. While it was there, Kevin and I talked regularly about my racing goals both on and off the track (on closed courses). I told him what I was looking for as far as power and reliability. After several dozen discussions about what they could do and what I could afford, a decision was made to stay with the Paxton setup but to put it on a much more wicked motor.
The motor was pulled and sent to Proline for a full 510 stroker upgrade. UGR built for me essentially the same motor that was in Garth's car when it ran 7.98.
You must be registered for see images attach
You must be registered for see images attach
You must be registered for see images attach
After the motor came back, UGR installed a set of JM Stage 3 CNC heads and a custom split duration blower cam.
Wanting to make sure the car had some "show" to go with the "go" Underground Racing had the intake and valve covers powder coated and installed a polished Paxton unit, polished fuel rails and other polished pieces to liven up the engine compartment.
You must be registered for see images attach
You must be registered for see images attach
With the motor complete and the blower installed, UGR finished the build using the AEM, the custom fuel system, and the water/methanol.
I was constantly updated with pictures and progress reports as the build moved forward. Kevin would either email me, call me or even text message me to make sure I always knew what was going on with the car and discuss what I wanted and make sure I was happy with what I was getting.
When the car was almost done, my fiance and I flew out to Charlotte to meet Kevin and KC, check out the shop, meet their techs and to hang out and learn more about the car. Brian (2MANYTOYS) and his wife drove over from Ashville for the weekend to hang out with us, as well. When we arrived on Friday night, Kevin picked up my fiance and I from the airport and took us to our hotel. We met up with the Andersons and headed over to the shop to see what was shaking at UGR. The place was PACKED with Vipers. There were no less than 18 Vipers in various stages of modification, along with a couple of Viper trucks, a Ford GT and a Lamborghini Gallardo.
After hanging out at the shop for a while, we all headed out for dinner. Brian and his wife, KC and his girlfriend, Kevin, my fiance and I all had a blast at dinner and at the end of the meal, Kevin picked up the tab for all of us. That was a very nice surprise after having just met everyone a few hours earlier.
Saturday morning, while the girls were shopping, Brian and I headed back to the shop to watch them dyno tune my car. After a couple of test pulls, Brian and I hopped on the back to hold it down and let KC work his magic. It only took 2 more pulls before the car was tuned perfectly.
Pump gas and water methanol:
You must be registered for see images attach
Those are SAE corrected numbers, with torque curve and air/fuel. No funny business. That's the genuine article.
I couldn't have been happier. According to the AEM data logs, the car is only making about 10 psi even on a 15 psi pulley because of how much air the motor/heads flow. If there was a way to get more boost out of that blower, the numbers would be even higher. Suffice it to say, though, 962/914 on pump gas and only 10 psi was WAY more than I expected.
Fortunately for me, they knew that the car was going to make some good power, so before I got there they suggested to me that I upgrade my toasted Centerforce clutch in favor of a new McCleod Twin Disc with billet flywheel and replace my stock rear differential with a new Quaife unit. I'm glad they did.
Kevin unstrapped the car from the dyno and took the car out for a drive with KC monitoring the AEM on the laptop from the passenger seat. After about 20 minutes of driveability tuning, they brought the car back and handed me the keys.
The car fired up immediately and idled like stock. Although there was slightly more pedal effort required, the clutch engaged very much like stock and off I went. There was no bogging and no chatter in the clutch at all. I took a short test drive and made some highway blasts with the car. My Kumhos never stood a chance. I could light them up at will from an 80 mph punch. My jaw hurt terribly because I couldn't quit smiling. It was time to head back to the shop, change my underwear and go out for dinner again. We met up with another couple from North Carolina and all 8 of us headed out for a nice steak dinner. It was a hell of a weekend getaway. All in all, I feel like we made some great new friends, learned a lot about the Viper and saw first hand what the guys at UGR are capable of.
I can say this much. The car is an absolute beast.
Anyone who says that a Paxton can't make power down low has never driven a UGR Paxton car. As you can see, my dyno looks like a Roe blower on steroids. There is no place in the rpm band where it doesn't make huge power.
UGR loaded my car back on the trailer this morning and I expect to see it home in the next few days.
I honestly could not be any happier with the work that Underground Racing did for me and I can't imagine going anywhere else for work on my Viper.
Happens every time.
