Brad
McAfee , from Indiana, told us that since early childhood he had always
dreamed of owning and driving a Corvette. After a thirty six year wait
Brad finally found himself in a position to realize his childhood
ambition. Brad not only wanted a Corvette but his goal was
to someday drive a Z06. Thinking that the "Z's" price of
admission would not fit his budget Brad almost gave up.
He
saw a 2007 Z06 in a local publication and sent an email to the
owner. Brad thought hat the car had been sold and was ready to
see a base model Vette . As Brad was about to leave to see the
base C6 he received an email from the "Z's" owner telling him that the
car was still available. Brad immediately went to inspect the car
and three hours later he was a member of the LS7 club. Luck is great
but timing is everything. Brad still feels as if he is living in a
dream.
After getting his dream car back home Brad's
first order of business was to address the valve guide issues that may
or may not have affected his LS7. Not taking any chances Brad ordered a
set of street ported factory heads from American Heritage Performance.
He also placed an order for a cam kit, and cold air intake system. Brad
did the install by himself over a weekend of wrench twisting in his
garage. The only thing that Brad farmed out was the tuning.
Later that week Brad hooked upp with the local tuner and an initial
tune was done without the use of a dyno.
Brad
drove the car with the street tune for several months. He finally
was able to put the Z on a dyno and was pleasantly surprised with the
numbers. The final pull produced a very respectable 532 horses. The run
was made on 93 octane fuel.Brads next move is to install sa set of long
tube headers, an X pipe and a ported LSXR 102 intake.
Brad
tells us that the car has exceeded all of his expectations. He is also
proud of the fact that he performs all of the work and maintenance on
the car himself.
