Both of the Grand Sport twins...
Both of the Grand Sport twins are adorned with custom-engraved, black powdercoated aluminum sill protectors from IAMVETTE Products and Designs.
The LT4 350, likewise, looks stock. Hutch liked the factory engine graphics so well he wasn't about to change them. However, instead of the factory 330hp, Hutch's LT4 was recently dynoed at 364 to the rear wheels. He says this figure equates to about 450 at the flywheel. (Editor's note: We equate rear wheel horsepower to "crank" horsepower figuring a more conservative 15 percent drivetrain loss factor, which would equal slightly over 428 horses at the flywheel, which is exceptionally respectable territory on which to play.) The major change is a set of heads from CNC Heads. These are brand new factory LT4 castings, reworked by CNC Heads, a company near Tampa. The rest of the mods are bolt-on, including a 52mm throttle body, ram-air, and the aforementioned cam and exhaust mods.
Hutch's main goal was quicker ETs at the dragstrip, so he installed a Kurt White short throw shifter and a set of "Viper" gears. These are the same 4.10 gears that Dodge options in Vipers.
Hutch's best e.t. at the strip is a 12.7 at 109 mph, reached before he installed his newer, more radical 222/230 duration Crane cam. He explained, "I really think this longer duration camshaft is worth another 20hp. I think I'll be into the 12.5s, but I just haven't had it out yet. I'm still experimenting with tire pressures with the BFGoodrich drag radials. I just don't get out enough. You need to do it a lot if you want to get good at this stuff."
In the final analysis, Patti likes her Vette best, but also likes Hutch's Grand Sport. Hutch feels the same way, in reverse. He summed up their two car love affair, "We've got both cars to choose from. If we want to go out on a cruise, we put the top down on her car. It's a really nice fun car to drive around in, but when we want to go racing or something like that, then we've got the performance car. Of course, driving both cars to shows is a lot of fun. We park them together. We call them the Grand Sport twins. My car is called the Wild Thing. And her's? I tease her. I call it the Mild Thing."
 We don't need to tell you...  We don't need to tell you which of the twins' engine this is, do we? |  Calling Patti's GS convertible...  Calling Patti's GS convertible "mild" seems sacrilegious until it's compared with the Wild Thing, Hutch's modified GS coupe. |  |