Over the ensuing months, I checked several times on the progress of the system and was told that the car was in Southern California, getting its computer sorted out to work properly under all circumsatnces, at the shop of one of the few people outside GM who really knows his way around a late OBDII engine management system. This was/is particularly vital, as the system was to be for C5s that could be driven on a daily basis, and SVI was adamant about achieving 50-state legal status for the system. At last November's SEMA Show, I met Scott Harrison, Vice President of SVI. Scott said they were very close to having the whole thing ready and promised me the first shot at it. So it was just a matter of waiting a little longer.
Just a few days before Christmas, I got a call from Roger Harrison (Scott's father and President of SVI). The supercharged C5 was ready to go, he'd be flying out from Colorado right after the first of the year to pick up the car, and was I still interested. Damn straight-I definitely was!
On the appointed day, Roger showed up at our offices with a very ordinary looking black C5 coupe, stock in every respect except for a set of Hotchkis' new anti-roll bars, a Borla "Challenge" cat-back exhaust, and what was lurking beneath the hood.
The final version of the SVI/Vortech blower and intercooler system looked like something the factory had engineered-or better. A quick turn of the key and the blown LS1 fired right off-just like a stocker. There's a faint whine from the straight-cut teeth on the supercharger's gear drive; combined with the healthy rumble from the Borla XR-1 racing mufflers, it's just enough to add a fairly racy note to the car's sound. "Do you want to take for a drive?" Now what do you think!
Slip inside, adjust the seat to my torso and reach, and buckle up. Roger had already told me that they'd swapped the OE clutch for a special unit supplied by Jon Moss at GM's Special Vehicles shop, since the stock C5 clutch would go up in smoke in no time under the added horsepower and torque loads. He also told me that Centerforce now has a C5 replacement clutch assembly that's more than capable of harnessing the blown LS1's power. Thanks to the C5's factory hydraulic slave cylinder, the "heavier" clutch required no more effort than a stock unit, and my initial reaction to driving the blown Vette was that it felt no different than being in a loud stock C5.
That was before I had a chance to hammer it. After driving the car around the area for a few minutes to warm it up and get a feel for it, I headed to what we at McMullen Argus lovingly refer to as Kimberly International Raceway, a half-mile-plus-long, smooth and straight side street in an industrial area near our offices. There's a railroad track along one side and only a couple of driveways to a major industrial complex on the other. If you can't test at a track, this is one of the least unsafe places around to wring out a car's acceleration and/or braking abilities.
I've spent enough time driving LS1/six-speed-powered Corvettes, plus Camaros and Firebirds (my current daily driver is a stock '99 F-Bird with Ram Air and six-speed), to know real well how they respond to any imaginable input. There wasn't any point in beating on the driveline excessively by raising the revs and popping the clutch, so I got the car rolling in low, then pounded the pedal to the floor. For a second or two, the Vette felt absolutely normal; decent push forward, but certainly nothing startling.