Vengeance Racing Built 1,600 Horsepower Twin Turbo Fifth-Gen Camaro

If you have been in the car game and haven’t’ heard of Vengeance Racing (VR), let us make the introduction for you.

Vengeance Racing was established to offer performance enthusiasts an honest, reputable, and knowledgeable shop that understands the customers’ needs and can deliver reliable, top quality performance packages. With that said, VR specializes in modern muscle cars with with parts and performance packages for the GM Gen-III and Gen-IV engine platforms. They offer a vast knowledge from their own racing background that includes everything from ECU calibration, head and cam upgrades, complete engine builds, power adders, custom fabrication and on and on. Believe us when we say, Vengeance can take care of anything and everything you might need.

If you don’t believe us, take a look at Joe Miceli’s twin-turbocharged fifth-gen Camaro. Prior to Vengence starting on the car, the Camaro was powered by a supercharged LS3 and a 4L80E transmission. According to Joe, the Camaro had a lot of problems during this point of his build and was never quite right. He worked with a few different “professional shops,” but in the end, was still disappointed with the car. Frustrated, he decided to rip out the supercharged combination, drivetrain and all, and start completely over.

When Joe began this rebuild, one of his good friends referred him to Ron Mowen, owner of Vengence Racing, for help. He ordered a fully built Vengence engine package and a Turbo 400 transmission. The weapon of choice for the Camaro came in the form of an LSX at 440 cubic-inches. Vengence started off with an LSX block locked and loaded with a Callies 4.125-inch CCW Ultra Billet crankshaft. Callies brand Ultra Series connecting rods were also used in conjunction with a set of Wiseco custom pistons. The wrist pins were DLC coated for high a level of power and ARP Racing Products fasteners were used throughout this build to make sure bottom end was indestructible.

Vengeance Racing certainly has a knack for the details. The entire hot and cold side of the turbo system was built from scratch and is nothing short of spectacular.

For the top end of the LSX, VR went with a proven set of Mast Motorsports LS7 285cc cylinder heads. These heads included titanium intake valves, Inconel exhaust valves, and a set of PAC Racing Springs valve springs. The Isky Racing Cams solid roller lifters sit atop the aggressive custom spec Vengence Racing camshaft while the T&D Machine Products shaft mounted rockers top off the valvetrain. The final change in this engine combination was the conversion of the wet sump oiling setup. Vengeance was looking for reliability so the move was made to a Dailey Engineering dry sump oiling system. This allowed for improved engine reliability due to consistent pressure and more oil storage.

The drivetrain for the fifth-gen consists of a Rossler Transmission Terminator T5 TH400 transmission. This trans is stuffed with all of the high horsepower handling parts available like a Ross-Lock pro tree transbrake, reverse shift pattern, rear case thrust bearing, special design M300 billet input shaft, and billet M300 intermediate shaft. The convertor used in the TH400 was built by the gang over at Pro Torque. The only other weak leak left in the car was the independent rear suspension. Vengence quickly scrapped it in favor of a Drive Shaft Shop 9-inch reared attached to axles rated at 1,400 horsepower.

Vengence Racing was responsible for every inch of this killer build. Sitting on top of the Mast Mororsports heads is a billet Late Model Engines (LME) intake connected to not one, but two Precision Turbo 76/75 turbochargers. Vengence took care of the complete custom turbo system and fabricated everything to perfection from scratch. This includes a custom the air-to-water intercooler, exhaust manifolds, turbo hot and cold side, and a custom exhaust system complete with cutouts. After the fabrication precess was complete, the hot and cold side were both sent to powder-coating before being reinstalled.

“They took on my project and completed everything to the point it is today. I couldn’t be any happier. Vengeance doesn’t treat you just as a customer, but a friend and family,” Joe states. This combination produces a jaw-dropping 1,611 wheel horsepower at 40 psi, fueled by E85. When tuned at 25 psi of boost, the Camaro was able to pop off a quarter-mile time of 8.86 at 163 mph. To make this even more impressive, Joe left the light off the foot-brake in an off idle launch.

It’s faster than anything I’ve ever driven and it’s pretty much still on the waste-gates.

The plan for the Camaro currently is to run in the sevens to the quarter-mile. Joe has thought about running some of the half-mile events but has decided to step away from that at the moment. Since the Vengence rebuild, the car has performed flawlessly, even with back-to-back passes and multiple dyno pulls. In fact, the biggest problem according to Joe is himself. “I’m getting better at driving every outing but we haven’t even turned the car up yet. Even on low boost it’s still an amazing machine. I’m actually scared of what the full power of this monster will feel like. It’s faster than anything I’ve ever driven and it’s pretty much still on the waste-gates.”

Joe does drive the car on the street regularly, noting, “I like to drive it to work a couple of times a week because now I don’t have a fear in the world that the car won’t perform.” If he feels the need for speed, he will simply switch the tires over to the stickies and heads out to the track.

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Vengence Racing is prepared to handle any type of build that you might need and Joe can attest to that. They often have a fleet of Corvettes under construction along with Camaros, Cadillacs, and even SUVs and carry only the best in aftermarket performance parts. If you have an LS or LT-powered vehicle that needs some attention in the performance department, be sure and hit the team up at VR. We’re positive that they will not disappoint.   

About the author

Brian Havins

A gearhead for life, Brian is obsessed with all things fast. Banging gears, turning wrenches, and praying while spraying are just a few of his favorite things.
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