Super Dave Adkins Vaporizes LS Record With His Twin Turbo Camaro – 3.87 In The Eighth!


Super Dave Adkins Vaporizes LS Record With His Twin Turbo Camaro – 3.87 In The Eighth!

It seems funny to talk about performance records being reset with LS platform engines but the reality is that while the  “junkyard race motors” dominate the internet and social media, they do not dominate on the race track…yet. LS Platform engines are starting to bleed their way into the upper echelons of drag racing competition and guys like “Super Dave” Adkins are at the tip of the spear. In fact, Adkins has been an LS powered hero for years with a 1963 Impala as his whip of choice previously and a new Camaro for this season which has proven to be a killer upgrade.

On small radial tires, Adkins zipped down the eighth mile at the Outlaw Street Car Reunion in 3.87 seconds, the record for an LS powered anything at this point. The engine uses a Noonan Race Engineering LS block and billy heads by Baker Engineering. Holley Dominator EFI feeds the beast. This is a cool story and you need to check it out!

Here’s the full story from Holley and boy is it is a good one! Congrats!

“Super Dave” Adkins, who last year became the quickest LS-powered driver ever with a 3.94 aboard his amazing 2,700-pound ’63 Impala, truly outdid himself with his new Camaro, ripping off a 3.87 at nearly 200 mph at the Holley EFI Outlaw Street Car Reunion in Bowling Green, Ky. Adkins’ ’70 Camaro is powered by a true inline-valve LS engine, a twin-turbocharged 427 cubic-inch powerplant with a billet Noonan block and billet Baker Engineering heads that’s completely controlled by a Holley Dominator EFI system.

Adkins qualified in the top half of a 16-car Radial Vs. the World field totally dominated by big-blocks – every other car in the field had a big-block under the hood. “This thing makes a lot of power, and we haven’t really gotten it sorted out yet,” said Adkins, who also ran two low-4.0s, a 3.95, a 3.93, and a 3.90-flat before his record run. “It started carrying the front end on one run, and I had to feather the throttle for more than a second. I was at just 30-50% throttle, trying to get the front end to come down so I could steer, and still ended up running a 3.95 – that’s how much power the engine’s making.”

Adkins, who bought the car used and parted out most of the existing running gear, got rid of the on-board data recorder, too. “Don’t need it,” he said. “The Holley EFI does everything – data logging, exhaust-gas temperatures, and all the sensors are all run through the Holley EFI system. It’s showing that we were down about 5 pounds of boost from where I used to run with the Impala. It’s got a lot of fuel running through it right now, super-safe, and could use a little more timing.”

Already knocking on the door to 200 mph, Adkins made his historic run in the opening round of eliminations and was gunning for 200 in the second round. A massive oildown right before he ran eliminated any chance of hitting the double-century mark and knocked him out of the race, forcing him to lift early after blowing the tires off just off the line. “It felt like I was driving on ice,” he said. “All it needed was a couple more pounds of boost to run 200. It should definitely happen somewhere this year, and the potential is there to run in the .70s.”


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