The All LS Festival of Power and Performance

The LS is no doubt one of the hottest engines to come along in many years now. It's got its own hot car event here in Southern Kentucky. Hey, welcome to Horsepower and Holly's LS Fest.

Sure. It's a drag race with classes for everyone.

And yeah, it's a car show too,

but it's also a serious autocross event.

A unique speed stop challenge

and a show stopping engine swap challenge.

Although on Friday's opening day, the challenge was rain.

No drag racing for a while, but even with pools of water to plow through the auto cross had plenty of company.

Brian Finch had his Camaro out here for some practice runs in hopes of keeping his perfect winning record on stock tires.

The big thing is having a well prepared car. So this has all the Detroit speed suspension. It's basically modeled off of their second gen

and uh I took everything out of the catalog, put it in there

and, and it just works, you know, it really does work. So

that and a lot of seat time.

Well, no doubt there's no substitute for practice

when the weather got better on Saturday. So did the elapsed times

in the comp tire class. Brian Nutter was leading the fact behind the wheel of his LS powered Corvette.

This is all about the combination.

Uh, the engine makes good power but not too much.

I used to do it a lot when I was younger and everything and I just get out for maybe two or three times a year. But it's always fun

like many other LS power participants. He's competing for the Grand championship

now to be LS

Boy, you got to compete on the auto cross

the drag strip

and a unique test of speed and braking called the Speed Stop Challenge. It's an acceleration braking competition to see which car can accelerate the fastest and then stop the fastest in a controlled fashion.

Cars will leave on the green,

they will go as fast as they can down to the box and try and stop in the box.

Remember it's a time to vent. So you got to run fast and stop fast inside the box of cones.

Look the whole

stop too short and well, that doesn't count

at

first. A lot of contestants who are new to. This weren't really sure where that sweet spot was.

Some of the guys who really got aggressive and that is the point went a little too far.

Not the point

because that doesn't count either.

This is fun.

This guy has the toughest job on the track. He's got to recover. The coach.

Wow. Do you think this Vega has the original stock brakes on it.

Look at the heat coming off that Camaro's front brakes. They're blazing.

Brian Finch has already laid down a good run for his points. So, for his last shot,

hey, great show. So what if it doesn't count?

Well, since we are at a drag strip, maybe we should have some drag racing too, huh?

There were nine racing classes from two street to outlaw drag radio

and everything in between. As long as it's got an LS engine under the hood

and don't let this make your blue oval blood boil. But even Ls powered Mustangs could compete.

Now, the competition that blew us away though was the engine swap challenge?

Yeah. Go a race to LS Six ownership and glory next.

Hey, welcome back. How would you like to swap your old street machine engine for a brand new LS six crate engine?

All you gotta do is bring some buddies to help in your own tools and it's yours.

Oh, I better mention

you also got to beat the other team who wants it just as bad as you. It's gonna be fun. It's gonna be a fun competition.

It's the LSF engine swap challenge, the ultimate test of gearhead speed and skill.

After a selection process, two guys were chosen to bring their cars and three team members to compete. These guys drive their cars in running

and they have to come in, swap an LS engine into it, get it running and go on another predetermined drive. Whoever does it in the fastest time gets the engine just to keep it,

we're gonna get it. We're gonna win this today. That's Justin Dermody who brought his 70 olds convertible three Helpers and plenty of

confidence from Williamsburg, Iowa. The other team is led by the owner of this 69 Camaro Corey Ritter from Lexington, Kentucky. Everybody's got a different job but whether or not we'll stick with it. We'll just see. So, you know, we'll probably be tripping over each other, but hopefully it'll go smooth. We got about 100 and 50 hours in preparation of this thing.

You've done a swap before then

they have to bring all their tools on fluids, drain pans

and all that. So if they forgot some tools or something, they're gonna be hurting

lie supplies the HP EF I system for both engines self learning. So that shouldn't be an issue.

The Camaro now has a big block fuel injection and a manual trance. The 70 cutlass has a carbureted small block with an automatic.

I kind of don't see it as a disadvantage other than he's got the small block.

I got a lot more

we wid than my gearbox is in the back. His gearbox is up front and out of the way, then you have to have the right bow housing too.

So, yeah, and I'm sure they thought that through. But but there's just a couple of extra steps as opposed to an automatic.

That's, that's, uh, flex plate bolts and, and three converter bolts

and you're done.

21.

Yeah.

While the Kentucky team goes to work, removing the Camaro's hood,

the guys from Iowa came with a clever plan to remove the bumper and entire front cliff

giving them a lot more work

while Justin free installs the wiring harness, the other guys keep a steady pace freeing the 350 up from its mouth.

Meanwhile, the Kentucky Camaro crew guys have their own jobs down pat.

They're not that far behind. That's good. That's really good

fuel coming down. Brian watch out. Don't be smoking.

The Iowa Cutlass team made the wise decision to bring one of their own engine hoists

while the other is ready with the new LS six.

The others are,

there's blood all over the intake.

I'm not surprised I need a uh 13 millimeter sock for each other and grab me one, please.

You had the

finger

on.

Very

good.

It,

Jessi,

they should not

still hot.

So I'm gonna start back with

going

up.

All

the Camaro engine is finally out while they've fallen behind.

Anything can happen at this point.

I

hall

for

that

one.

We have feel pressure.

No.

Oh Yeah, I got the PC M plugged in.

You were saying eight fitting guys and he knocked the nub off this block or something. We got a nub right in the way here.

Right there.

The Kentucky team has another snag, not enough clearance for a pivot ball. They have to install.

Yeah,

both sides.

I

just broke the block.

It's over, it's over.

Sorry. Everybody,

I shouldn't have thought.

No, that's what pressure does. When

I

get,

they inadvertently

cracked their block, banged on it a little too hard to put a bracket on for their manual transmission.

So they're out of it. This motor won't even run.

I just don't want the other team to know it so we can

let them keep thrashing and see how fast it can be done

around the corner of the pain. My head's out of the way.

I

think we can. Once Nelson's out we can take down cricket

official time, 31 minutes and 57 seconds.

I'm sorry.

So sorry.

Congratulations. Thank

you.

That's about what you expected. 10 minutes over

really

good.

That's what you want to see.

Yeah. Well,

next year. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely.

Oh,

Justin has to drive the cutlass on a predetermined short route to make it official

for this confident and capable guy though. It's more like a victory lap than a test run.

Well, as you can see, they're back under their own power, so it's official. We'll be back with some racing here at the LSS.

Stay with us.

We put this thing together and we said we're only gonna do it for LSS. And we thought, man, are we really gonna limit the field if we only open it up the LS cars. Well, as you can see here, we certainly have not. And the guys with LS Motors are out here just having a blast. It.

Hey, remember horsepower supernova. Now

with new paint and an LSX

driver, Robin Lawrence in the far left lane, made us proud

on his way to winning the all nitrous class.

Right?

Thank you. Well, all the drag racing was cool here. What got our attention on the last day of LS Fest? Was this

a drifting exhibition courtesy of Nick Thomas

driving an LS powered Nissan.

It's ultimate car control.

It's almost a battle against yourself

trying to get to see how close you can get to the wall, how close you can get to your competitors. And

all of that. Nick is a serious competitor at grassroots drifting competition

despite the fact that he's doing it all on his own die.

I had a corvette a while ago and my friends are in the import scene and they would come over to the house all the time. They're like, you know what drifting is? And I was like, what's, what are you talking about drifting?

And they ended up saying that's where you slide your car. I was like, oh, yeah, I do that all the time. That's no big deal. So

they said we'll come out to an event sometime and we took the vet out to an event put some old tires on it and blew them off and

been hooked ever since it goes without saying he goes through tires. Like a teenager goes through clear a seal. We got three passes on one set.

So we'll probably go through

54 to 6 more today.

At least.

That's insane. Yeah, it's, it's definitely, it's definitely takes a hit on the wallet.

So, with a new set of rubber on his drift car, Nick was all ready to go out and blow some more binds on the auto cross this time though.

Will he invited me to r shotguns?

How's it going?

And so we were off good about 50 miles an hour after shifting to third gear and starting that hopefully controlled slide.

Yeah.

And

ok.

But

yeah,

nine,

wait,

wait a minute.

He's getting out of the car. I don't have a driver.

I thought

I lost

you.

Oh, man. Somebody bring me some clean underwear.

Thank you, man. That was a blast.

Oh, if you get my drift, that was amazing.

Now, I kind of understand why the so-called younger generation loves this insane tire trashing sport.

And why Nick with little money, but lots of verve wants to drift his way to the summit of his chosen sport. As I say, at the end of the day, you gotta do what you're passionate about and

that's more my passion than any other form of motor sport

that was wild. I love it.

You're watching horsepower for a DVD copy of this episode. Just go to Power Block tv.com and order your copy for just 595 plus shipping and handling. Start your own horsepower collection delivered right to your door from the power block.

Holly's first Ls Fest was a success. Thanks to the enthusiasm of a special breed of pure heads. Mostly they're owners of Chevy powered by one of G MS most popular engines of all time.

They came to have fun with their street machines and Serena head competition on the strip

in corner cutting competition on the auto cross

and in other events that challenged both the machine and the driver.

Well, we can't leave though without a nod as some of the show car standouts like the couple who won the Late Model award for this 2002 Firebird

car shows like this are kind of close to their hearts. We're at a show together, met and got married.

That's

pretty much,

was it you or the car, Rob?

Well, I think the car got of attention and then I moved away my charm. So yeah, then he, he's, he swayed me with his word. So

words can barely describe the craftsmanship that went into this non domestic winner.

It's a 1964 Carmenia

restored and miraculously modified by its Texan owner, Ricky Bird. A lot of people told me I was crazy and it couldn't be done.

So, but it was uh it was something that I thought I could do. And, you know, I'm one of those guys that like to do stuff different. Ricky chopped the top

French in the tail lights

added,

been headlights

and made Vince to cool the motor which went on to the chassis before the body.

We tried to keep

the original car

gear

up. We wanted it to look like a

king

but modernized it a little bit. So that's what we ended up with. That supercharged LS engine is only a few inches behind the driver's head,

but this custom made insulated lid reduces the engine roar enough. So Ricky can hear all the compliments. The response we've had from. It has been awesome. It really has. Uh,

it's just been

really cool

check

for $500. Brian. Congratulations. Well, our compliments to all the award winners for show racing and the whole works.

Here's hoping the festival becomes an annual celebration of high performance Ls style.

We'll see you next time.