Mailbag: Building a Big Block-Powered 12-Second 1969 Chevy Camaro

Q: I’m in the process of building a street/strip Camaro. My goal is to run high 12s in the quarter, with a few restrictions. I am going to use a 454 engine with oval port heads and 9:1 compression pistons, a stock TH-400, and 3.73 rear axle gears. What carb/intake combo, camshaft (preferably solid), headers, and torque converter should I use?

A: You should be able to get into the 12s rather easily with this combination of parts:

• Edelbrock Performer RPM intake manifold.
• Holley 650 cfm mechanical secondary carburetor or 750 cfm vacuum secondary carburetor.
• Comp Cams hydraulic cam kit. You mentioned you want to run a solid cam, but you don’t have enough compression. This cam features 224 degrees of duration at .050-inch lift and .510-inch lift. It will have a mildly rough idle and will be very responsive.
• Hedman headers. They feature 1 3/4-inch primaries and 3-inch collectors. They will not work with power steering.
• TCI Breakaway torque converter. It’s an 11-inch model with 2,400 rpm stall rating.

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This is another in a series of weekly Q&A Mailbag sessions with Summit Racing‘s tech department, in which there are hundreds more. Click here to see them all.