Logging Miles and Testing Products

Thousands of miles have been logged on autocross courses alone, but this car also sees abuse on the streets of Mooresville, North Carolina, where the Detroit Speed & Engineering shop is located. Kyle and Stacy Tucker not only have fun driving this killer Camaro, but they also use it as a test bed for new products, so it’s a win-win situation for this husband-and-wife team.

Aggressive Driving on the Track

On the track, both drivers are aggressive and know the characteristics of the car very well, but it’s easy to see that Kyle has a heavier right foot and truly pushes the highly modified Camaro to its limits. And while the car’s limits are a little higher than most Chevys you find on the street, it started out just like any other ’69 Camaro.

Components and Modifications

Fitted with a number of DSE components, Stacy’s Camaro is one of the coolest around and proves it every time it scoots around a road course or autocross course. If you find yourself asking how DSE made this old Chevy capable of outperforming more modern performance cars, then check out what the DSE test car consists of, and you will see that it’s more a matter of testing, tuning and tweaking its upgraded components to get the most rubber on the ground at all times.

The DSE Hydroformed Front Subframe

The first step in keeping the tires firmly planted comes from the highly acclaimed DSE hydroformed front subframe. These hydroformed rails are super strong and offer the option to mount a small block, big block or LSX engine, but the Tuckers chose to keep the test car simple with a healthy small-block Chevy. The subframe easily bolts into place, but that’s not where the real performance comes into play (the components that bolt to the new subframe, however, offer myriad advantages over stock equipment). Countless hours of engineering and design work went into building the tubular upper and lower control arms, which provide much better camber and caster angles to keep those front tires as level as possible.

Suspension and Steering Upgrades

A vast improvement over stock Camaro equipment, these tubular control arms eliminate positive-camber gain on the outside tire during hard cornering, which is an obvious problem that ultimately results in an understeer or “push” condition. Another improvement is the C6 Corvette steering knuckles, which offer great strength at a light weight, while mounting on the top of the upper control arm, rather than being sandwiched between the two arms. Koni aluminum-bodied coilovers ride under the test car to provide adjustability, and feature a 450-pound-per-inch spring up front. Just like the one you’ll find on an assembled hydroformed subframe, a splined, race-style sway bar keeps the car level, making it possible to sling the car into a tight turn without dragging the door handles.