Wow.  I think the paint choice is fantastic!  I have to say, the S71 is turning out to be my favorite of all the V8TV builds.  I'm super excited about the current plans for the motor.  It's going to be a beast, for sure, but I'm a bit curious to see how responsive the turbo'd V8 will be on the autocross/road course.  Having a turbo'd 428 kick you in the pants at mid-corner might be a bit tricky.   

Still, I love the idea of turbocharged muscle cars.  The F-Bomb Camaro over at CarJunkieTV/Frieburger's Junkyard is a very cool (and expensive) example, although it was designed for an entirely different application.

Judging by the detail afforded in the photos, the Eastwood wrinkle finish is nearly a dead ringer for the original plastic dash surface.  It's hard to believe that a spray-on finish can match so accurately.  It looks like the gauge cluster is going to be awesome when finished.  Nice work!

Kevin...

The dash looks great! I'm curious how easy that dash comes out. Was it tough to remove without screwing up the dash pad? Or didn't you guys care cause you planned on replacing it anyway. My 36 year old dash pad is perfect, in fact the interior on my car is the best thing it has going for it.

One of the major elements of this build is the turbo system, and we've been contemplating the best way to do the turbo install for many months.     I think I finally have an idea of what we're going to do.   

There are many factors that needed to be addressed in designing the system, including:

- It's an Oldsmobile, which means you can't just go buy pre-made turbo headers
- It's going to be street-driven, so the headers need to be up to the task from a strength standpoint
- It's a mechanical 4-speed, so the driver side has a linkage clearance obstacle
- We didn't want to cut the car apart to accommodate the system
- Olds manifolds don't fit if you point them forward to plumb the piping in front of the engine
- Olds manifolds are not able to be flipped vertically to point the outlets up

So after much consideration, I think the latest idea is going to require the least amount of fabrication time and the most simplicity.    Here's how it goes...

We're going to use the factory Olds exhaust manifolds, pointing in the factory direction.    The passenger side manifold actually has a second port where the factory 2-1 exhaust system cross-over pipe would connect.   



So we're going to run the exhaust out the driver side, under the motor like a factory 2-1 setup, then out the passenger manifold like a single exhaust car.   Then, the plan is to have the exhaust make a 180 degree turn around under the car and come forward up the passenger side.    We got this idea from the Turbonetics 2005 Mustang turbo kit...





Then, the turbo will live up on the passenger side of the engine bay, and dump it's exhaust back down the passenger side.    This way we're clear of the clutch linkage on the driver side.    The turbo will then pressurize an intercooler in the grille area, and force the charge up into the FAST EFI throttle body.     

Word on the street is that the cast iron manifolds will handle the heat better than mild or stainless headers, and that the power levels are similar.    We'll probably have them coated with some exotic high-temp coating and then milled flat for good sealing.   

Another factor is that we already have these in-house, and the fabrication will be minimal.  It's such a simple idea, we feel it would be almost irresponsible not to try them.   If not, custom stainless headers are only a couple thousand dollars away.... 

Of course, this strategy might change if we have a bunch of problems, but that's the current plan. 

Thanks for the referral.     We'll be out in the shop today doing some mock-ups of this setup.. look for a video soon!

We did some checking today, and it looks like the plan is going to work... I'll post the video tomorrow!

Here's a couple stills....

The rear mount deal is a possible solution, but I don't want the system to get that complex.    I think this is going to be a nice simple way to put the turbo up behind the core support without 9 miles of tubing.    I always wondered about the safety of having the turbo exposed below the car and the oil system being that far away.   On a race car it would be fine, but we want this one to be as reliable as possible.