Many people view street cars as something you can confidently put a car seat into and take your child or grandchild out for a spin in. Others view them as an example of the furthest you can push the limits of legality, safety, and tolerability and still drive on the street. While many would think that a convertible Trans Am in the high 700-rwhp range is too much, Tom Dougherty, a 50-year-old auto-repair shop owner in West Chester, Ohio, believes, "It's just enough." Since day one, he knew that his WS6 wouldn't be ordinary. With the help of friends and advice found on LS1.com and LS1tech.com, the brute creation has come to life.
As you've surely read in past issues of HPP, some of our readers and feature cars run on the ragged edge of reality. Tales of obsessive owners continually pushing the limits of their vehicles' combinations to insane levels are commonplace, especially with late models. Tom Dougherty may have taken the cake with his '01 WS6, however. His storied build isn't for the faint of heart. Multiple blocks, cranks, cylinder heads, supercharger head units, suspension combinations, and wheel setups color this Trans Am's profile. Now, he claims to have finally settled down with his current setup (we don't believe him), and we found him making a bunch of noise at the 2009 Trans Am Nationals car show.
It Begins
In April 2001, Tom's wife, Heather, bought him this '01 WS6 convertible new off a Paris, Kentucky, Pontiac dealership lot. He didn't leave it stock for very long, however. "My brother-in-law and best friend both owned Vipers and I wanted to build something that could compete with them," Tom recalls. At 5,000 miles, a Yank SS2600 torque converter was installed. Next, he purchased some bolt-on pieces, and a Vortech Supercharger kit with a G-trim head unit. The combination wasn't enough to best the venom from the snakes, though. That mattered little because his setup was about to change anyway. "At the track I hot-lapped it and melted the number seven piston, so I rebuilt the motor," Tom remembers.
The block was toast, so an LS6 block was chosen for the forged crank-and-rods 382ci buildup featuring 6.0L truck heads. This combo was short-lived as well because offset piston pins weren't used, which resulted in a knocking noise that no serious enthusiast could live with.
Back to the drawing board, Tom went with more cubes and had the LS6 punched out with Darton dry sleeves. Since the 418ci engine could handle even more air, a Rocky Mountain Competitive Research (RMCR) T-trim blower upgrade was installed. Needless to say, the Vipers were quickly defanged and the Trans Am was consistently in the low 11s. Soon, the new block sang its swan song, which Tom says was a sleeve issue. "Antifreeze leaked into the oil and destroyed the crank," Tom laments.
This time, he was fed up. He wanted something that was going to be durable, and that would push him toward the 9-second club. Enter Wheel to Wheel Powertrain in Detroit, Michigan.
Game Time
Starting over, Wheel to Wheel installed a Lunati 4.00-inch forged crankshaft, forged Lunati rods attached to forged and Teflon-coated Diamond pistons into a honed, stock LS7 aluminum block. Fastened to the block with ARP head bolts is a set of aluminum 6.0L heads from CNC Cylinder Heads in Pinellas Park, Florida. They flow more than 320 cfm on the intake side and an impressive 230 cfm on the exhaust, thanks to a five-axis port job and large 2.08-inch intake and 1.60-inch stainless valves. The heads feature Patriot Gold dual springs, Comp 1.75:1-ratio roller rockers and hardened pushrods. Final compression calculates out to 9:1 in the 427.
A custom 234/240-degrees at 0.050, 0.593/0.605 lift Comp cam with a 114-degree LSA was chosen for the forced-induction setup, and it gives the car an incredibly lumpy idle, not commonly found in many "blower" cams.