You have to be a certain kind of crazy to take a brand new, $70k-plus car straight off the showroom floor and not only start modifying it, but dig straight in to the “wet” part of the engine. That’s just what the guys at Davenport Motorsports did with their factory-fresh Z/28, though…

Per Davenport’s Justin Strong, “The car is a 2014 Z/28 #63 with a Red Hot exterior. This car was factory ordered by Davenport Motorsports for R&D. The car is equipped with A/C and currently has only 66 km on the odometer.” That’s 41 miles in American – Davenport is based out of Calgary, Alberta, you see, which is fitting since Canada is the birthplace of all 5th Gen Camaros.

Strong tells us the first thing they did was throw the Z on the Dynojet and get a baseline number:

With a best pull of 457 horsepower and 414 pound-feed in stock format, they started turning wrenches and took the LS7 down to the short block before building it back up with a gearhead’s wish list of speed parts:

• Lingenfelter CNC’d LS7 heads surfaced to 69cc with additional hand finishing
• Lingenfelter GT-19 camshaft
• Ferrea dual valve springs with titanium retainers and hardened locks 
• Manley Severe Duty Inconel exhaust valves
• C5R timing chain
• American Racing 1 7/8-inch primary long tube headers without cats
• F.A.S.T. 102mm intake
• Extreme duty 10.5mm ignition wires with heat sleeves

“After custom in-house tuning we made 543 RWHP and 503 pound-feet of torque with HP Tuners software,” Strong adds. Not too shabby, if you ask us. As the “after” dyno video description says, this upgrade is true to the spirit of the Z/28 – pursuing perfection in a naturally-aspirated road race Camaro.