The engineering that goes into today’s ultra-competitive Outlaw Drag Radial cars is nothing short of astounding, and has become a virtual necessity for the six-second, 200+ mile per hour numbers that these heavy, stock suspension, wheelie bar-less machines are clocking. One of the finest examples of these marvels was unveiled on Saturday morning at the LSX Shootout in St. Louis, as Tom Kempf rolled his brand new 2002 Trans Am out of the trailer, after a hard-working crew had put the finishing touches on the car at 5 AM Friday morning at the Stenod Performance shop in Troy, Michigan.

Stenod, along with Kempf himself, built the entire car essentially from scratch beginning last fall, and had been thrashing for the last month to get it race-ready to debut as the biggest LSX event of the year.

“We found this Trans Am last year and originally the plan was just to take some parts we had laying around and throw a car together. But we decided to take our time and build it right, and it took a lot of time, but it turned out great,” said Kempf.

The car is built upon a 25.3 spec chassis with a multitude of well thought-out and implemented features; carbon fiber wheel tubs, leather wrapped doors, the rolled aluminum flooring in the trunk, a fabricated 9-inch rear end housing, liftoff front end and hood, and full stainless hardware throughout the entire car. Likewise, horsepower comes from a Billy Briggs-prepared 454 tall deck LSX motor, featuring Mozez aluminum cylinder heads, Mike Moran injectors, a new, larger Kinzler fuel pump, custom 125mm throttle body, and it’s fed by a single 114mm Precision turbocharger. The power is then transferred to the 315 radials through a titanium/aluminum Neal Chance torque converter and Rossler Turbo 400 transmission with a 1.93 first gear. The fully custom turbo system is comprised of a very slick 5-inch aluminum piping setup.

The one feature of the car that gained the most attention, and one that Stenod and Kempf were most proud to point out, is the pseudo-“zoomie” style header that offers a much more conservative look than the massive bullhorn exhaust seen on many Outlaw 10.5 and radial cars today. Stenod and Kempfs’ design brings the turbo exhaust tube into a rectangular collector of sorts that disperses into a zoomie header that gives the Trans Am a Funny Car or supercharged Pro Modified appearance.

Said Joe Stenod, “This is without a doubt one of, if not the best car that I’ve ever built. A lot went into this build and it’s as clean underneath as it is on top. We had so many people helping us on this car, working until 3 AM to get it done, and we wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for them.”

With zero shakedown runs or even so much as a burnout on the car, Kempf went out in the morning test ‘n tune session and made a rather soft 8-second hit, followed by an 8.35 at 172 miles per hour to place himself on the qualifying sheet. Then, on just its third pass, the Trans Am nailed down a great 7.75 at 184 miles per hour, while clearly leaving a lot on the table. Tom bowed out early in eliminations with an untimely red light start that earned him no time in the opening round, but returned later in the day for a testing hit, managing only a high seven-second clocking.

Said Stenod, “Our goal for next year is to put this car into the sixes and break 200 miles per hour. It’s got plenty of horsepower to do it, and we’re confident that we’ll get it there.”

Kempf intends to campaign the car at many of the popular Outlaw Radial venues around the midwest and south, including the ORTC events that have become the de-facto benchmark by which to gauge your race car. If the performance seen on the first weekend is any indication, Kempf and his new ride should measure up nicely, giving the LS combination plenty of ink and raising a lot of eyebrows in the process.