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How Craig Calmes Built his 9- Second Street Car. Many enthusiasts found their way into the car hobby via an older sibling and Texan Craig Calmes is no exception. His five older sisters weren’t obsessed with cool cars, but some had boyfriends who were. Sister Linda’s boyfriend bought a new Corvette in 1. Cheryl’s boyfriend (now husband) Ronnie drove. Ronnie had a tri- power big block Chevy- powered ’3.
Ford coupe and that really caught my attention when I was a little fella,” Calmes remembers. I could hear him coming before I could see him and I’d get very excited when I heard the roar of his exhaust. Ronnie later bought a ‘5. Chevy and then a ’6.
Redline came out during what was, in retrospect, one of the greatest eras of supercars. The most high-end cars of the 2000s had power and performance figures that are.
Firebird. I loved the Firebird, and that’s probably why I have three of them now.”Calmes learned to drive when he was only nine years old and his father permitted him to wheel the family car around the building housing his plumbing shop. I think he allowed my brother and I to do that to get us out of his hair when he had a lot of work to do!
We never hit anything, but we always managed to flip over the tool boxes he kept in the trunk!”Calmes’ first car was a 1. Firebird he bought in 1. It was a nice car but nothing special and aside from adding mag wheels and a few other aftermarket parts he left it stock. In 1. 97. 6 he bought a new Camaro and in 1.
Z/2. 8. “The Z/2. I really wanted. The 1. Camaro was black outside but it had a white interior. I initially disliked the white interior but it quickly became apparent that girls loved it, so I grew to appreciate it too!”After getting married Calmes traded the Z/2. Pontiac Grand Prix. Along came children and I thought we should have more of a family car. My wife is still mad at me for trading in the fun Camaro for a car that wasn’t fun at all!” With the children came added responsibilities, and for the next thirty- odd years Calmes and his wife focused on raising their three daughters and building up their business.
In 2. 01. 2, with his daughters grown up and business cruising along, Calmes decided to get back into cars. He started with a bone stock, very original 1.
Firebird that he turned into a 1. While still building the 1. LS1- powered 1. 96. Firebird.“With the two Firebirds already in the garage I thought it would be neat to find a nice 1. Firebird]. I was looking for something that was ridiculously fast but still streetable.
Then, in March 2. Camaro SS that ran in the high- 9s caught my eye.”Calmes rang up his buddy Kevin Torres and asked him to evaluate the Camaro. It was built at Redline Motorsports in Pompano Beach, and after speaking with Redline owner Howard Tanner, having Tanner perform a leak- down test on the engine that confirmed it was healthy, and speaking with the car’s owner, Torres recommended that Calmes try to buy it.“I made a deal for the car and its trailer with Stephen Vigoa, the owner, and we met in Crestview, Florida, which is about half way between Miami, where he was, and Houston, where I live. When we met it was clear that the Vigoa family had an emotional attachment to the Camaro, which they called ‘Big Red’, so I promised I would take good care of it, and would keep them up to date on what I was doing with it.”Upon arrival in Houston a few of Calmes’ friends were waiting to see the new acquisition.
Among them was Torres, and Calmes invited him to take the Camaro for its first drive. After coming back from a spirited drive,” recalls Calmes, “Kevin pulled me aside and said, ‘this car is no punk, so be careful letting your friends drive it’. I took his advice and had him give everyone else a ride.
After they all rode in it they understood what he was talking about because the car would smoke the tires from a rolling start without breaking a sweat, straight off the trailer from Miami! His description of the car stuck, and to this day we all call it No Punk!”The following weekend Calmes and his buddies took No Punk to Royal Purple Raceway in Baytown, and Torres immediately clicked off a run of 9. A short time later, after adjusting tire pressure, changing spark plugs, and adding Poly.
Dyn TX7 Engine Treatment to the oil, Torres managed to get his time down to 9. At the time, that was the record for the quickest 5th Generation Camaro on 9. Octane Pump Gas,” explains Calmes. I should have stopped right there, but naturally I wanted more power. I decided to send No Punk back to Redline Motorsports to perform a full C8. It went from 7. 36 horsepower and 6.
C8. 5.”To clarify, C8. VP Racing Fuel’s version of E8. Many top tuners find it difficult to tune a car to run on E8. With a fuel like C8. When Calmes got the car back and brought it to the track, he discovered that the chassis couldn’t handle the extra power. We could not get it to hook- up and cut a decent 6.
The best ET and trap speed of the day was 9. Calmes sent the car back to Redline for suspension changes, and while it was there he decided to completely upgrade the engine as well. Out came the Whipple- supercharged 4. LSX sporting twin T4 PTE 6. The new engine demanded dramatic improvements to the drive train, so an ATI TH4. Outlaw Series replaced the 4.
L8. 0E, and a complete Driveshaft Shop 9- inch rear end assembly took the place of the stock axle. The transmission proved incapable of withstanding the forces the potent engine and heavy car combined, so ATI developed a new, stronger TH4. Fuel Comp, and that has been very durable in the car. Calmes told Redline’s Howard Tanner not to send No Punk back to Texas until he confirmed it could turn sub- nine second quarters, and after Tanner ran 8. No Punk duplicated the sub- nine second time at Royal Purple Raceway, but analysis of 6.
Calmes consulted with racer Jeremy Martorella, who suggested a number of changes, including removal of a sway bar and altering the engine’s boost curve. After this work was done by Jay Healy at Kraft. Works, in Boca Raton, Florida, Martorella took the car to Palm Beach International Raceway and in his first pass, on a less- than- ideal track surface, turned an 8.
I was extremely happy and seeing that the driver had to peddle it a bit, I knew it could run even quicker,” remembers Calmes. And this time is even more impressive considering the fact that this is still a full weight, full interior street car with working a/c, power steering and a lot of added weight from safety equipment.”As you likely realize by now, Calmes can’t sit still for very long and is constantly thinking about going faster. To that end, he’s in the midst of yet another round of serious upgrades to No Punk with help from Redline Motorsports, Lorenz at LSX Power Tuning in Brenham, Texas, and Nickens Brothers Racing Engines in Conroe, Texas, which is going through the entire engine. Simultaneously, the car’s transmission and rear end are getting freshened up, all new wiring and a Holley computer are being installed, and the body is being cleaned up and repainted.
When completed, these enhancements will undoubtedly make Calmes’ blisteringly fast Camaro even faster, which is to say even further away from being a punk than it has ever been! Who: Craig Calmes. What: 2. 01. 0 Camaro. Where: Houston, TXBody and Paint: The body is stock and still wore its original paint when we photographed it, but is presently getting repainted.
Chassis: The chassis is stock but stiffened considerably by virtue of a Tig Vision Race Fabrications ten- point 4. Suspension: Most of the factory suspension is retained, but traction is enhanced and weight is reduced courtesy of an Xtreme Innovations direct bolt- in 4. Traction is further helped by AFCO Racing and Performance “Big Gun” shocks that have been custom valved and BMR anti- sway bars front and rear. Steering: The stock Chevrolet steering system is retained.
Brakes: Stock Chevrolet four- wheel disc brakes handle stopping chores. Wheels and Tires: The car wears Weld RTS wheels sized at 1. P2. 75/6. 0R1. 5 Mickey Thompson ET Street Radial Pro tires fill up the rear wheel wells while Mickey Thompson Sportsman S/R radials sized at 2. X6. 0. 0R1. 7LT keep the front rolling. Engine: When photographed, the car was powered by a 4. Chevrolet Performance LSX block stuffed full of top shelf parts to help it live while making huge power. At the bottom end, a Callies Dragon Slayer 4- inch stroke crank anchors Callies Ultra I- Beam 6.
Both main and rod bearings are Calico coated. Diamond pistons with coated domes and moly skirts fill the 4. Trend Performance H9. Mast Motorsports 2. CNC 6- bolt LS3 cylinder heads were assembled with titanium intake and Inconel exhaust valves.
Redline Turns 1. 0 This Year And It Remains The Best Worst Car Movie. So far, 2. 01. 7 hasn’t given us much to look at, unless you enjoy watching protracted dumpster fires. So, of course, the logical thing to do is to look back. Ten years, to be exact, which brings us to 2. Redline. Have you seen this movie?
It’s about a bunch of bored- as- shit rich dudes who get drivers to race their supercars against each other for million- dollar bets on public roads, closed off airports and desert highways. America’s sweetheart Nadia Bjorlin plays Natasha, a mechanic that quit racing after the tragic death of her race car driver father, who was killed at the track. Nevertheless, she still gets roped into driving for these lunatics and winds up getting kidnapped by one of the rich guys, who also happens to be an insane creep, like most actual rich guys. A number of explosions, fistfights and gratuitous shots of shifting and tachometer- climbing needles later, all conflicts are settled and the good guys walk away, still good.“Hot cars and HOTTER women,” a critic raved. Redline is also infamous, and probably most remembered today, for being that movie where Eddie Griffin wrecked a Ferrari Enzo at Irwindale Speedway. The Enzo belonged to the film’s producer, Daniel Sadek, who was also the owner of Quick Loan Funding, a home loans company, which was accused of predatory lending.
Of course, once the housing bubble burst, Quick Loan Funding went out of business. CNBC's "House of Cards" documentary finally proves what we've suspected for…Read more Everything is terrible. But anyway! Sadek would use the earnings from Quick Loan Funding to buy exotic cars and produce movies like Redline. His personal cars made appearances in the film, including the Enzo and a Porsche Carrera GT (that was also wrecked for production value.) Knowing all of that kind of left a bad taste in my mouth as I revisited Redline again last night, but once I started the film, I gave myself up entirely to the gaudy superimposed titles, bad CGI, extreme douchebaggery, and the butts. My god, there were so many butts.
Dare I say it? Yes: there are way more pointless butt shots in this movie than there are in all the Fast and Furious movies combined. At its uppermost level, Redline is a shallow, crap picture. The acting is abhorrent, the lines are flat and everything feels cheap. It takes itself just seriously enough to be utterly mockable, like it’s the last one in on the joke.
It embodies the very worst parts of car culture: gluttony, misogyny, female objectification, overt aggression, excessive testosterone and wanton disregard for public safety and discourse. But man, are the cars good. Here is a link that may or may not include the entire movie that you may or may not click on at your own discretion.)Redline came out during what was, in retrospect, one of the greatest eras of supercars. The most high- end cars of the 2. They had monstrous engines, some supercharged and some not.
A lot of them were manuals and if they weren’t, they had brutal, single- clutch semi- automatic transmissions. The ones that kicked you in the back of the head when you shifted. Within nearly 9. 0 minutes of dated color- correction, tasteless split- screen shots and pointless plot, you’ll see a Lamborghini Murciélago, Mercedes- Benz SLR Mc. Laren, Ford GT, Ferrari F4. Porsche Carrera GT, Saleen S7, Lamborghini Diablo, Ferrari Enzo and a Koenigsegg CCX. These cars were uncomfortable. They were loud. They ate gas like motherfuckers.
They had wings, flares and gills. Had wide and bold angles that so defined their 2. And most times, they weren’t even engineered perfectly so they were dangerous. That part of them were features, not defects. Hybrid power? That’s for Priuses, you hippie bastard. And best of all, you got to hear them in Redline. You got to see them move, speed and drift.
How often do you see one of these cars at a Cars and Coffee event and it’s just parked there, not going anywhere—silent. Cars, especially these ones, are meant to be driven and enjoyed.
For that reason, Redline is great. Don’t watch it for the story, don’t watch it for the actors. But if you’re tired of international heist movies, maybe this box- office bomb is worth a revisit.