Wiseco’s “No tenth left unturned” interview with Danny Popp.
Danny, you’ve got a long list of accomplishments as a driver! NASA, SCCA, Optima Ultimate
Street Car Champion events, One Lap of America, etc. Tell us a little bit about the different
racing you’ve done and how you’ve got to
where you are. Well mostly autocross,
time trial and road racing. I was born into a
Chevrolet/Corvette family and my parents
both ran amateur events in the SCCA
(Sports Car Club of America), NCCC
(National Council of Corvette Clubs) and
other local clubs. I was born and raised
into playing with cars and followed my
father’s passion for Corvettes, turning it
into, ultimately, a profession. I had a very
good teacher in my father.
Just in the last few years, you’ve driven and developed devastatingly fast C5/C6 Corvette Z06’s,
the Lingenfelter L28 Camaro, and a ‘72 Corvette Stingray (that goes a lot faster than it
should for running period correct speed equipment). Does that pretty much make you a
Chevy guy? Based on the vehicles that I was born and raised around and the vehicles that
all of my results have come from, I would say, yes. I have become much less prejudice in my
older and wiser years. I feel that all current performance vehicle manufacturers are doing a
pretty darn good job with their platforms. Most of my experiences lie within the bowtie
however and do not plan on changing anything that I am doing; however, I do drive other
manufacturer’s products from time to time.
You compete in a lot of events based
on heavily modified street
cars. You’ve competed against every
brand and vintage out there and
you’ve slayed some pretty big
dragons. Tell us about some of your
favorite cars and any particular cars
run by your competition that you
were particularly impressed by. I am
going to be somewhat biased here,
and some of my favorite cars are the
ones that I have spent the most time
with. That being said, probably still my
favorite car, albeit run the least, is the 1972 LT-1 Corvette that belongs to my family. I have
had a history now with that car for the last 40 years. It was bought one year old by my
father when I was three. Even though there were other Chevrolet performance cars in the
family at the time (65 'Vette, 70 1/2 Z28), this car was responsible for forming my
automotive addictions. All of my fondest automotive childhood memories came from the
passenger seat of that car, with my dad knockin' the snot out of it. I had a GREAT
childhood!! I also heavily favor my two electron blue C5 Z06’s, which are an absolute hootin'
Annie.... Recently I have spent much time building, preparing and driving Todd Rumpke's
C6Z06, Snoopy, and am highly entertained with that car.....it may just be the most capable
street car in the whole country at this point, I am just the lucky fool who gets to drive it :) .
As for others vehicles, there are several that standout. Bob Kaspryck's CRAZY '04 C5 Z06,
Mark Steilows last couple of cars, Brian Hoboughs 2nd Gen car, Jeff Cleary's '67 Corvette,
Top Speeds OLOA winning GTRs, Greg Davidsons newly built 2nd gen Firebird. Paul Faesslers
CRAZY 1st gen AIX Mustang, The Lingenfelter L28, most Detroit Speed builds, and Mike
Newlanders "BEAST". I am impressed by performance and not looks.......although looks do
not hurt.
Anybody that’s ridden with you notes your intensity and aggression behind the pedal doesn’t
seem to jive with the mainstreams’ idea of “smooth is fast”. You are a driving instructor
and help a lot of people develop their driving, what’s the best path for improvement when
it comes to driving? Without naming names, are their un-trainable drivers? Seat time, seat
time, seat time!!! AS far as me....it may just look like that ...I am smooth however, just on
the gas EARLY and sometimes there is slip angle involved with that. Really depends on
whether I am qualifying, time trialing, or racing. Racing takes more discipline to mainly have
the tires survive the race, the others....LET IT EAT!! In regards to others and beginners, it is
paramount to drive technically first, smooth secondly and FAST last. Fast without the other
two requirements gets real dangerous, real quick. AS far as road racing goes, learn to
autocross well first, that will teach you to drive technically and understand car control in a
lower consequence environment. Autocross also teaches you course, or track
analyzation that will take you a long, long way. I can spot non-auto-crossing road racers a
mile away. The more technical the road course is, the easier it is to spot. Always plan for
what is next, and it is always car placement before aggression. Not only is this FASTER, it is a
SAFER way to drive. There are no such things as "untrainable" drivers unless they are not
willing to LISTEN and try. There are however two types of drivers :1) Natural talent, they just
completely "get it", and 2) the rest that it does not come natural and they have to continue
to work on it to increase their skill set.
You’ve prepared a lot of cars for customers with budgets both large and small. Do you have a
certain sequence of upgrades? Bang for the buck recommendations? Regardless of budget,
the most important thing to realize is that driving is more important to speed than the car
is. Yes, I build or set up cars for people with all sorts of budgets, but realistically the
sequence of upgrades is safety and reliability FIRST. This is the most important car mods to
make when first starting. Speed will come. Those that just first start and say immediately “I
want an 800 horsepower engine ", I calm down REAL quick. Making the car faster just
makes the car harder and scarier to drive. It takes time to acquire skill sets to properly
handle "more car". IF we are going to do "more car", I always start with creating grip and
brakes, making the car easier and safer to drive, besides faster. I always do engine and aero
kind of things last as those are also the highest cost upgrades, and quite frankly, not needed
or required by most.
The Chevy LS engine is your weapon of choice. Since you’ve started racing with them, have
your opinions on making power changed? You’re an aggressive driver that demands a lot
out of your engines. What decisions and upgrades have you made over the years to make
more power and reliably? No, not really. In my road race engine builds, I choose to reduce
low speed engine power output and trade it for top end power. This allows the car to be
more tractable on corner exits, still having more than needed, and then absolutely explode
at higher engine speeds so that the power can be used more effectively. Higher engine
speed coasts more money in quality valve train components and stronger rotating mass
pieces to tolerate the higher engine speeds. They say there is no replacement for
displacement, but that is not true...engine speed can offset engine displacement. In regards
to reliability we have changed things since we first started with these LS power plants,
mostly in regards to lubrication. When I first started road racing, I was sure that we could
make these things survive during 40minute sprint races at these engine speeds with wetsump lubrication. I went through all sorts of renditions of wet-sump oiling before I realized
that with our engine speeds and length of events that wet-sump was not going to work.
Then I went through two versions of dry-sumps for these LS engines, ultimately deciding
that it is a must to have an external pressure pump as the factory gearoter pump cavitates
heavily at higher engine speeds. We all use the Dailey Engineering LS dry-sump system to
no fail and I no longer drive with one eye on the track and one eye on the oil pressure
gauge. That coupled with ERL's road race modded LS block creates a very durable package.
You’re a busy guy running in a lot of
competitions, wrenching on cars,
and raising a family. What
competitions would you like to run
over the next several years if cost
and time weren’t an object? With
all I have going on, things are very
busy, too busy. I am a blue collar
boy so costs are an object. I have
had two offers to drive Grand-Am
cars, one was free and the other
came at some considerable cost out of pocket. I would love to do some sort of pro event
and go toe-toe with some of the best as I feel that some of the best road racers are not
there as they cannot afford it. I would be one of those guys who cannot afford it. In the real
world, I think I owe it to myself to take Snoopy and its owner back to the One Lap of
America as I think it will be the most competitive Corvette and non GTR. In addition to that
running SCCA and NASA national championship events as we have, and hopefully the
Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational again this year.
To quote Mark Donohue -"It will never have enough power until I can spin the wheels at the
end of the straightaway in high gear”. You recently built a new engine for the “Snoopy” C6
Z06. Care to give us any details? Also, now that it’s been in the car a week,-you’re probably
thinking about the next engine. Any thoughts on “the Ultimate road race
engine”? Ultimate road race engine??? mmmm. Really depends on class and venue. There
is a lot to this and many variables...including multiple ways to skin a cat. I myself prefer
normally aspirated engines as they are easier to deal with heating issues and obviously less
complex. I prefer as said, over-square high rpm, high compression, naturally aspirated
engines. The new engine in Snoopy is an ERL dry-sleeved short block displacing 447 cubic
inches. It has a Callies rotating mass and Wiseco pistons yielding a compression ratio of
12.4:1. SAM ran a custom CNC port profile through a stock set of LS7 castings and the valves
are actuated by a mechanical roller Comp cams bumpstick using their Elite solid roller lifters
and FAST 102 mm intake. We used the Dailey Engineering LS dry-sump 3 stage system. It
made north of 600 wheel horsepower on a conservative tune with a restrictive exhaust and
less than optimized intake manifold. We will make more and expect it to be at the 650 rwhp
mark soon. Wretched excess is good :)
Lastly, if people want to start running
some the “Real Street Eliminator” style
events and want to see you in action,
what races are you planning on running
yet this year? I believe next on the
Agenda is the Optima Faceoff Road
America event in June; I will be running
the Lingenfelter L28 Camaro there. In July
we will be running the Columbus Good
Guys event in the '72 LT-1 car and then
the following week the Motorstate
Challenge in both the L28 and
Snoopy. Probably will attend the Run through the Hills event in Pigeon Forge later in the
year and as said hopefully get an invite to the Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational in Las
Vegas . That on top of the NASA and SCCA events and 10/10ths Motorsports schedule, leave
me needing more time.
Ok Danny, Wiseco thanks you for the insight on Chevy LS Road Race engines. Best of luck in your
upcoming season!