Avoiding a wholesale rebuild of Leroy’s interior becomes the first major win, as the crew discovers that Liberty’s transmission case can fit without removing the floor, firewall, pedals, and secondary windshield setup. That practical decision gives the opening real stakes beyond simply installing another expensive part: cutting deeper into the car would have created more fabrication, more time, and additional safety concerns around the driver’s position. The relief when the mock-up case fits feels earned, and the explanation of why preserving the existing structure matters makes the transmission work easy to follow.
Liberty’s involvement also gives the project a clearer technical direction. The crew explains that two complete transmissions are being supplied with different gear-ratio ideas, while a first-gear lockout is planned to reduce the chance of a damaging downshift. Much of the conversation is informal and joking, but there is enough mechanical context to understand why this is a substantial upgrade rather than a cosmetic change. The main limitation is that the installation barely progresses beyond fitment discussion, so viewers expecting to see the billet transmission fully installed and tested will have to wait.
The C7 work provides another useful workshop segment, with ported heads, new valve springs, a Kong-ported supercharger, a camshaft, fuel-system work, and tuning changes leading to a first open-header startup. The startup delivers the expected spectacle, but the surrounding explanation is comparatively brief. Sponsor acknowledgements and a lengthy merchandise promotion interrupt the mechanical momentum, particularly because the sales segment expands into an extended comedy routine involving spatulas rather than advancing either featured car.
Lumberjack supplies the strongest technical payoff. Replacing the pressure-sensing setup and addressing crankcase ventilation problems allows the crew to tune with better information, and they point to a cleaner air-fuel result, reduced smoke, and approximately 900 horsepower at 26 pounds of boost. The discussion usefully connects the previous sensor limitation with fueling uncertainty rather than simply announcing a bigger dyno number. Likewise, the new valve covers and catch-can arrangement are supported by an observable improvement: substantially less oil smoke entering or leaving the car.
Track testing turns those workshop changes into measurable progress. After chasing an early misfire with fresh plugs, Lumberjack runs a 9.45-second quarter-mile at 143 mph before improving to a 9.30 at roughly the same terminal speed, including a 1.43-second 60-foot and a 5.96-second eighth-mile. The excitement surrounding the personal-best performance is justified by the numbers presented, and the onboard reaction reinforces how much more aggressively the car is leaving. Importantly, the car achieves the quicker pass despite moving around enough that additional chassis adjustment is clearly still needed.
That setup discussion gives the final racing section some substance beyond repeated passes. The crew considers front-end travel, boost, timing, fuel-system headroom, and shock restraint while trying to decide how much harder to push. The process is hardly presented as a formal tuning lesson, but it captures the iterative nature of drag racing well: make a change, inspect the data, observe the car, and adjust again. The loose banter occasionally makes the technical reasoning harder to extract, yet the progression remains coherent enough to follow.
The closing turbo-winner calls are cheerful and fit the channel’s community-driven personality, particularly the increasingly absurd effort to reach one winner who repeatedly hangs up. They also extend an already long ending after the main mechanical story has effectively concluded. Overall, the installment works best when the humor grows naturally out of fabrication, tuning, and track testing; the heavier promotional stretches are much less efficient.
Pros
- The Liberty transmission mock-up creates a clear engineering problem and resolves it without unnecessary rebuilding of Leroy’s interior.
- Lumberjack’s dyno and track improvements are supported by specific boost, horsepower, 60-foot, eighth-mile, and quarter-mile figures.
- Reduced oil smoke and improved crankcase ventilation provide a visible practical payoff rather than relying entirely on performance claims.
- Trackside adjustments show the iterative relationship between tuning, chassis behavior, and driver feedback.
- Informal workshop humor keeps lengthy technical sections accessible without eliminating the mechanical detail.
Cons
- Leroy’s new transmission is only mocked up and discussed, leaving the headline upgrade without an installation or performance test.
- The merchandise and giveaway promotions occupy a substantial amount of runtime and repeatedly interrupt the automotive progression.
- Some technical explanations are buried beneath overlapping jokes and shorthand that may be difficult for less experienced viewers to follow.
- The C7 segment introduces numerous new components but gives relatively little evaluation beyond the dramatic first startup.
Lumberjack’s personal-best passes give the installment a satisfying payoff, while Leroy’s transmission fitment solves an important fabrication problem without turning the car into a larger rebuild. The strongest stretches combine measurable performance gains with understandable workshop problem-solving, although extended promotional detours and the incomplete transmission installation keep the episode from feeling as focused as it could be.
