This Guy’s Garage: Troy LaCrone

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What a shock, another blue Camaro in Car Craft! Long-time readers might recognize the name Troy LaCrone. We did a story on another blue Camaro of his back in the January 2006 issue. Then he was searching for the 8’s with a street small-block and nitrous-equipped 1971 Camaro with slapper bars. The process has evolved into the 1968 you see here, and he has just run a little bit quicker: 7.90 at 162 mph! Yeah, it doesn’t look like a 7-second car, does it? We’ll save the particulars for an upcoming in-depth tech piece on this Rat-motored Camaro on spray. Troy lives in Missouri where land is still affordable, so he bought a few acres out in the country and built this great new shop. It measures 60×40, extending to 52 feet deep on the car end for trailer and RV parking. He also built a mezzanine for all the parts that car guys inevitably collect. The shop has 16-foot wide doors and has all the creature comforts to make it nice to work on in the ridiculous extremes of Missouri winters and summers. It’s taken him a long time to get here, but this is car guy heaven. No neon, just plenty of horsepower!

A.
Troy is a Pro Street and muscle car guy who knows how to build a fast car. He’s had plenty of experience, even dabbled with a turbocharged Mustang for a while, but always comes back to nitrous and Chevrolets. We’ll save the details on this 572ci Rat-powered Camaro for the upcoming tech story. In 2016 it had a 540ci motor and an Induction Solutions-tweaked nitrous system that pushed it into the 8.40’s. But apparently that wasn’t quick enough. In May, the Camaro ran a 7.90 on only its fourth pass down the track with the new combination.

B.
No, the 1969 Nova isn’t part of the LaCrone stable. His buddy Ian Williams stopped by the day of the shoot and helped make the photo better. The Nova also sports a larger yet milder 598-inch Rat. Ian says “It’s milder – it makes just over 1,000 hp.” Troy says it’s a “very cool street car, you can jump in it and go, there’s not even a cage you have to crawl over.”

C.
The Chevy II hiding in the corner is about as polar opposite of the Camaro as one can get. It’s a completely original 1964 Chevy II SS that Troy just recently purchased. It’s a 6-cylinder car with a Powerglide, factory console, and air conditioning. Troy drove it home and is already contemplating a 400 hp small-block. This car is special because he had one just like this when he was 16 in high school. The interior probably even smells the same!

D.
If you work on cars in your shop, you know that parts tend to accumulate. Pretty soon you have to make a place for them. Troy’s previous workplace was the family’s 2-car garage that was always cramped, so he planned this space with enough room to build a mezzanine where all the stuff he needs to keep can be carefully stored off the ground floor.

E.
The closest thing to neon in this shop is the big-screen TV. It’s there for motivational drag races during late night thrashes in the shop. Behind the TV is a full bathroom and even a laundry. Married guys know that greasy clothes are best kept in the garage, so now Troy can clean his shops rag and clothes and not poison the family washing machine. Smart guy!

F.
It’s difficult to see, but that chunk of iron on the top shelf is actually the rear quarter of an old cast 400 crank that Troy broke on a previous small-block nitrous engine.