When Dean Rock started the complete rebuild on his 1962 Pontiac Tempest from a boring automatic setup to a fun-inducing T-56 Magnum, one of the first things on his list of parts was a BangShift Billy Digital Clutch Controller. His revamped setup runs a Gen5 LT1 donor from an Escalade through a McLeod RXT clutch. Of course, he rows 6 fine gears (7 if you count reverse) to a Ford 9” rear outfitted with 4.57 gears and a 28x10.5 tire wrapped around 15x10 Billet Specialties 4th Gen F-Body wheels.
This LT1 sports good rods and a BTR intake. We all know the power is in the heads and in Dean’s case Katech waved their magic wand over his with their port prep magic to the tune of about 600 whp. Pretty great numbers for an N/A powerplant.
In his 3250 lb. vintage Pontiac his best ET without using The BangShift Billy was a 10.73 with a 1.51 60’. With the Digital Clutch Controller he has been 10.44 @ 130.8 with consistent 1.4xx 60’ times. That is 0.29 (nearly3 tenths) off his ET!
His advice for anyone using The BangShift Billy is:
“They need to be patient and do baby steps during the initial set-up, otherwise they risk hurting parts”
Dean also said he does not think the use of The BangShift Billy Digital Clutch Controller will introduce any additional wear to his clutch at his power level than not having it. He does use his Holley ECU to trigger the controller based off parameters outlined in the installation instructions. To conclude from Dean’s own keyboard:
“So far, I must say that The BangShift Billy Digital Clutch Controller is a well thought out product! It's great to have the ability to either street drive or drag race the car without having to crawl on the ground to adjust the clutch. Just the matter of hit the gas and dump the clutch consistently every time!”
