Hybrid Turbocharges Its Way to California

The galloping Callaway Twin Turbo--barred from California since creation because its builder chose not to chase state emission standards--has cleaned up its act and has been cleared to sell locally.

Watch out.

Here’s a 190-m.p.h. pacemaker to the heartbeat of America, a private-sector mutagenesis of a Chevrolet Corvette that accelerates faster than a Lamborghini Countach or a Porsche 911 Turbo.

With twin turbochargers building almost 400 horsepower, the Callaway can outrun a Ferrari Testarossa--and the terminal velocity of that particular Italian redhead just happens to be faster than liftoff speed of an F-16.

The Callaway Twin Turbo is also relatively affordable, undisputedly exclusive and a hot rod in sheep’s cladding that may be ordered alongside Luminas and Corsicas at your neighborhood Chevrolet dealer.

This assigning of an RPO (Regular Production Option) designation to the Callaway says a lot for GM’s tolerance and acceptance of an after-market hybrid clearly competing in price, performance and enthusiast appeal with Chevrolet’s super fast (but still slower) Corvette ZR-1.

And by tacit endorsement of the Twin Turbo, Chevrolet obviously is putting its reputation (also its 12-month and 12,000-mile powertrain warranty) behind a product that meets cherished standards of reliability for sports cars that--like the thirtysomething Corvette and the yearling ZR-1--are docile enough for the ‘burbs yet become absolute thrashers on interstates.

The Callaway Twin Turbo rose from a 1985 misfit--a turbocharged, experimental Corvette built for Chevrolet by an outside contractor.

Chevrolet wasn’t much thrilled by the prototype. But Connecticut engineer Ely Reeves Callaway III, former Formula Vee racer, descendant of Georgia Baptist preachers and Callaway Vineyards, saw it as the greatest potential for blinding motion since the $25 firecracker.

A year later, with Chevrolet’s blessing, Callaway was in limited production. Today there are some 400 Twin Turbos blowing off doors throughout 49 states. But not until last month’s certification and satisfaction of California’s bulletproof smog standards has the brute that purrs been available here.

“Frankly, there’s a limited market in the rest of the country for a high performance car such as this, and selling in California was the next logical step,” said Roger Smith, managing director of Callaway Cars of Old Lyme, Conn.

“Also, we are seeing the rest of the country moving towards adopting California’s (emission) standards. So we thought we might as well do it (comply) and get it over with.”

Every Twin Turbo starts life as a stock Corvette equipped with the venerable but trusted small block Chevy V-8. The car is shipped to Callaway’s Connecticut skunk works where moving parts are magnafluxed and balanced. Main bearings are worked over. Stainless steel valves, a forged crank and pistons and a new cam with hydraulic lifters are added.

Then comes the heart transplant--the addition of twin, intercooled turbochargers that boost the Corvette’s standard 245 horsepower to 390 horsepower, which actually is more like a stampede.

The ultimate proof of power, however, is this thing called torque--the engine force that produces wheel rotation and vehicle motion. Torque is measured in terms of maximum oomph produced to move poundage over footage.

The torque-feet of a Toyota Celica GT, for example, is 140 pounds-feet. The 5.0-liter Ford Mustang puts out a very respectable 300-pounds-feet. But the Callaway Twin Turbo transmits a thumping 562-pounds-feet to its rear wheels and that’s enough to leave divots in your driveway.

For the discreet who do not wish to advertise, the Callaway Twin Turbo may be purchased as a coupe or convertible that externally is only a badge and a plaque removed from a stock Corvette.

But the brash might choose an $8,500 Aerobody option that gives the car a row of flared nostrils and straked body ducts. It includes a new, slick, rounded, aerodynamic nose and a sculptured rear end that looks for all the world like a grown-up Miata with a ducktail. The whole is awfully handsome. Especially with the Dymag magnesium wheels.

The interior of the car is pure 1990 Corvette.

It also is an abomination.

In their semicircular, Pac-Man setting, essential instruments are a mix-up of needles and digital readouts. Warning gauges, numbered to show only the extremes of their operating range, confuse before they inform.

And then there is dash lettering that’s a squint even for those with vision only one diopter removed from 20/20. Is this a radio we see before us? Or the climate control panel? Either way, the display is a litter of toy knobs and pitiful symbology. And the radio doesn’t scan.

On a happier note, the cockpit cuddles nicely, the seats feel rugged and hold well during spirited cornering, and like all Corvettes, the car comes with an air bag.

Yet there is no doubting that this is a Callaway. It says so on a dash plaque (and in the true spirit of adventure and high-speed risk, the production number of the test car was 007) and a boost gauge for monitoring the twin turbochargers.

The suspension remains untouched and stock Corvette. So does the car’s six-speed manual transmission. Together, they give a surplus of performance management that does not diminish as speed builds but actually seems to improve with pace.

But then the Corvette always has been a flat, determined, obedient ride. It has brakes (13-inch discs) to spare for late dives into interesting corners. More important, there’s power aplenty to boot through and out of the turns.

Today’s Corvettes come with selective ride control (Tour-Sport-Performance) and at no time--even if fishtailing, overcorrecting or losing some other portion of the car’s geometry--is there a shadow of suspension floats or steering dithers.

To all of this, add a power plant designed and tuned to do little else but convert a two-place car into a drill boring 190-m.p.h. holes through the air.

But forget that speed. It isn’t important. It would also be fair to state that nobody who owns a Callaway has ever driven it at that speed. Or will. Then why have it?

Because an inordinately quick top end is simply the byproduct of searching for a stupendous mid-range where most mortals live. And it is here--entering freeways, pulling clear of tailgaters, moving around the blind idiot cutting across our bows--where the Callaway is simply astounding.

It takes five seconds to accelerate from 60 m.p.h. to 100 m.p.h. It rockets from rest to 100 m.p.h. in a sniff over 10 seconds. And it is raw speed in a gentle hurtle where the power seems endless.

Indeed, smoothness is the pleasant surprise of the Twin Turbo. In town, in traffic, it’s an easy drive. Shifting is a click and the clutch no heavier than a Honda. On the open road it’s an enormous dose of docile power where the rear-view mirror can be forgotten because no other car will be fast enough to sneak up.

That’s not a Chevy.

That’s a Callaway.

1990 CALLAWAY TWIN TURBO COST: Base: $62,834 for coupe. As tested: $76,619 for convertible (with Aerobody). ENGINE: Twin turbo, 5.7 liter, V-8 developing 390 horsepower. TYPE: Limited production, rear-wheel-drive sports car. PERFORMANCE: 0-60 m.p.h. (as tested) 5.2 seconds. Top speed (manufacturer’s estimate, coupe) 190 m.p.h. Fuel economy (EPA city-highway average) 17.2 m.p.g. CURB WEIGHT: 3,403 pounds. THE GOOD: Astounding performance with decorum of daily driver. Best-handling American car. Full-blooded competition for Ferrari and Lamborghini at half the price. THE BAD: Exhaust note tuned to extinction. Disappointing interior styling. THE UGLY: Instrument display by Nintendo.