JUSTIN KEITH
purpose of a Justin Keith-owned car is primarily
that of maximum performance on the quartermile. The spirit of the Street Car Takeover series,
though, as well as Keith’s personal passion, resides
almost entirely in the street-worthiness of the
cars that come out to play. Sure, it’s impressive
to have a fast car, but if it can’t be cruised around
town on a Friday night, well, that’s a deal breaker
for Keith.
As he explains it while driving his Duramax dieselpowered 2015 Chevy Silverado 2500 LTZ crosscountry to Charlotte from his home in Lee’s
Summit, Missouri, toeing the line between street
car and race car is a challenge, but not for the
reasons one would expect. “The parts are just so
good these days,” he starts. “Between the quality
of the parts and the performance potential of
engines like the Chevy LS and new LT platforms,
it’s not surprising that a build can go from mild
to wild in short order. You don’t have to sacrifice
a car’s street manners to make it respectable on
the drag strip anymore. The problem, though, is
that when you can take a showroom stock Z06
Corvette and run low 11s, it takes a lot more to
get noticed than it did a few years ago.”
You’re one of the lucky ones, right? Living the
dream, a genuine car guy that makes a living in
the racing industry. How did this whole passion
come about? Are you a second-generation
gear head?
Shoot, I’ve been in to cars since I was a little kid.
I’d sit and draw cars all day long when I was little
and all through school. I wanted to be a car designer for the longest time. My dad was into cars,
too, but my family didn’t have a lot of money, so
it wasn’t like he always had a hot rod or anything.
He cared about everything he had, though, and
he instilled that in me, taking care of his vehicle,
and taking pride in the things he’d worked hard
to have. I didn’t really get into fast cars and that
type of thing until I got my own car, a 1999
Camaro Z28. My great grandma, basically, when
she was on her deathbed, she wanted to help me
get a car, an d she bought me that first car right
before she passed away. That’s where everything
started.
And what’s a 16-year-old in the hot rodding
haven of Kansas City to do with a LS1-powered,
six-speed Camaro?
Honestly, I did what just about everyone did back
then…I went to Hooter’s on Noland Road. For
Keith is dead-on target. Not only are the days of quite a while, that was pretty much the hub of
5,000-rpm stall converters, open headers, 5.83 all things cars and car people in Kansas City. That’s
gears and a high-compression big block as stan- where everybody went. I went up there one night
dard equipment for a top-shelf street/strip car with my Camaro and I bump into this guy with a
long gone, but so are the days of 1,000-rear- big Chevy truck and he wants to race. I’m like,
wheel horsepower being mind-blowing. To stand ‘Oh, man, that’s just a big old truck. This redneck
out in the crowd these days it takes big power, dude doesn’t know what he’s getting into.’ We
yes, but also big drivability and big nerves—the raced from a dig [dead stop] and, I mean, he just
kind required to drive a car to the drag strip destroyed me. That was my introduction to all
instead of trailer it, beat on it day in and day out this racing stuff—a pretty rough one, but a pretty
on the highway and track during events like TX2K good lesson in racing on the street.
or HOT ROD’s Drag Week, or hold it wide open for
a half mile on a closed airport runway. For the I’m assuming you went back for more?
YouTube-famous Missouri street racer, having the Yeah, well, I sort of got introduced to that whole
ultimate street car is all about balance. As he crowd that night, and I couldn’t wait for the next
battles with the decision to take his ‘Vette into weekend. It became a whole routine and before
what could potentially be race-only territory, Keith long it wasn’t just on the weekends, it was almost
opens up on all things street car, street racing, every night we’d all be meeting up somewhere.
Street Car Takeover, modern automotive high- Most of those guys were seasoned Kansas City
performance and safety.
street racers, so I was getting to know a lot of
good people and learning a lot in the process.
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STREETRACE
RIGHTEOUS & RED
Keith’s Torch Red Stingray is amongst the
cleanest highly modified Corvettes on the
planet. It’s not at all surprising for cars to
become a little less prim-and-proper en
route to race-ready performance, but
that’s not the case with this stunning C7.
Rolling on a set of WELD Racing S77
wheels (15x10 out back thanks to a set of
LG Motorsports drag spindles), Keith’s
‘Vette has made 1,021rwhp and 960ft. lbs.
of torque on a Nitrous Outlet 100 shot –
producing regular 10.0-second, 149mph
quarter-mile passes with a six-speed
transmission. Keith relies on a Snow
Performance Methanol kit, DeatschWerks
dual DW350iL fuel pumps and 114 Ignite
Ethanol Racing Fuel to feed the beast.