Scott Hamlin’s LS-Powered ’96 Geo Tracker

11/05/2017
10 min read

Scott Hamlin’s LS-Powered ’96 Geo Tracker

11/05/2017
10 min read
Scott Hamlin has been to every LS Fest there's ever been and has driven a different car to every one. This year, in his eighth trip to the annual extravaganza at Beech Bend Raceway Park in Bowling Green, Ky., he brought a ’96 Geo Tracker he thrashed together in just a few months, drawing on experience gained from a previous Tracker build and lightening everything as much as humanly possible. Hamlin's first Tracker had a 6L powerplant and a full interior and was a lot more "show" than "go." Not this one. The Hood? Gone. Doors? Them too – they're 70 pounds apiece, after all. Hamlin's unassuming lightweight machine, completed literally the day before he arrived in Bowling Green, had only been driven around his neighborhood before it made its debut at LS Fest. It's powered by a "junkyard" stock 5.3 LS engine with a Brian Tooley Racing cam and an S300 turbo. Hamlin, an avowed "car guy," went with a Turbo 400 transmission for the first time instead of the GM 4L60s he usually favors. Starting with a wrecked Tracker he was able to acquire cheaply because it was smashed in on one side, he figured he could just sell it if he didn't like the final result and finished the whole project in just 90 days. Who knows what he'll come up with next year – check back next September at LS Fest 2018 and find out!

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