New Pictures at the end of the post. 1/27/08.....
Here is a little Mid-Winter Race Car update. I got this car around December 1st and it was a complete, ready to race, car. It was built to sanctioning body rules that only race in Indiana and Illinois. The car was about 4 inches too narrow, 2 inches too high and had a few things that weren't legal for the track we want to race at. One of the rules was that we have to have 'stock type' upper and lower control arms. This car has stock lowers, but had tubular uppers. Since the car is too narrow, I bought new spindles that lowered the car 2" and would make the car about 7/8" wider on each side. That is the easy part...I then had to get stock GM upper Metric control arms and cut them apart. Our shock also goes thru the middle of the upper control arm. So, we had to take the angle out of the upper ball joint, lengthen it about 3/4", cut away the middle for the shock, then weld it all back together. We then have to grind all of the welds down, sand blast it to cover up the welds and then paint it. Now you can't even tell it was modified...So, we had to do that to 3 more control arms, just for the car. Now, we still need to make one more set of control arms for our crash parts, but we made a fixture for each control arm, so we can duplicate this.
We also pulled the engine out because it has a 4bbl carb on it and our track states we must run a Holley 2bbl carb, but no limit on valve size. I am having new valves installed in the heads and having them touched up and new guides installed. I am also getting a new cam, with lots more lift, because we also aren't limited on the cam. It just can't be a roller cam....The car made 530HP with the 4bbl.
We also have to modify the exhaust system a bit. We have headers that cross over the back of the engine and go into 3-1/2 collectors that combine into a single 6" in and 6" out racing muffler. Our rules state that each header pipe must have at least 10" of 2-1/2 pipe before it goes into the muffler. We've already made our merge type of collector go down into the 2-1/2" pipe. We are just going to get a new racing muffler with (2) 3-1/2" inlets and outlets. We also have to go back from the 2-1/2" extension pipe up to the muffler inlet size of 3-1/2". The muffler also has an "X" pipe built into it, which is cool. All we need to do is put some turn downs at the outlet of the muffler. The 2-1/2" pipe isn't as bad as you may think. We are only allowed a 2bbl carb, so a little restriction helps the HP on the low end, which is good for coming off the corners.......
So, we'll be buttoned up with the front end this weekend. We'll be turning our attention to the rear end. Since it has a floater, all I'll really need to do is get a new wider housing and axles. We'll then need to weld the mounting brackets on the car.....That shouldn't be too hard.....
Although this is taking a little bit longer than expected, we really aren't behind. Our first test day is April 12th and we shouldn't have too much trouble making that date......
Gary
Here is a little Mid-Winter Race Car update. I got this car around December 1st and it was a complete, ready to race, car. It was built to sanctioning body rules that only race in Indiana and Illinois. The car was about 4 inches too narrow, 2 inches too high and had a few things that weren't legal for the track we want to race at. One of the rules was that we have to have 'stock type' upper and lower control arms. This car has stock lowers, but had tubular uppers. Since the car is too narrow, I bought new spindles that lowered the car 2" and would make the car about 7/8" wider on each side. That is the easy part...I then had to get stock GM upper Metric control arms and cut them apart. Our shock also goes thru the middle of the upper control arm. So, we had to take the angle out of the upper ball joint, lengthen it about 3/4", cut away the middle for the shock, then weld it all back together. We then have to grind all of the welds down, sand blast it to cover up the welds and then paint it. Now you can't even tell it was modified...So, we had to do that to 3 more control arms, just for the car. Now, we still need to make one more set of control arms for our crash parts, but we made a fixture for each control arm, so we can duplicate this.
We also pulled the engine out because it has a 4bbl carb on it and our track states we must run a Holley 2bbl carb, but no limit on valve size. I am having new valves installed in the heads and having them touched up and new guides installed. I am also getting a new cam, with lots more lift, because we also aren't limited on the cam. It just can't be a roller cam....The car made 530HP with the 4bbl.
We also have to modify the exhaust system a bit. We have headers that cross over the back of the engine and go into 3-1/2 collectors that combine into a single 6" in and 6" out racing muffler. Our rules state that each header pipe must have at least 10" of 2-1/2 pipe before it goes into the muffler. We've already made our merge type of collector go down into the 2-1/2" pipe. We are just going to get a new racing muffler with (2) 3-1/2" inlets and outlets. We also have to go back from the 2-1/2" extension pipe up to the muffler inlet size of 3-1/2". The muffler also has an "X" pipe built into it, which is cool. All we need to do is put some turn downs at the outlet of the muffler. The 2-1/2" pipe isn't as bad as you may think. We are only allowed a 2bbl carb, so a little restriction helps the HP on the low end, which is good for coming off the corners.......
So, we'll be buttoned up with the front end this weekend. We'll be turning our attention to the rear end. Since it has a floater, all I'll really need to do is get a new wider housing and axles. We'll then need to weld the mounting brackets on the car.....That shouldn't be too hard.....
Although this is taking a little bit longer than expected, we really aren't behind. Our first test day is April 12th and we shouldn't have too much trouble making that date......
Gary
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We will be racing every Saturday from the Middle of April until October in Frankenmuth and about 10 Fridays in Flint, during that same period. We will be racing a lot this year. My brother will be driveing the car. He has been driving race cars off and on since around 1973. I learned around 1975 I was NOT a very good race car driver. I just limited myself to driving on the track during testing.......
But nice toy car!
