Pontiac GTO 2004-2006 - GTO going on another diet

I've already done a lot of nodding and fabrication from behind the firewall back to the rear bumper with a full 4 link backhalf and Ford 9" solid axle, cut the whole floor out from the rear bumper upto the firewall and ran a full frame to just under the dash, NHRA legal 10 point roll cage, tubs, and new lighter stronger floor.

Here is my next thought......I've found most of the weight in our card is in the floor structureand bulk heads....its almost like they built the car to be a convertible...so since I want to lose more weight out of the car, and hope to improve handling at the same time I was thinking of going with a front tube chassis and 4x4 S-10 front control arms, spindles, hubs AND torsion bars... This will drop a lot of weight, keep a low profile chassis configuration, allow all cheaper aftermarket parts (like tubular a arms) and I can tie into the dash bulkhead and the 10 point cage to add strength to the whole chassis ( think dun buggy or race car tube chassis)

Any thoughts or ideas on this? I already have the S-10 chassis sitting outside the garsge ready to be cut up, measured and even though I could change it if I wanted to the wheel track is almost right already +-1/2" or so

Why use the s-10 frame and such. If you have done from the firewall back why not just build a custom front tubular frame so you can pretty much do what ever you want? I have done the same to my car except my floor was cut right behind the front seats all the way to the rear bumper and backhalfed with a narrowed 9 inch and 25.2 cage. Now on the front we are leaving alone except we are making a custom tubular k-member and suspension. Hopefully we can start jigging all the front suspension up with in the next month or so. But man post some pics of the car and progress up

Basically that's what I'm talking about doing.....I am going to fab up my own front chassis to tie into the rear section, but use the a arms and all the other suspension parts from the s10.....I've seen people use torsion bars on street rods, but not on much anything else...but I know Porsche and some others along with some all out race cars use some sort of torsion bar setups

I'm interested in getting an engine cradle to feet the otherwise stock suspension but will be interested in a tubular front suspension that will allow for wheel speed sensors and abs, that won't compromise the turning radius to much, keep in your thoughts, this is a very interesting area which has long been neglected in our cars, inherently hard to remove front weight from, while still keeping it street able thanks, David.

I'm using 89 s10 4x4 spindles and I have NOT measured, but the s10 hubs appear to have the same bolt pattern as the GTO, not sure about the rear bearing carrier size, but that could easily be machines, so you could have everything you want...tubular front, upper and lower control arms, coilovers AND stock ABS and stock hubs :)

Here is where I am at right now. Front suspension is done, and engine is moved back 10"s. I have my pattern cut out of poster board now and hope to transfer and cut out/ mount the new firewall and get the pedals mounted tonight

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/mark21742/IMAG0928.jpg

I'm using 89 s10 4x4 spindles and I have NOT measured, but the s10 hubs appear to have the same bolt pattern as the GTO, not sure about the rear bearing carrier size, but that could easily be machines, so you could have everything you want...tubular front, upper and lower control arms, coilovers AND stock ABS and stock hubs :)

Cool man i am completely lost, but i guess i just need to get a Lil more involve to understand more, i know i can fab the tubular engine cradle, and my priority is for weight reduction, and ease of access to work around in the engine comparment area, I'm not sure i want to do a lot of cutting, sinse i want to retain the ac. It looks like you are on the way to make it removable front end, I'm thinking you got a lot of weight of it, lol

I'm shooting for 2,5-2,700 lbs total eight. So just that should make a hell of a difference.

This weekend I got the new aluminum firewall in except for about a 2 foot section down under the pedals. I hope I can finish that spot this week, get the pedals bolted in, front motor plates made, bad shifter/ linkages shortened.

looking good bro.

I'm shooting for 2,5-2,700 lbs total eight. So just that should make a hell of a difference.

This weekend I got the new aluminum firewall in except for about a 2 foot section down under the pedals. I hope I can finish that spot this week, get the pedals bolted in, front motor plates made, bad shifter/ linkages shortened.

Will love to find out how much weight you can reduce, anywhere under 3K lbs is going to be a riot.

Got the last peice of the firewall done tonight...hope to get the pedals, rack, steering Columbus and a few other parts in tomorrow night...

The factory GTO.R weights only 2,400 lbs, but has a lot less power than my car:)

Got the last piece of the firewall done tonight...hope to get the pedals, rack, steering Columbus and a few other parts in tomorrow night...

The factory GTO.R weights only 2,400 lbs, but has a lot less power than my car:)

Are you going N-A, and how much power are you making.

Never had it on a dyno, so all I could do is guess..... 408 fully forged stroker, ported milled 57cc chamber 241s, 255/263 .624/.624 115 lsa cam, flat top with valve relief pistons, ported Edelbrock proflo xt intake, 60lb injectors, 12.49:1 compression/8.22:1 dcr, no A/C, manual rack (no power steering). So the only things I'm turning are the water pump and alt, and have fuel cut set at 8,000 rpms until I hit the dyno to see how far I can spin it and keep making power.... Machine shop said should be somewhere around 700+ at the crank, but we will see

I haven't had this setup to the track yet, but with a built 4l60 and 4,000 stall I ran and beat several different sportbikes around the area :)

This time I have a 3 speed manual going behind it and Ford 9" with 4.56 gears so it "should" be a lot quicker....I'm trying together it back together in time for mid spring, and hope to hit the track a few times later this year

I can see 9-flat in the 1/4 on the menu...

Ok, got a few more pics for you!

Engine is all cleaned up and painted, firewall, front frame, front suspension is all painted and back together, all I need to do up front under the hood still as far as fab work goes is rad support and sway bar!
Engine is moved back exactly a foot, do we are getting closer to 50/50!

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/mark21742/IMAG0999.jpg

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/mark21742/IMAG1000.jpg

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/mark21742/IMAG1001.jpg
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/mark21742/IMAG1002.jpg

Trunk floor is welded, painted and sealed with the gas tank box and battery box mounted!

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/mark21742/IMAG1017.jpg

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/mark21742/IMAG1016.jpg

I almost have the floor finished (did some more work tonight after I took these pics)
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/mark21742/IMAG1021.jpg
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/mark21742/IMAG1023.jpg

Are you using stainless for your floor, or carbon steel?
I see you are using the front of the engine as an integral front end and suspension support, that's a sure way to keep weight to a minimum....and is the tire robbing the new frame, i wonder about the turning radius, compare to factory, just for me, cause i know you have more track in mind, than street, even thou looks very strong... Good work, and you are definitely not holding back the knife lol...
Thanks for the pictures, i enjoy your progress...

As for me, i got my new light weight replacement race seats 13 lbs each, ordered, aluminum race mufflers, 4 of them to keep sound under control, and building a header back dual alum four muffler exhaust, will save 50 lbs there, and a set of custom 18" wheels, my son is working on, looking to save another 50 lbs there, and got a set of 3.90 diff gears to help with the extra
weight, getting some weight remove from the ring, off the gear set. Other than that will remove the fuel tank brace and the rear seat and back, saved 21 lbs with the light weight fiver glass hood, will post some pics of some of these parts for you soon..

My present goal is to, take 300 lbs off, and change diffs gears hopefully by the end of this month, and try to get in the nines NA, in street trim....

Nice! Sounds like your well on your way with some good work going on in your garage too!

With the front end I should actually have a pretty good turning radius, hopefully better than stock with the s-10 spindles....right now with the wheel turned all the way to lock I have a good 3/4-1" of space between the tire and frame at the point where it is closest through the whole throw of the suspension, and that is actually what I based my front framerail spacing off of.....lol I hate doing things twice lol

this is seriously an amazing build. kind of a question though, why did you paint everything on the motor black? I would have thought you would want to open the hood and have it shinning in the middle of all that black. regardless though, your fab work is rather impressive along with everything else you have going on with the car.

I decided to all out with the murdered out inside and out....I'll only have a few silver bits inside too like the gauges (autometer ultralite) and some switches.....going for the clean and "too few parts to work" look :)

Before I even went as far as to cut and add a few inches of wire to each fuel injector plug just so I could run the wires hidden under the intake.....going with a purely simple and clean look (plus I've already polished the intake, fuel rails, valley cover, timing cover and valve covers, so I could easily strip and polish them again if I chose to ). :)

Interior floor is all sealed and painted. Yesterday started to untape the main harness and cut wires out that I don't need since the computer is just going to be run like a stand alone system for fuel and timing....keeping just the bare essential wires and sensors.......it is amazing how much of the harnesses, boxes and things I'm not going to need :)

Awesome build... get as many pictures in here as you can

Wow that's coming along nicely! In for more pics as well..

Your car is insane. More pics pleeease.............

Thanks for the write and the pix. Its nice to see someone who goes all in.

Front wheel geometry seems so clean!

Rite now the way it sits I have MAJOR Camber, but have plenty of adjustment to bring it right into where I want it and farther if needed....that was the whole idea of this build, was to make it as simple as possible with plenty of easy quick adjustments, light and no extra frills, just mad insane grip and power!

I have the engine/ computer harness chopped down now to run as a standalone with just 7 wires coming out of it that need to go external....constant power, keyed power, a few grounds, speedo, check engine light, and active serial port for tuning.

This week/weekend I've been hitting all the body work and hope to have it ready for paint by next weekend!

I've still been taking pics, so I'll be posting them soon!

Here is how it sat when I walked out of the garage tonight! Body is sander, quarters preped for primer, back half of the fenders are mounted and capped, and the front clip is capped and just about preped!

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/mark21742/IMAG1109.jpg

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/mark21742/IMAG1106.jpg

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/mark21742/IMAG1104.jpg

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/mark21742/IMAG1102.jpg

First test fit of the front clip. Swapped the two hood hinge halfs and going to mount them low and as fee forward as I can to keep the nose off the ground when the front is opened
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/mark21742/IMAG1112.jpg

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/mark21742/IMAG1113.jpg

I give you credit, that is one heck of a project!

It's 1:20am and I've been up since 5am yesterday, so I'm not going to upload and post pics right now....got the hinges and hinge mounts made tonight, got everything mounted, and now the front end flips!

Painted!

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/mark21742/IMAG1141.jpg

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/mark21742/IMAG1142.jpg

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/mark21742/IMAG1139.jpg

man Mark, this some serious shit. I feel like I did not do nothing to my car after seeing all this. How much weight you think total has been taken off your car from all this work? Wish you were near my town, sure like to see it in person.

do you have any plans of making it to the LSX shootout this year? if not to race, at;east for the car show. i would love to get to drool all over this thing in person. lol. great job thus far man!!

When I pulled it in the garage it weighed 3700 with half tank of fuel and me in it....I know I took out a LOT more weight than I put back in, and just I nice little goal for myself is to end up between 2,500-2,700 lbs....but close and I'll still be happy.


Right now I'm shooting to take it to the GM Carslile Pa show....it is more of so wanted to see what I could do, than a show, or strip car.....mainly building it to be a bad add street car and weekend toy....with big balls lol.

Yeah, I was going to ask you too your drag racing or what is it haha. yeah weekend toy is good man. And wow pretty much 1000lbs thats crazy. Good luck on the rest of it.

Oh trust me...it will see the strip...at least a few times, unless it runs too fast and breaks the 9's lol

yeah well thats good haha and I bet, 9s or low 10s for sure man!

It's looking great man, thanks for the pix, enjoy them, thanks for following true with your project, perseverance pays...

I still have a LONG list of things to do to finish it lol but every thing I get done is one less thing to finish lol.

Pushed the car out of the garage Friday to paint a friend's car, now I'm cleaning and moving things around in the garage to make more room before my baby goes back in.

Got the dash pad trimmed and fitted tonight, and oh yeah...here is a pic of her big black ass :)

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/mark21742/IMAG1180.jpg

thats a big rear end jeeze

Damn that's awesome

Made the new gauge panel end mounted the gauges last night....slides right into the factory gauge cover :)

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/mark21742/IMAG1196.jpg

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/mark21742/IMAG1193.jpg

One hell of a build. Kudos to you sir.

Oh and I love a PHAT ass.

How are you doing and your project, have you weight your car jet, or been to the track, pls +1 for update, as for me diet paid off took off 520 lbs,. down to 3,400 with 1/2 tank of fuel and minus driver, i know is is not that much but i added 3.90 gears to complement and feels like is paying off, hope you are well and having fun Sir, God Bless David.

For some reason I haven't been able to get Photobucket to load lately, but......
I've got the cold air/ ram air intake tube done, radiator mounted, shifter and linkages mounted, heater box and heater lines mounted, wheelie bar and rear anti roll bar mounted, switch panel made, gauges mounted, lots of the wiring done and dropping the driveshaft off today after work to get a new 3.5" longer tube put on it and balanced. By the end of the week I hope to have the exhaust done and more wiring done (need to wire in the fuse box and relay box).

So it is coming along pretty good if you add in the fact that we got a 18'x 36' pool and built a huge deck on it to keep her and the kids happy lol

Tried and Photobucket loaded finally! Here you go!

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/mark21742/IMAG1337.jpg

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/mark21742/IMAG1336.jpg

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/mark21742/IMAG1323.jpg

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/mark21742/IMAG1302.jpg

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/mark21742/IMAG1234.jpg

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/mark21742/IMAG1278.jpg

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/mark21742/IMAG1279.jpg

Rear is looking good with the wheelie bars and the dash board gauges are great. I like keeping up with your updates man.

Looks stock to me. :)

Looks stock to me. :)

I'm trying to keep it low profile for the normal grandma sleeper lol. :cheers:

good god... thats freaking amazing... 1 question... why have you not gone turbo?? u have the room!!!

good god... thats freaking amazing... 1 question... why have you not gone turbo?? u have the room!!!

It is in the plans on down the road :) I'll need to drop yje compression a little with a great set of heads first

if u need the top cover to the center part of the dash i have one..

I have all the interior parts, just have to finish the rewire so I can put the parts that still fit back in lol

Went out to the garage about 1am and started working on her again....got the new driveshaft painted and put in, exhaust back up in with all the new hangers, set the gas tank in and refitted the filler neck, put all the 4link bolts in and tightened them down, then took a break and went to bed about 4am. Next on the list is tweak and rebend the main fuel and brake line that run front to rear.

Am I the only one who thinks this is hideious but sexy at the same time? But more hideious than sexy.

Man didn't realize how far you have come, and still make the a pool?

The wheelie bars look great, still will hang the wheels, great job and effort, i think turbos not necessary for 9. flat passes.