I guess I will start from the beginning with a little history about the car...


History:

Bought the car in May of 2005 with 90k miles on it and just a Hooker Catback. Ran a best of 14.0 @ 100 on street tires. Eventually added drag radials, CAI, tune and all the free mods which brought it down to a 13.08 @ 108 on a good day.

Apparently these cars don't like being run low on coolant but accidents happen. While the car was down fixing the blown headgasket I decided to build the bottom end, add headers, and put a cam in it (cc503). After these mods the car ran a best of 12.32 @ 114 (again in good air).

I became more serious about drag racing and decided to trade the 6spd for a 4L60E with an SS4000 stall. That and some weight reduction netted a best time of 11.94 @ 113. I wanted to go faster, but I didn't want to continue to spend money on the LT1 platform that the aftermarket has forgotten about. So a couple of months ago I sold all of my LT1 stuff and all I have left is this...




The Plan:

The basic plans for the car as of now are...

- Stock LQ4 Bottom End
- Ported 243/799 heads
-Victor Jr
-4150 TB
-Plate Nitrous Kit
-Powerglide
-Dana 60
-275/60 Drag radials
-Suspension (currently bone stock)
-3100lbs with me in it (Currently 3440 with my 200lbs)

Goals:

-Run 5.70/8.90
-Be somewhat competitive in the local 275 Real Street Class
-Run some local 7.00 index races (on motor)
-Short cruises on the street


I've been hitting up the for sale section on here and other boards to try and find parts that I need. I am trying to do this on as much of a budget as possible, but I don't want to be fixing it all the time either.

I currently have the intake, TB, injectors, LS1 PCM/Harness, and most of the engine covers. While saving up money I have decided to do as much of the free weight reduction as I can.


Well as you can tell I'm not a great writer but I'll try to keep this updated with pictures as I get things done. Any comments or suggestions would be awesome.

 

Weight Reduction

Since the car won't be seeing a lot of street time I have removed the front bumper support





As well as the washer reservoir





And the rear bumper support






I don't have pictures but I also removed the ABS module, cruise control module, and the front sway bar mounts. According to the weight reduction sticky all that together (including the front and rear bumper supports) should be around 65lbs. Still a long way to go as the car was 3440 with me in it while it still had the LT1/4L60E.

Next up will be some cleaning and removing all the interior panels, carpet, and seats to get the car ready for an 8.50 cage.

 

Looks like a solid project! What kind of cage are you going with? I would recommend mini tubbing it, that removes a bunch of weight and gives a lot more room. Just a thought!

 

I plan on having NRC Motorsports in SC do the cage. Chromoly with all the bars needed to cert to 8.50 plus the window net. I'll definitely look into mini tubbing it.

 

I have a motor for ya if you want to save a bunch of time and $$.. Brand new never fired solid roller 408 with ET ls7 heads. Shoot me a PM if you're interested.

 

Looks so mean with the hood down and nose off.... and yes PM JL, I have seen that motor first hand, its a stout power plant.

 

Yea JL's motor would be sweet but I just don't have the money for it.

 

NO problem, just figured I'd throw it out there. If it doesn't sell, I have no problem putting it in the car and using it for a while

 

Here are the rules for 275 Real Street


And here are the qualifying results from the latest race

Only the 2nd time the class has been run but it looks to be growing. Its about as close as you can get to a "budget" heads up class.

 

Those rules look pretty good actually. Pretty fair, and I don't see any huge holes that allow for someone to really run away with it.

 

Yea the #1 qualifier was a turbo car, the rest are SB nitrous I believe.

 

It would be cheaper in the long run.

 

lol this build is already going to take a lot longer than I want it to because of $$$. Also I want a pump gas motor so when I run it N/A for index classes I don't have to spend a ton of money on fuel.


Good luck with your motor build by the way. Sorry to hear about the old block giving up.

 

If you wanted to run my motor for an index class, I'd just turn the timing way down, and run a cheaper race fuel like 110 or something. At that point performance isn't your goal, repeatability is, so there's no need to have a tune that needs the 116.

On the jug I'd run nothing but C16/118 competition fuel.. but for n/a bracket racing I think with the timing down 110 leaded would be fine.

Don't get me wrong it's NOT a street motor, you shouldn't be putting it in a car you want to drive around. But a very conservative tune you could run 110. I did it with my old 402 motor that I sold, I ran that with a conservative tune and it ran fine on the street with a 105 unleaded I used to get at a pump. But, when I went to the track with it and turned it up, and eventually stopped driving it all together and just racing it we turned it up a little more, and I ran nothing but 116 in it. When I started spraying it, I went to 118 nitrous fuel.

Running a 110 leaded fuel would help with making sure the fuel is consistant too, which wouldn't hurt for a slower index use as well fwiw.

I'm aure the motor in a 3000 lb car will run 9.50 on nuts, maybe a touch better. Put some nitrous to it and it's gonna go gooood



If it sells it sells.. if not I'm gonna put it in the car for a while. That's gonna take a while though due to my limited time schedule, and I'd rather see it go and get run.

 

110 octane is still more expensive than 93. Lol. Plus I do plan on cruising it on the streets some. Can't run the LS7 heads in the Real Street class anyway, has to be 15*.

 

Haven't updated this in a while, been buying and selling parts. I did get most of the interior out earlier this week, just need to pull the center console and carpet. I'll get some pictures up tonight.

Question: Is it alright to scrape up all the seam filler that is under the carpet? If so, what should I use to do it?

 

where's this class ran?

 

North Carolina. Hopefully it catches on and gets picked up at other tracks as well.

 

damn i thought you were staying lt1. looks like a good build though.

 

wat tracks in NC ill be living in lexington/mocksville this summer it'd be cool to race this class if the car's done and competitive for the class.
edit: i think i found it ran at peidmont the other day. i'll be following this build if you can keep me in mind keep me posted on info for this class and are those the complete rules?