I'm working on my 98 Camaro race car and I am redoing the front. Here is the build thread: https://ls1tech.com/forums/drag-raci...aro-build.html

Right now the front bars go around the outside of the shock towers and then curve down to the bottom of the cage inside the car. I want to cut those back out.
I want to convert my shocks to no longer use the 3/8" stud and instead use the eyelet and hat conversion:



Then I want to run the the front bar across the outside edge of the shock and use these to attach the shock to the front cage bar:



So that takes car of the shock and spring. I am going to competely remove the shock towers and ONLY have the shock attach to the front cage bar.

I want to move the upper a arm down and put tabs on the frame to hold the upper a arm.

This car is drag only

Do you see any issues with doing this?

Also when I run the front bar to the cage, is there a better spot to tie into the main cage? my cross bar is mounted really low. I am considering moving it up higher. Any suggestions welcome.

 

 

Here is something like I was thinking:

 

Took the spindle off my c6 today

 

What k member is that with the removable bar

 

pa racing

 

Why not go to a strut front and forget about the upper a-arm?

 

All the struts I have found are very expensive. I think I can do this set up for less than $500(pending everything goes as planned) and still loose over 20lbs off the car.


Is there a lower cost strut conversion that I have not seen?

 

With what you are talking about doing you could just put a set of strange struts, or the like on and ditch the whole upper a arm, and put a spindle mount wheel on losing a bunch more weight.

For stock suspension rules, I suspect (not 100%) that they won't like what you're doing there and likely won't allow it. Although it would still be stock style in the sense of upper and lower a arm... I think you could make a case for it.

Interesting idea though, if you could leave that stock upper corvette a arm length there and go inboard on the frame rail a touch to get the camber/caster right I can't see a reason that it wouldn't work. certainly would make working on the car a lot easier with no shock tower in the way at all, header design and a slew of other things would open right up as well.

That spindle certainly won't work as the rack is waayyyy lower than the attachment point, I think you would want to have, or make a set of spindles to get the height of the mount a little more in line with the rack for geometry reasons and not have to put some crazy spacers underneath it.

You're thinking a little out of the box on it, I like the idea, hope you can find a way to follow thru with it.

 

I just don't want to spend the money on wheels and brakes and all that right now that goes along with the struts. It just adds up to too much that I would need. The way I figure is that if I can do it this way, I can sell the fbody parts, maybe I can even mount the shock in the same place that a strut would go and if I decide to go with a strut later on, I can sell the C5 stuff and go with a strut set up.

I plan to make the stock length vette arms work by mounting them on top of the frame to a plate they can attach to, like you suggested.

Things I don't understand are the angles. I think its called the anti dive. I leveled the car out and took pics I will post later of angles of everything such as the upper a arm and the shock and such.

I don't run stock suspension classes so that is not a concern for my. My concerns are saving weight and easier to work on aside from saving money doing it.

Corvette C5 parts are on there way. I'm hoping the brake set up is going to use my same rotor with my fbody caliper bracket. The one off my C6 would bolt to my bracket, but the pads only hit half the rotor, but my C6 is a Z51 and has way bigger rotors than a base c5. I think c5 vs fbody is 12.5" vs 12". If the bracket is the only difference then my rotors should work. if not, I will have to get C5 rotors.