KurtRardin

iTrader: (11)

I'm starting to lean...

I'm also thinking about finding 18's so I can cram in some CTS-V brakes... if I go this route.

ILLWS6

iTrader: (13)

Gutted out drag cars get real boring, real fast. My car wasn't that fast but it was the best I could do on my budget. The track was just overrun by ricers with trannys just waiting to blow up and shut the track down for an hour each, but unless I was at the track there was nothing to do. Doing straight line runs on the street just got scary, 120 MPH, no bumpers, no airbags, no doorbars on a launch suspension. Get caught once and bye bye license. My wife wouldn't ride in it, My kid was afraid of it. Oh and no stereo woo-hoo awesome.
Whatever you decide to do, don't do anything permanant and save ALL of your old parts.
I'm putting mine back together and it's costing me an arm and a leg for **** I threw out or sold for chump change.

KurtRardin

iTrader: (11)

That makes sense. Thanks for your input

'02TA

I'm 90% straight line guy but my car can still handle the corners pretty well. When i first got my car I was all about corner carving but the harsh ride of super low and super stiff suspension got old so I put the stock springs back in the rear with the hose mod and took my sway bar of the front and turned my car from corner carver to a dead hooker that rides like a caddy and still handles decently...

It's up to you but if you get serious with either side you'll end up getting tired of it unless you get a DD.

P.S. Awesome question

kmracer

iTrader: (1)

its actually fairly simple to me. a street/strip car might not be able to rip around corners, but they ride much much nicer then a car thats set up for cornering abilities. sure, you can only enjoy it for 10 seconds (i guess), but you can floor a car anywhere. where can you unleash a road racey car? also, road racing/auto xing is VERY hard on parts. ask anyone, 1.4 60's are addicting. wheelstands are addicting. power is addicting, but being able to put it to the ground is an entirely different world.

kmracer

iTrader: (1)

i agree. pot holes that knock fillings out suck.

KurtRardin

iTrader: (11)

I'm glad to have some strait line guys in here. Keep the thread alive You guys are making a roller coaster out of my plans. Good thing I haven't started buying expensive crap yet, lol.

I've never felt a 1.4 60', but I bet its freakin awesome!

I'm currently in a great debate on what I should do in the immediate future. I'm not really happy with the health of my 135k 98 block, with its pecking lifter and general age. Plus, the rear end loses spyder gear teeth faster than a shark I've got about $3500 to spend, and I'm not too sure what to do with it.

I could:

A. Get a $3500 beater car and take my time on the Camaro
B. Get a really cheap beater, get an LQ9, get another carrier for the 10 bolt and some gears (I can put it all in no prob), and sell my LS1 ($1200 long block )... depending on how much $ is left over I could maybe scrap the 10 bolt altogether and pick up a used 12 bolt...?
C. Get a MWC rear end, SFCs, PHB... and thats pretty much $3500... and risk daily driving the Z with 135k miles (rebuilt t56, monster clutch, tick master... leaky a/c compressor )
D. ... hell, make a suggestion!

MelScrilla

iTrader: (2)

I'm a straight line guy. I was raised around drag racing and to me there's nothing better than putting a 800hp turbo or supercharged car on the street and cruising. thats my dream right now but maybe one day. To me road race cars are fun but if you get serious about that your car ends up gutted too. There are plenty of guys on this forum running 600+ hp cars full weight into the low 10's and 9's then drive them home.

If you build a car for the 11's there nothing not streetable about it. put the street wheels on and go. now once you start getting into the single digits money and safety equipment start to play a bigger part.

I also love competition and if you decide to corner carve against that gt500 stang down the street the consequences are the same as drag racing, but its a lot more dangerous to corner carve against someone else than it is to roll race or leave a stop light hard.

In the end its up to you and what you like to do more. you can have both and go some of the way or you can have one or the other and go all the way.

Tys 4x4

when i get my fbody. i have to say i'd lean towards something that handles better. sure going fast down a straight line is fun, but going fast around turns is even better!

a lot of my friends auto x, and i think it'd be fun to compete with them.

JD_AMG

You've got things very backwards friend. A properly setup handling car will ride worlds better than a drag car, and better than a stock as well. Your getting mixed up here. Cars that are slammed do NOT handle well, you NEED suspension travel for the suspension to work properly.
Handling cars have great shock valving making the ride quality dramatically better in all conditions while also giving you way more control. If your "handling car" rode badly then something was wrong with your setup.
Drag cars on the other hand have lots of compression dampening in the rear (along with lots of parts that like to bind) causing crashing into bumps then bouncing and floating afterwords because of shitty shock valving.
Where can you unleash a road racey car? Anywhere and everywhere, almost no roads are perfectly strait or perfectly flat.

SOMbitch

iTrader: (8)

To me the most fun car if it's primarily a street car will both handle and go fast. I just did a 1200 mile road trip from coastal NC to Ohio and back (with 2 kids) and actually enjoyed the drive. My car is pretty fast and handles pretty good too. Even got almost 23 mpg with the a/c on the whole time. It just depends on what you want to use the car for.......

The plan for my car is to eventually make it faster and handle better with a 383 and a Watts link

sundaydriver

I am a "canyon carver" by necessity. I live in a rural area in NE PA. and have a very nice 9 mile drive to work on old farm roads mostly along ridges overlooking the Deleware river and winding amongsts farms that the road travels between the house and the barn.

I sometimes on nice days drive the Camaro to work, so my mods are for this type of terrain 50/50 for power and handeling.

Why yes I like to go fast in a straight line. But I must be able to avoid every kind of critter in this area either crossing the or standing in the road while being able to slow respectfully passing the farms that they do not let a hay wagon roll in front of me.

01badz28

iTrader: (5)

Mine is more of a corner carver, I've never really gotten that much into drag racing. Don't feel too bad about the 10 bolt - I've still got mine along with a 6.2L.

If you are in Knoxville TN, you need to come autocross that car with us some time - see www.etrscca.org .

Here are some runs from our local events:

http://www.fullsolo.org/videos/play/...scca-7-my-runs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFGjCvayNYQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLvbhoZsmqo

sciff5

iTrader: (1)

THats why I built the rx7 instead of a mustang or Fbody (no knock on either car they just dont handle that well stock)


Having the car be lightweight is a good place to start because it helps handling and hooking and booking.

My car runs the numbers in the sig with et streets and basically a stock motor. I switched the tires to falken azenis which are my street tires and did an autox and I posted the 4th fastest times out of 27 novices at the local autox. My car has pretty much stock suspension

SOMbitch

iTrader: (8)

VERY NICE man........ What is your weight.

sciff5

iTrader: (1)

Car is about 2750lbs

KurtRardin

iTrader: (11)

Awesome replies so far. Thanks everyone.

SlowFRC

iTrader: (2)

I'm going to keep this post short but here is a short real world example which I think describes the whole ride quality of a "straight line vs cornering" car. Every F body except the 5th gen camaro has had a solid rear and other things that I believe make it better suited for the 1/4. On the other hand corvettes have been more oriented towards corners. Which car do you think has a better ride, a c5 or ls1 f body. If you've ridden in both you'll know what I'm talking about.

I'm sure someone will say "well the vette is more expensive so that plays in to it too" which is true but overall I think my point still remains.

In my case I bought a close to stock c5 and for what I paid for it I could have gotten a highly modded 10 second f body. Guess why I got the c5.

SlowFRC

iTrader: (2)

One more thing to the OP, you said you were considering a turbo to accomplish your power goals and I assume you were talking about a front mouth turbo. A turbo and all the misc stuff that goes along with it will add close to 100lbs to the front of the car, also you said you wanted to put in an iron block which adds more weight to the front of the vehicle. Adding between 100 and 200lbs over the front of the car is not good for handling purposes at all. If you want to FI but avoid all of the wieght penaltys of your purposed set up I suggest spraying the aluminum ls1.

7camaro7

iTrader: (15)

I like curves because then you can do both. You might never hit a wheelie, but you can still book it down the 1/4. I'd rather the corner-carver because you can play around on the highway a lot better. With what I've done my car is much more nimble and way easier to control. I am still faster than most of the drag strip cars in the nashville area too. At the track I don't lose very often. With a corner carver setup, you don't have to do all the things that make the suspension harsh either. Right now I have sfcs, stb, sway bars, lcas w/brackets, and a panhard bar. I still don't have konis or stranos... yet My car feels more solid and nimble and that's the best way to put it. Instead of straight line speed, what really shines in my car is the handling. Not that the handling took anything away from my speed because it didn't. I can't wait to finish my suspension and get my hp levels high enough to give my suspension setup something to fight against and yes, I'll still be taking it to the drag strip