New guy building a road race car..... Options

[Agformula02]

Wanted to introduce myself. New to road racing but not new to cars.
Have been an avid drag racer for years, but 2 years ago I did my first track night thanks to SCCA and I got hooked.
Talked the wife into allowing another race car in the garage. (I refuse to get rid of my 02 Formula. Too much blood, sweat, and tears invested.)

I scored a legit 97 1LE Camaro which should give me a nice start.

Did basic maintenance on it and attended my first event at PIR. Had some brake issues. So did the mandatory C5 front brake upgrade.
Removed the original Koni yellows and put some HD bilsteins for now. Added BMR springs, sub frame connectors, panhard bar, lcas and lca brackets. I know some of these things may offer no benefit for road racing...
I did upgrade to zr1 17X9 wheels and 275 888s all around.

Next event hit the track and had a great time. At some point I did miss a shift which I feel resulted in a blown head gasket.
So had to pull the heads. Since I was that far in I dropped new lifters in for cheap insurance. New valve springs, seals, and added 1.6 rr. Then headers and a cat back.

So where am I now?
Car is completely gutted. Cage is installed. Working on a dash. Spaghetti Menders kit is handling the car wiring and I re did the stock engine harness to remove all the un needed stuff.
Long list of parts to install but I want to make the next Track Night on August 9.

Where am I headed?
Ultimately I want to run the Lucky Dog series here in the west coast. Probably a year out from that.

Anyway, just wanted to say hello.

Larry

[mikedamageinc]

Welcome! I was big into drag racing too until I learned to turn the wheel and it's so much more rewarding. Sounds like you made a good start but I'm curious about some of the details...

What lca's, what bushings, "original koni"? what style cage and who built it?

There's a ton of info on this site but just to hit some highlights: poly bushings are bad unless in panhard, bearing joints are best but wear out and get noisy. Rear lca need to twist or you get bind. Not sure what you mean by original konis, afaik the only factory upgrade was Bilstein and koni yellows are better.

Make sure you read the rules of the series you want to run in. I don't race and have no plans to but I've learned that to be one of the most important things or you could waste a lot of time and money.

[Agformula02]

Welcome! I was big into drag racing too until I learned to turn the wheel and it's so much more rewarding. Sounds like you made a good start but I'm curious about some of the details...

What lca's, what bushings, "original koni"? what style cage and who built it?

There's a ton of info on this site but just to hit some highlights: poly bushings are bad unless in panhard, bearing joints are best but wear out and get noisy. Rear lca need to twist or you get bind. Not sure what you mean by original konis, afaik the only factory upgrade was Bilstein and koni yellows are better.

Make sure you read the rules of the series you want to run in. I don't race and have no plans to but I've learned that to be one of the most important things or you could waste a lot of time and money.

Thanks for the welcome.

On the LCAs, well I wish I had joined frrax before buying them. Will put the stock 1LEs back on until I can upgrade.

On the shocks, 1LEs (96 and 97 maybe others) came from the factory with double adjustable koni yellows. But at 150K miles, they were not salvageable. Not even for a rebuild.

The cage came from Rhodes Race Cars and I installed it with help from my father in law. Not optimal. I feel it could have tucked up better and the angle of the forward down bars is not optimal. Part Number:13-0435-DOM
One of those things were the pride of a self done install led to a sub par product.
I should have just let a pro do it.

I spent 4 hours reading this forum yesterday and have picked up a lot. Incredibly grateful to the community.
Hope to have some pics soon.

[SuperMacGuy]

I would totally put Koni's back in. I've not been on Bilstein but I'd never run them. Koni's or .... well maybe some super expensive Penskes (haha). A Viking setup from Strano maybe.

You'd also want to be aware of:
Front wheel hub upgrades
sooner or later probably even better brakes
brake ducting/cooling for sure

[Agformula02]

I would totally put Koni's back in. I've not been on Bilstein but I'd never run them. Koni's or .... well maybe some super expensive Penskes (haha). A Viking setup from Strano maybe.

You'd also want to be aware of:
Front wheel hub upgrades
sooner or later probably even better brakes
brake ducting/cooling for sure

Reading up on the hubs. Went ahead and replaced them just in case.
Been looking for pictures and ideas on ducting.

Almost done rewiring the car. The Independence Day long weekend helped a lot.

[CrashTestDummy]

If you _just_ replaced the hubs with some parts house hub, do not throw the take-offs away! Actually, don't throw the take-offs away if they feel okay, even if you went with one of the documented upgrades. They can serve as spares, which you will need.

[mikedamageinc]

Did you get the SKF xtrackers or stock replacement? The only way to go is the SKF if you're gonna race. I've wore out Timkens, standard SKFs and other brands on the street. Now had xtrackers for years of track and autox abuse still tight.

Also for brakes c5/c6 is a good intermediate step but I think I'm at their limit doing hpde and looking at upgrades. If your rules allow better just do it once. I have a duct template for track brackets, c5/c6 caliper/rotor, and c5 race hub/rocketman adapter combo if you're interested, but like I said it's good but not a top of the line brake solution. I haven't done heat paint or anything but I'm melting piston boots and starting to see fade or some other issue that may just be a limitation of the setup. Currently looking at the wilwood aerolite 6 used on spec Corvette.

[Agformula02]

Did you get the SKF xtrackers or stock replacement? The only way to go is the SKF if you're gonna race. I've wore out Timkens, standard SKFs and other brands on the street. Now had xtrackers for years of track and autox abuse still tight.

Also for brakes c5/c6 is a good intermediate step but I think I'm at their limit doing hpde and looking at upgrades. If your rules allow better just do it once. I have a duct template for track brackets, c5/c6 caliper/rotor, and c5 race hub/rocketman adapter combo if you're interested, but like I said it's good but not a top of the line brake solution. I haven't done heat paint or anything but I'm melting piston boots and starting to see fade or some other issue that may just be a limitation of the setup. Currently looking at the wilwood aerolite 6 used on spec Corvette.

For now I went with the stock moog replacements. I kept the old ones just in case.
Will look into xtrackers
Thanks for the guidance

[mikedamageinc]

For now I went with the stock moog replacements. I kept the old ones just in case.
Will look into xtrackers
Thanks for the guidance

No problem, and since you went with stock try to get as many street miles as you can. It seems that they can get heat treated with light use and may last longer when you do push hard. It may be anecdotal, but that is the consensus.

[JimMueller]

If it's a dedicated road racing car, I'd plan for at least a 4-pot, 14" caliper; something like the StopTech Trophy or one of the AP Racing C7 kits. The base (Stingray) C7 calipers and rotors bolt up to the LS1 F-body spindle, all you need to do is tap the spindle mounting holes from 12mm to 14mm (or 9/16").

http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/index.php?showtopic=18315

You could reach out to Filip at Cortex to see if this kit is still available:

http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/index.php?showtopic=14781

[ar52kortlang]

Welcome... looking forward to following the build

[SuperMacGuy]

The z51 Corvette brakes (4 piston) also fit with only drilling. But requires 18 inch wheels. Light rotors can be had from https://weaponxmotorsports.com
I enjoy the base size caliper on my upgrade.
There is apparently also a Camaro caliper that uses 12mm bolts, so no drilling.

Some info and link to my video here: http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/index.php?showtopic=18315

IMO stock hubs wont last, "breaking them in" has no effect. Xtracker or nothing, for me. My 2¢. Long thread about my hubs woes if you look for it.

Looking forward to seeing some pix of your build! :-)

[Rentedmule]

See the last few posts in this thread about adapters for C7 hubs:

http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/index.php?sho...mp;#entry195509

The setup is substantially cheaper than the Xtracker setups and supposedly just as strong. I have them in hand but haven't installed them yet so I don't have any feedback to give.