[Pablo]

Hello all,
I have been lurking for some time and wanted to introduce myself. I'm an aircraft mechanic living in so cal coming from the drag racing scene. Being originally from south florida, there was essentially no attraction to good handling for me since every road in basically the whole state of florida is straight and flat.
In the past 8 years of living in California I have seen what I can only say is the death of drag racing through track closures, police harassment, etc. This in addition to the magnificent twisties around here has built an itch for me to get into the road racing/ autox scene. It didn't help when a buddy of mine was able to regularly get me a ridiculous amount of free track time at a shall be un-named go kart track. Chasing faster lap times is extremely addicting. Couple this with going for canyon runs in his gutted E36 bmw, and I was hooked.

I previously owned an 89 Firebird from 97-04. It was basically set up for drag. I was very heavy into thirdgens for that time period. That car ended up meeting it's end when I moved on to an 86 T-type which I still own. (It's run as quick as a 7.0@95 mph, 1.54 60' in the 1/8th and should be substantially quicker when I get a working transmission under it).
Even after all these years I still missed my thirdgen, so I decided to go out and buy one. After putting out some feelers, I found a 91 Z28 LB9/T5 hardtop (rear drums (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) ) that was pretty rough. I managed to get it home with what felt like 75 hp. After repairing countless atrocities committed by previous owners I now have it running pretty well. Feels like stock with the "upgraded" 2 1/4" kink bent exhaust that some retard put on it. It's my daily driver now, knocked down almost 25 mpg last tank. Unfortunately it still looks like hell. I'll be painting it myself soon.

Anyway, plans for the car are to build it to either STX, STU, or ESP. I am still debating this. In the meantime here is what I have sitting on the shelf waiting for install; complete poly bushing set (will not do both lca ends in poly) MOOG 5664/5665 springs, AC delete heater box (already have the pulley installed), Koni Yellows (on backorder), lt1 ministarter, GTA crosslace wheels (will go with something else later), G.W. Tracklink (left over from the old car, still researching if the short arm is a good idea for what I am doing), 82-83 factory fiberglass z28 hood, hooker headers + 3" y pipe, T-top/vert door shim strikers.

I plan on cutting the springs half coil or so in the front which from what I understand will bump me into the low 800s spring rate wise. To help compensate for the roll center and camber curve issues this creates I'm looking into some taller ball joints (will post about this in the susp. forum). Rear springs will be cut as well. I'll probably start at 3/4 coil for those.
I would love to run a weight jack setup but I wanted to get my feet wet cheaply and quickly.

I'll probably look into some LCA RBs and a panhard relocation setup soon.

Right now I just want to get it to where I can go out and tear up some tires. As it sits, the shocks are so blown that I can induce violent wheel hop (on the front wheels!) with aggressive driving. So I'm taking it easy.

I'll also be applying some of my composites training to the car- I have some ideas (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

And yes, from what I've read, some of these mods are probably not technically legal in stx/stu but I think I can fly under the radar locally (don't snitch on me). I would mostly like to be in a challenging class. In judging from local results for ESP, there are basically no competitors in that class or F stock. STX isn't very good either but a lot better. STU has a ton of competitors.
I thrive on competition, I'd rather be dead last in STU with a bunch of other drivers than first in an ESP class with only one or two other drivers.

Anyway, sorry for the book. Check my post on the susp. forum for my ball joint q.
Here are some picts of the cars. The camaro looks slightly nicer now that I've touched up the bare metal the previous owner left from his "paint prep" job.


Buick:
(IMG:http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g71/Chewbaccathedog/Barona/_MG_7630.jpg)
(IMG:http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g71/Chewbaccathedog/eng-1.jpg)


Camaro
(IMG:http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g71/Chewbaccathedog/IMG_0710.jpg)

[Pablo]

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone,

Yes the stock springs in the car are severely sagging. Actually I would not be surprised if someone cut them at some point, the car is very low. The only indication that they are probably completely stock is that the rest of the car is completely stock except for a flowmaster muffler.
The moog springs should probably raise my ride height even when cut I reckon.

CMC 37, thats a very nice Formula you have there. Yes I've seen the same information concerning the rear drums, I too have heard about some shortage at the end of the thirdgen run. Its kind of funny because I think there was a shortage in the early years too which led to a "ws7" option which was just ws6 with rear drums.

rhit, I may have seen your chart of moog springs, I did a lot of searching before I finally settled on the 5664s on the front. For the rear I had the same issue as you, it seemed to me that I could only find one of two springs for the rear, one of which were the "cargo coils" that I did not want.
I wouldn't mind seeing that chart of yours anyway though in case I haven't seen it.

I see what you are saying about running in ESP vs the ST classes. One of the things that attracted me to the ST classes is the tire rules. Getting a set of wheels and tires for ESP would cost a pretty penny. Though I can see how running a third in those classes would be rough. I think the fact that thirdgens have done so well in ESP also kind of takes some fun out of it for me personally as I like to be an underdog. I'll see what I end up with mod wise and go from there. I'm waiting till sometime in may for these dang konis to come in off backorder before I tear into the car.
In the meantime I just came back from an AutoX event today just to spectate. It just has me even more amped up.

Roostmeyer
I didn't think that anything wider than a 245 would really fit right on the 8" wheels so I'm kind of surprised at the suggestion. Do the 265/45s really fit on there well enough to run on? I would have thought I'd need a 9" wheel instead. If the gta wheels really can accept a 265 then that's probably the route I will go. That's very a interesting suggestion, I'm looking into those tires now.


Stan, about the composites, I'd have to look more closely at the rules to see what is allowed. Even so, I'm surprised I haven't heard of people using them for chassis stiffening at all. It would be very easy to stiffen up parts of the car with very little weight penalty. In the meantime I think the first project that I'll try is reproducing the AC delete heater box in either CF or fiberglass just for kicks. It might be a little while before I get around to that though

Thanks again for the welcome!
Pablo

[rhit_rs]

rhit, I may have seen your chart of moog springs, I did a lot of searching before I finally settled on the 5664s on the front. For the rear I had the same issue as you, it seemed to me that I could only find one of two springs for the rear, one of which were the "cargo coils" that I did not want.
I wouldn't mind seeing that chart of yours anyway though in case I haven't seen it.

I see what you are saying about running in ESP vs the ST classes. One of the things that attracted me to the ST classes is the tire rules. Getting a set of wheels and tires for ESP would cost a pretty penny. Though I can see how running a third in those classes would be rough. I think the fact that thirdgens have done so well in ESP also kind of takes some fun out of it for me personally as I like to be an underdog. I'll see what I end up with mod wise and go from there. I'm waiting till sometime in may for these dang konis to come in off backorder before I tear into the car.
In the meantime I just came back from an AutoX event today just to spectate. It just has me even more amped up.

Pablo

I'll try to dig up the chart and post it on here in some fashion. I may have to email it if it won't let me upload an excel file...

Street tires act as an equalizer and nullify the torque advantage of the V8. Light weight is the key in the ST* classes...just look at how fast the ST and STS cars can be with very little power and on skinny 205mm tires! The 265mm Kumho XS would definitely be a good STX tire for 3rd gen. It has gobs of grip but sucks in the rain from what I've read. And lets face it, if the course is wet, the WRX's are going to dominate STX.

Another thought, and you'd have to check with the regional rules, is to run in a street tire index class. That would let you run on street tires against other cars with street tires and use the rules (and subsequent index) of ESP. I think some of the California regions do this to give everyone on street tires a place to be competitive. Just a thought.

With regards to being an underdog, you see so few 3rd gens autocrossing, that very few of your competitors will take you seriously. If you can put down some fast times, you'll definitely turn some heads!