Hey everyone! My name's Alex, I've been a member on ThirdGen.org for 14yrs, but now I'm getting serious about wanting to do track days so here I am!!!

I've owned my 1992 Trans Am GTA for going on 15yrs now and since day one my goal has always been track days. I'm in the home stretch I think of finally completing my chassis and suspension modifications. At this point the car is a weekend pleasure driver that I'm in the middle of an interior restoration on. My goal is a car that looks 100% mint original on the interior, and appears stock on the exterior. Rather than kill myself or someone else on twisty mountain roads having fun, I'd like to take that to the track. Living in Bakersfield I have Button Willow and also Willow Springs as my local tracks. I haven't joined any clubs yet but CalClub seems to be my local SCCA club. I'm not building towards any specific class, just want to have fun, so I guess that leaves me with HPDE and AX.

Here is a list of my chassis and suspension mods:

Spohn Tubular Sub-Frame Connectors (Welded)
Spohn Tubular Steering Brace (Wonder Bar)
Spohn Tubular K-Member, Mild Steel
Spohn Tubular A-Arms, Mild Steel
Spohn Front Sway Bar, Solid 1-5/16" 4140 Chrome Moly
Spohn Rear Sway Bar, Solid 22mm 4140 Chrome Moly (Not installed because my rear WS6 car looks bigger?!)
Spohn Tubular Adjustable Torque Arm w/Trans Mount Crossmember & Poly Trans Mount, Mild Steel
Spohn Tubular Adjustable Panhard Bar w/Poly Bushings, Black, Mild Steel
Spohn Rear Lower Control Arm Relocation Brackets
Spohn Tubular Rear Lower Control Arms, Mild Steel
Spohn/Moog Front End Rebuild Kit (Centerlink, Inner Tie Rod Ends, Outter Tie Rod Ends, Lower Ball Joints, Adjusting Sleeves)
Kenny Brown 1-piece 3-pt Strut Tower Brace w/Custom Spacer (needed for SLP runners)
Earl's Hyperfirm Stainless Steel Braided Brake Lines
Slotted and cross-drilled brake rotors
Hawk Ceramic Pads
Eibach Pro Kit w/GM Spring Isolators
KYB GR-2 Shocks and Struts

Even though the KYBs are only 2,000 miles old, I plan on replacing them with 4thGen Koni Sport SP1 shocks on the rear and Koni Yellow struts. Also for the rear I have a Zexel-Torsen Posi w/3.42 Gears (From an '02 Camaro SS)

I also have the following mods in the pike:

Brand new steering box
Spohn bumpsteer kit
Spohn clamp-on steering stops
Spohn idler arm
1996 Astro van steering shaft with isolator and bearing
Alston sub-frame connectors (welded in)
Hawk's reproduction 17x9.5" factory gold crosslace wheels
Toyo Proxes R888 tries from TireRack (heat cycled)
Replace all cotter pins with safety wire
Flush and replace my brake fluid with a synthetic that won't boil like DOT3

I was going to set my alignment up like this:

Caster: L +5, R +5.5
Camber: -1.5 L & R
Toe: 3/32 in

I want to be able to drive the car to the track and for a cruise if I want without eating the tires too much and only having to run different pressure for track vs. street. For long road trips I will have my factory 16x8 wheels with new street tires I can swap on too.

On my next round of engine mods I also plan on adding an aftermarket engine oil cooler with a fan and a power steering cooler with a fan. Also upgrading my 18,000GVW trans cooler. Possibly a 7qt oil pan with baffles too. Looking even further into the future like next winter, I plan on a ProCharger since after all my other mods I'll finally be ready for it. Oh yeah brakes, I'll need better brakes, still have drums in the rear. I'll still need to keep small though for the 16x8 factory wheels.

So, that about sums it up! I just want the best handling stock appearing car I can get and have allot of fun!!! I look forward to learning all I can!

Alex

This post has been edited by 92GTA: Dec 7 2014, 07:18 PM

Why are you planning to replace your current weld-in SFCs for another set? Seems like unnecessary spending.

If you're running factory brakes, even with the upgrades, I think they'll be inadequate for the two venues you're talking about. You'll probably need to at least add brake cooling, if not something with some more mass to absorb and move the heat away from the calipers. Just thinking.

Welcome to the list!

The Alston SFCs work in addition to the Spohn. The Alstons form kind of an X shape on the inside towards the tranny tunnel, where the Spohn SFCs are only along the rocker panels. Every review I have read where people have both, they says it's a significant difference over just the 1 set of SFCs and since my car is T-Top, I'll take all I can get.

Yeah I'd like to get the best brakes that will fit in the 16x8 wheels and I would be cool with fabing some air ducts.The front lower GFX on the 91-92 Trans Am are already shaped to redirect air that way so making a duct from there to the inside of the rotor would be fairly simple.

Welcome .. I do love 3rd gens (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

and you are correct about your rear bar .. the WS6 stock bar should be 24mm (i've added it to my '82, and it's on my '87 Formy WS6)

(IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

~DaVE

I had the Alston's on my car, but took them off to put in the Unbalanced decoupled torque arm, so I have a set for sale. They're bolt on, but can be welded. I made my own perimeter style instead.

What? No pictures?

I'll keep that in mind. Before I buy I'm still trying to figure out if it will interfere with my SLP 2OTL catback.



My webpage is here: http://www.TheFOAT.com/92GTA but due to signature size restrictions here I couldn't add the link.

Body work is about half-way thru now. Once I have her back in early Feb. I will get my alignment done and end of Feb. I'll be ordering my wheels and tires.

Meanwhile I'll be putting my new interior in while waiting for the paint to cure and saving up for my next round of mods.

www.TransAmGTA.com

(IMG:http://transamgta.com/restoration/exterior/WP_20141230_11_40_17_Pro.jpg)

This post has been edited by 92GTA: Jan 12 2015, 08:23 PM

Getting there. Taking the car back top the body shop in a week or two for them to finish (wet sand, side trim, door locks, final hood alignment, etc.)

I'll be having a local detail shop doing any final corrections and put a clear bra on the nose when they polish/seal/wax.

(IMG:http://www.transamgta.com/Temp/WP_20150214_16_46_16_Pro.jpg)

(IMG:http://www.transamgta.com/Temp/WP_20150214_16_46_25_Pro.jpg)

(IMG:http://www.transamgta.com/Temp/WP_20150214_16_46_44_Pro.jpg)

(IMG:http://www.transamgta.com/Temp/WP_20150214_21_16_39_Pro.jpg)

(IMG:http://www.transamgta.com/Temp/WP_20150305_15_22_36_Pro.jpg)

Nice paint work! That car cleaned up real nice! (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/2thumbs.gif)

This post has been edited by CrashTestDummy: Mar 10 2015, 01:45 AM

Beautiful car! I had a white '91 GTA after high school and there are times I still miss it. I hope to have a '91-'92 GTA as a cruiser some day.

Thanks guys but the paint shop really has allot of stuff to fix, some parts even need to be repainted, it's bad. I'm probably a tough customer because I bought the car 15yrs ago with 69K miles and it was mint, like MINT perfect. So since I KNOW how great it looked, my standards are pretty high. I'm confident they will make it right though.

I did loose my job a couple weeks ago though so that puts the new wheels and tires on hold along with the very last of the suspension parts I wanted. Good news though is that in the meantime I can get the interior back together with the new parts I already have. I'm close, but won't hit my dream of doing my first AX until next year sadly.

LS1 front brakes are working well on my Formula for track days, no cooling ducts so far but in the works. I've heard of caliper spreading issues but haven't encountered so far, I imagine you can get upgraded calipers somewhere.

The Corvette C5 calipers bolt right into the LS1 brackets and use the same LS1 rotor in that situation. It's actually supposed to be one of the "tricks" to get those crosslace wheels to fit big brakes.

Also, I encourage you to switch out to the smaller sway bar. Many of these cars can seriously benefit from a smaller rear sway bar. bigger isnt better, ESPECIALLY on the rear - unless you're drag racing. You likely wont see a difference unless you actually autocross it and can feel the difference in corner entry and exit speed that a smaller rear bar will give you.

This post has been edited by InfernalVortex: Mar 13 2015, 05:54 AM