Another new 3rdgen guy!

Hey all.. figuered i'd make a post instead of just trolling around!

First off, i'd like to start by saying this has to be the most knowledgable collection of people that drive these cars on the net... site like thirdgen.org are good, but there is very little of "this" type of knowledge there.

Secondly, I should probably state that my intentions are not to build a track or autocross car, but to build a car that will be a good weekend fun ride as well.

The car - well, without having a list a mile long, i'll list the basics to what's been done...

Engine- 350 zz3 bottom end, trickflow heads, cam, long tube headers, 380/365 to the wheels...

Body - been repainted, fiberglass cowl hood, otherwise stock gfx ect...

Driveline - it's had a t56 from rpm transmissions transplanted into it - using all the viper stuff, better internals, cryo treated stuff, ect ect, 3" thick walled alum ds, and a 3.55 geared dana 44 (fbody original). because of the trans swap, i had to custom fab a crossmember, so while i was there, i changed the mount point to the crossmember for the trq arm.

Chassis - hothckiss sfc's, BMR adj. trq arm, hotchkiss springs (for now), spohn front strut upper mounts, tokico illumina 5way shocks (seem a bit soft even on highest setting), spohn panhardbar (adj), spohn double bushing lca's, spohn sway bars and wonderbar.

Wheels - zr1 17x9.5 int he front, 17x11 in the back - nitto 555s and nitto 555r's in the back (dr's)


That pretty much sums it up - that car is quick in a straight line, running a 12.0 @ 114 before i played with the motor more - it probably has another .25 left in it. However, dragging is not really my passion (i have a longer attention span than 11 seconds) and i enjoy the autocross... In reality, things that i have done to the car put me probably in an emod class (not 100% sure) which while not entirely out of me league with the cars that compete around here, is probably way out of my range on the national level. As for roadcourse racing, well, thats really just limited to open rentals, and all i want out of that is a car that wont get run over and will be a ton of fun to drive. I did at one point compete in a time trials series a few years ago at limerock, placing 8th at the end of the season, the highest finishing rookie. However, i drove a friends car, which while i time trialed it, he competed in an scca class. At the end of the season, at his last race, he was involved in a wreck and the car was totalled (backed into the wall).

Really my biggest problem now, is coming up with a spring package that wont ride insanely harsh, but also help keep my headers from wacking the ground at highway speeds (if you've driven on 84 in ct, you know what i mean). it take a decent dip, but they hit... I also want something that will help enhance the handling of the car. I was a bit disappointed when i found out that they were merely (just about) the equivalent of shorted ws6 springs... stock rate, shorter spring...

Anyways - i've been doing a ton of reading up here, i helped my father run a circletrack stock car, and we used to spend hours int he garage on the scales, playing with front end settings, getting things best we could within the rules... which has helped me understand what a lot of you are talking about. I'm about to get the car aligned for exmaple at a great shop, and based off what some of the 3rdgen guys here have posted up, i have a pretty good idea what i should have dialed in for a combined use.

So yeah, this ended up being a book, but thanks for the good reading, and i can't wait to have something worth while to add to the forum!