So I've been floating around awhile but haven't posted much, mostly reading and enjoying. So I thought I'd post up what I've been working on for everyone. My pride and joy is a 2001 Trans am Ws6 (not anymore technically) haha. I've been slowly building and driving the car since I bought it in 2012. It was in rough shape and didn't seem like it was taken care of. I've upgraded and removed alot, and still have alot more to go. The short story of the upgrades are full suspension, cage, custom exhaust and any weight removal possible. Thanks for viewing!

http://s1262.photobucket.com/user/Jerry01w...rt=3&page=1

Good looking build so far. What are your plans? Just a track car for fun or is there a racing series you have in mind?

Well up until recently I was shooting for AI. But starting to just lean towards a fun autox/HPDE/test and tune car. Then once I have more seat time maybe I'll build something for a specific class. I still need to do the 6spd swap and remove alot of wiring. Brake and hub upgrades. Some other odds and ends. I'd also like to remove more weight and do lexan. But once I start doing that I feel like it'll be harder to get inspected and drive on the street. So I'm putting that off till very last haha

Looks like you're off to a good start. Do I see poly/poly LCA's in the pic of all the parts on the floor? I'd advise against those for track use (or are they rotojoints?). The only other advice is to avoid lexan. When I built my 3rd gen I bought a lexan windshield, but I was going to put glass back in it instead. Glass lets you keep the wipers and it's much easier to care for. If you're not racing in a class for an actual "win" (as Mitchntx once said "You can't win practice"), it's hard to justify the "issues" with Lexan for such minimal gains. It can pit and scratch and craze and you have to dump your wipers.

Do what you want, but I'd save lexan for the very last thing if you need just a bit more to win a championship, particularly the front glass.

I did around two years of HPDE's before I did the 6 speed swap. Get the car out there, it's good to go just like it is. Don't worry about what people might think, I was the fastest green group diver my first weekend and nobody made a single comment about the car being an automatic. The car was entirely bone stock at that point with just a muffler swap.

Thank you for the advice Kevin! I'll keep all that in mind. The control arms are poly, when i talked to umi i told them what i would be doing and that i wanted everything and thats what they recommended. The only reason I haven't hit the track yet is because my transmission is close to being on its last leg. And I didn't wanna put money into the automatic. Oh and I don't trust the stock hubs.

People are starting to make the hubs into a bigger issue than it really is. If they aren't at the very least a very, very sticky and wide street tire like the RE71R/Rival S they will be fine.

I use poly LCAs and they can be a problem if they don't have some lube both on the shaft/sleeve and on the faces of the poly where it meets the cups on the chassis and the rear. You'll get bind and the car won't put any power down especially coming out of corners. Just pull them out and slather some grease on 'em 2-3 times a year and they'll work well, though.

Would you cluster the 275 Rival S into that group? Or were you referring to 315+ tires?

I really don't want to shell out the $$$ for the custom hub adapter C5R race stuff if most of you guys survived the Hoosier R-Comp heyday without incident.

I like the warranty exchange thing I do with SKF hubs from RockAuto. Once a year or so, send old ones back, get new ones. They're only 15 minutes to change per corner anyway and I always have a pair on standby in the garage.

I've done about a half a dozen track days on R compound tires and I'm on original 100k hubs.

Yep, those would be in that grouping. They are in the same tier as the RE71R, and Boss002 on here went through a hub on the Bridgestones at an Optima Event using only a 275. Now if it was a Continental DW or something else similar that most other people use, I wouldn't worry about it no matter what the size. I also think there is a big difference between a tire meant for autocross and a tire meant for track days. The autocross tires tend to be much, much stickier since they don't have to tolerate heat.

My original hubs lasted through a few concrete events on 315 Hoosiers and showed no sign of play when I removed them. However, I still swapped to the SKF adapters since I didn't want to spend my weekends either A) crawling through junkyards looking for OEM hubs or rotating through all the local part stores exchanging hubs.

I'm going to be swapping to the Hoosier Performance hubs. They'll withstand the abuse and are rebuildable. Pricey but I want to be able to rebuild my hubs over just replacing them.

Hubs are cheap so don't worry about them. Seat time is what counts. I've been using stock Timken hubs for years and they are cheap enough to cover the Hoosier ones many times over.

I would like to chime in about the hubs you if wouldn't mind. I have ran 315 Hoosiers, Kumhos and Rivals for many years on my 94 1LE. I have religiously replaced hubs so many times I have lost count. I had an incident last year where the left front actually separated and I almost lost the entire wheel and almost suffered body damage at a local autocross event. There was no warning and the hub was new as of that event. It made me think long and hard about upgrading to the adapter or John's bullet proof hubs at Hoosier Performance. The price is the biggest detractor on the Hoosier hubs. I am not too familiar with the SKF adapters that you mentioned. Are those used in conjunction with a Corvette style hub? Are you able to reply with details about those parts (where to get them, or a link to a website that carries them)? Thanks for the help.

Info is here. There is an SKF "X-tracker" race hub for the C5. This kit adapts those to fit the 4th gen. It's a whole different class of hub than what we have available. The kit is beautiful, I have one in the garage for my car. Nice stuff.

www.frrax.com/rrforum/index.php?showtopic=17383

Agreed, fully recommend them. With the adapters being available I wouldn't expect the rebuildable hubs to stay in production. I think Hoosier PE have been hinting at that. Seeing as most people are buying the X-trackers from them they are still getting a good slice of the pie too.

Personally I like the idea of being able to source replacements easily, and the initial buy-in was less.

I need to look into those adapters. That may be the way to go!