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Some of you may have followed my Conversion thread and know that I now have a C3 with a heads and cam LSx, 6-spd that puts an honest to god 380 HP to the ground (on an Eddy Current dyno less).
While I was planning to do some extravagant things with the suspension tires and brakes in the next couple years, I realazied . . . . given my occasional tendency towards excessive rambunctiousness, I'm kinda driving a death trap. So I've come up with most of a package that will cost about a third of my original plan and hopefully achieve about 90% of my original goal . . . a worthwhile trade to stay alive
The good news is that this won't take nearly as long as the previous phase and I'll structure it so that I can move up with over time with nominal extra costs.
WHEELS/TIRES
I have a buddy who is building his own naughty C3 (old school) and had a set of Torque Thrust II 17x8" rims with correct C3 offsets that he let go at a reasonable price. After much to-and-fro I settled on a set of Nitto NT450s 255/50x17. Total cost mounted and balanced was near as much makes no difference, $1,500 (rims and tires). I'll eventually burn up the Nittos and can resell the TT IIs for not much less than I paid. I went with 255/50x17s because they had they same diameter as stock (255/60x15) and were a reasonably priced A temp, 150mph speed rated tire with good tread wear. . . we'll see.
This is kind of a side note and may be more appropriate for the tires forum, but it seems to me that the difference between smoking tires and acceleration is in many cases attention to the accelerator, which is almost always telling you what the vehicle is willing to do. (Note: I don't have any electronic nannies: no traction/stability control, no abs, no fly-by-wire, . . . nothing). Of course fat sticky drive wheels make it easier to put the hammer down, but you can do a lot with less-than-perfect tires if you're paying attention. (I live in SoCal, where the average road temp is probably fairly high and surely this makes a difference.)
REAR SUSPENSION
It was my dream to go to a Guldstrand 5-link with his race style coil over, which I'm sure is utterly brilliant. But at nearly $5k installed . . . it's a little bit ouch. So I thought, okay, what are the biggest problems with my 82' rear suspension. Answer, it's fairly softly sprung so squat and dive is a bit of an issue. It also seems the the bushings in the rear are a bit tired and deflect. The solution was to go with all poly busings, a Vette Brakes and Parts Dual Mount mono spring for the rear and new heim jointed strut rods, and while I'm at it, 550lbs front coils. This should go a LONG way to eliminating squat, dive and deflection. I still have a bit of concern about toe change under heavy braking but we'll see. Total cost installed will be closer to $1,500 as opposed to $5k.
BRAKES
This is the doozy. I'm deciding amongst many options and slightly leaning towards building a C5 or C6 ZO6 kit for C3s, especially if I can sell it at a competitive price. Otherwise, prices range from $1k for VBP stock-like calipers, rotors, and pads to $4k+ for a full-tilt direct fit Wilwood kit.
While I was planning to do some extravagant things with the suspension tires and brakes in the next couple years, I realazied . . . . given my occasional tendency towards excessive rambunctiousness, I'm kinda driving a death trap. So I've come up with most of a package that will cost about a third of my original plan and hopefully achieve about 90% of my original goal . . . a worthwhile trade to stay alive
The good news is that this won't take nearly as long as the previous phase and I'll structure it so that I can move up with over time with nominal extra costs.
WHEELS/TIRES
I have a buddy who is building his own naughty C3 (old school) and had a set of Torque Thrust II 17x8" rims with correct C3 offsets that he let go at a reasonable price. After much to-and-fro I settled on a set of Nitto NT450s 255/50x17. Total cost mounted and balanced was near as much makes no difference, $1,500 (rims and tires). I'll eventually burn up the Nittos and can resell the TT IIs for not much less than I paid. I went with 255/50x17s because they had they same diameter as stock (255/60x15) and were a reasonably priced A temp, 150mph speed rated tire with good tread wear. . . we'll see.
This is kind of a side note and may be more appropriate for the tires forum, but it seems to me that the difference between smoking tires and acceleration is in many cases attention to the accelerator, which is almost always telling you what the vehicle is willing to do. (Note: I don't have any electronic nannies: no traction/stability control, no abs, no fly-by-wire, . . . nothing). Of course fat sticky drive wheels make it easier to put the hammer down, but you can do a lot with less-than-perfect tires if you're paying attention. (I live in SoCal, where the average road temp is probably fairly high and surely this makes a difference.)
REAR SUSPENSION
It was my dream to go to a Guldstrand 5-link with his race style coil over, which I'm sure is utterly brilliant. But at nearly $5k installed . . . it's a little bit ouch. So I thought, okay, what are the biggest problems with my 82' rear suspension. Answer, it's fairly softly sprung so squat and dive is a bit of an issue. It also seems the the bushings in the rear are a bit tired and deflect. The solution was to go with all poly busings, a Vette Brakes and Parts Dual Mount mono spring for the rear and new heim jointed strut rods, and while I'm at it, 550lbs front coils. This should go a LONG way to eliminating squat, dive and deflection. I still have a bit of concern about toe change under heavy braking but we'll see. Total cost installed will be closer to $1,500 as opposed to $5k.
BRAKES
This is the doozy. I'm deciding amongst many options and slightly leaning towards building a C5 or C6 ZO6 kit for C3s, especially if I can sell it at a competitive price. Otherwise, prices range from $1k for VBP stock-like calipers, rotors, and pads to $4k+ for a full-tilt direct fit Wilwood kit.
