Circle track to road race on a budget

A buddy just picked this up for $1k (Canadian), and the plan is to turn it into a cheap, fun road racer. Current plan involves a lot of cleanup, changing the front suspension to make it handle, and adding some form of LS-type power.

what the hell kind of upper control arms are those??? frame looks g-body based, but....

measure everything side to side. usually they are built with some significant bias, and longer parts on one side to boot. regardless, should be a fun track car!

Dusterbd13 said:

what the hell kind of upper control arms are those??? frame looks g-body based, but....

That's what I thought when I saw it. I'm not familiar with stock car stuff, but it looks plain weird.

find what class it ran then look up the rule book, not a peculiar set up but the stamped uppers probably mean a certian amount of stock parts rule. don't think it won't handle, if offset that needs correction , but just measure every thing that moves and also measure things in the Diagonel

This interests me greatly. 

Thats an old CASCAR, looks like you bought it from Ross?

I dont know the car but it looks like a Fletcher chassis, Does it have a 2 or 3 link rear and what front frame is it?

The stub looks to be a G-Body. I have a few questions about what they did to the front end.  I’ve never seen the upper arms angled like that before. It appears that they tried to match the pivot angle of the lower arms. I’m curious if/how that changes the camber curve.  We always put our mounts straight in line with the framerails.  Unless the series you are running with requires stock stamped arms I’d replace those uppers with fabricated pieces.  

I’m not an engineer but I also don’t follow why they sectioned in those square tubes above the front suspension where the shock mounts. It looks like it gives up some strength particularly in a front end hit while also adding some weight where you don’t need it.   It looks like it’s well done so it’s likely nothing to give much thought to. With a little sorting they turn right as well as they do left and it should be durable and easy to maintain. Good luck with it. 

Matching the pivot angles of the upper and lower reduces "bind", you still have to plan out the rest of your front end, the square tube looks like something billy bob, did in his backyard, and the stamped uppers were conforming to a stock part rule, easy peasy to replace with tube, 

I am wondering where he is going to race it, there is not to many road coarse's near here other than Mosport

In reply to warpedredneck :

Shannonville, Calabougie

warpedredneck said:

Thats an old CASCAR, looks like you bought it from Ross?

 

I dont know the car but it looks like a Fletcher chassis, Does it have a 2 or 3 link rear and what front frame is it?

Yeah, we picked it up from Ross. I wasn't sure if it was an actual CASCAR, or just a local circle track car.

It has a 3 link rear, I'm not sure of the front (I'm not a stock car guy per se), but a few have said G-body.

As for where, Mosport, Shannonville, Calabogie, TMP, Grand Bend, Tremblant, maybe south of the border eventually. 

Body's been removed, and aside from a busted up RF fender, is good to reuse. Next up is rust removal and touch-up paint on the sheet metal and tubing.

Still debating the front end setup we're going with, due to budget constraints.

Are you planing to Carb or EFI?

trigun7469 said:

Are you planing to Carb or EFI?

Most likely EFI. Current plan is a 6.0L LS-type truck motor with a cam and some tuning.

Well the front suspension is pretty much all trash... hubs are reusable with new bearings, but that's about it. Old GM manual steering box seems good, as does the slightly offset 9" Ford axle housing.

Looks like I have a body, a chassis, and most of a rear end as a starting point... time to start shopping.

So the plan has changed. The old car was traded for some parts, and this roller was picked up for a few thousand more. Suddenly this project became a lot more interesting.