Converting circle track car to road race, on a budget

Basically, I scored this for $1000. No motor or tranny or brakes. I have a $100 vortec small block I bought, so that leave brakes and tranny and a lot of other stuff.

I want to do this as cheaply as possible. I'm not sure how I'm really going to get to drive it though, I don't have an scca license and there is no passenger seat, oh well, not gonna worry about that yet

I kind of would like to get DOT tires, but for something that fits that would perform well is going to be too expensive, and I think slicks for this car aren't that expensive

I think the lower control arms are the same, and the left front spindle is dual drilled so it can either be offset for turning left or set up square. So that only leaves upper control arms, which are really cheap on ebay from a nascar.

Brakes are going to be $$$, I'm thinking I can get away with wilwood superlites for now though with good brake ducting and upgrade down the road. The vortec v8 may have around 400hp after a cam and a little port work. Not spending much money on it though

For the transmission I'm not sure yet, I'm thinking about trying to get a nascar surplus transmission for this also, but that would probably be around $3000 for everything. We'll see, maybe I'll try to get a muncie or t10 4 speed

This is it for now, out of money for the time being

The last pic is of my last project, I'm trying to go fast now, even though the truck has around

I'm going to attempt to do this in a 10x20' shop also lol

watching this....

A suburban truggy and now a stock car? Epic first post, please don't abandon this thread.

I'm kind of sad that there isn't much fab work to do on this car

This should be interesting...hey you want some fab work? See if you can flip the panhard bar so that the frame mount is on the driver's side, that will give you more rightward cornering bias, should help compensate for the leftward bias created by the L-R imbalance of this being a LHD vehicle if nothing else.

A.) This rocks!

B.) I have a set of NOS Goodyear slicks they're 15" and 10"-wide. Cheap. PM me if you're interested.

I will be watching.

Flipped panhard might not be a bad idea, will compare to my cousins road race nascar. I think it all just unbolts from the axle

Did I mention it's going to take forever to save up to buy brakes and a transmission? lol

Won't need any slicks yet, they'll probably be hard by the time this thing moves

Do you guys think superlites are the right caliper?

I found this list also, need to post it so I don't lose it

edit: this car has some blingin bilsteins in the back, never seen anything like them, I'm pretty sure they are worth as much as I paid, too bad I only have two

The people I got the car from that the dude has a bunch of parts also, hopefully that pans out

• get the correct A Arms to get about -3* or so static camber in the front, you may have to change the left front spindle as well.
• splined Nascar cup type sway bar in front
• 450-500 # springs in front
• 250-300 # rear
• test with small rear bar and then without bar hooked up
• straight up.... no camber in rear. some like up to 1.5 negative cambered rear ends, I have tried both, didn't seem to be a big diff.
• move battery and dry sump tank to right side and anything else you can to get as close to 50/50 L-R weight.
• quick change with locker or 9" inch rear, either will be fine, plusses and minuses to either.
• 3 link with watts link to locate rear end.
• center pull type rack and pinion steering. SWEET makes a great unit.
• big four piston billet calipers or six piston, with the biggest rotor you can fit in the front. floating rotors with radial mount calipers would be best
• Jerico, Tex, EMCO or similar road race geared four speed with gearing something like: 1.9 1.5 1.21 1.0
• lightweight steel wheels about 19-20 # by BASSETT, BART, CIRCLE, DIAMOND ETC
• get the best shocks you can afford, call Roehrig-Enders Suspension for help.
• test with NEW rubber
• get a good road race containment seat, KIRKEY makes one that is not that expensive as well ULTRASHIELD
• duct air to the front brakes into the center of the rotor, with the duct at a high pressure point on the nose
• best brake pads you can afford ie: PFC, Hawk etc
• start with the ride height at about 4" front .....4.5" rear
• start with about 1/8" toe out in front

The springs rates for the front are on the light side. I have a coilover setup on my Camaro (shock is farther out than your springs) and I have 900 lbs in the front. I would go a good bit higher, maybe 750 lbs or more depending on what you do with it. From the pictures, your front wheel rate is probably less than half the spring rate, so thus the need for more spring. Heck I ran my 67 El Camino on the street with 1000 lb front springs and 350 rear, ride was surprising good. My front wheel rate was only 250 lbs (25% of spring rate).

Superlights are good calipers so no problems there, but I would check into seeing what other caliper choices there are, options are always good. Good news on brake pads is you will have alot of choices. I run HP+ on mine but I only autocross it. There are many other pad choices good for road racing, I would talk with road racers to get ideas on what works best. The 11.75" x 1.25" thick rotors for circle track can take quite a bit and still fit in a 15" wheel, Nascar does quite well on road courses with those sizes.

The rest of the stuff seems pretty good, but I'm not an expert.

This is relevant to your interests http://www.corner-carvers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=46268

+1 on harder springs. Those are the kinds of spring rates I'd use on my 'rolla which weighs a ton (perhaps literally) less than this thing.

GameboyRMH wrote: +1 on harder springs. Those are the kinds of spring rates I'd use on my 'rolla which weighs a ton (perhaps literally) less than this thing.

Especially considering the wheel rates vs spring rates.

instead of jumping straingt to wilwood, consider some dual piston pbr c5 corvette calipers and shop fabbed adapter brackets. cheapest way to get good brakes.

I've seen a few really cheap circle track chassis for sale lately. I want to see how this turns out.

I'm watching this with great interest. As for brakes, check out some online communities on Facebook. I'll link you to one that's fairly active and should source you just about everything you would need...

https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/506579372702917/

Looks like a fair bit of race car for $1,000!

I'd like to have a set of those tires and wheels for the Mark VII!

Apexcarver wrote: This is relevant to your interests http://www.corner-carvers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=46268

Oh mamma.

You can find NASCAR castoff calipers for cheap. A friend just got a set for $300.

Rusted_Busted_Spit wrote:

Apexcarver wrote: This is relevant to your interests http://www.corner-carvers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=46268

Oh mamma.

I want to quit my job and make that exact same thing happen like right now.

http://www.roushyatesparts.com/Used-Racing-Brake-Calipers-s/724.htm

I 'm gonna have to speed up this build, can't let everyone down with a 2 year build lol

2 years isn't that bad, I think loosecannon's Emod MGB build has been going that long, although that's a tough act to follow

I've been saving up for mine for about 7 years but I only made a build thread a few months ago when the action started.

Subbed, This looks to be an amazing project!