My first season of autocross is in the books. The Grand Prix was a blast but it was not exactly competitive. So today I took delivery of next season's cone hunter. A 1984 Camaro Z28 to run in CAM-T. I found a challenge priced Z28 that already had a host of upgrades. $1650 later and this little monster rolled into my parking space.
Tomorrow morning I will tear into it and figure out exactly what kind of trouble I brought home.
Stay tuned, this will get ugly...
Oh snap!
I like where this is going.
That first photo makes it look like you caught it mid-jump. :)
Seriously? I cant find these things running for under 3k in my area.
and manual? NO one bought a manual camaro/firebird in the southeast apparently...
Mad_Ratel wrote: Seriously? I cant find these things running for under 3k in my area. and manual? NO one bought a manual camaro/firebird in the southeast apparently...
They were all Jersey natives and "Aye-yo in de ate-ees day was moah concerned about the gold chain"
(I grew up in west central Florida in the eighties AND worked at a Chevrolet dealer, my experience could have been unique 
)
Congrats - this will be good
Already awsome. 
John Brown wrote:Mad_Ratel wrote: Seriously? I cant find these things running for under 3k in my area. and manual? NO one bought a manual camaro/firebird in the southeast apparently...They were all Jersey natives and "Aye-yo in de ate-ees day was moah concerned about the gold chain" (I grew up in west central Florida in the eighties AND worked at a Chevrolet dealer, my experience could have been unique
Oddly enough this brings up an interesting note. Dad bought a slightly used 2004 bmw 545i 6 spd in 2008. It came from Jersey. BIL bought the car in 2015 and rear ended someone this summer in it. He wants another identical car but 550i. ALL of the results for a manual car were in Jersey. Did a fly and drive to pick up his new one. Dealer said that in Jersey the guido's ALWAYS want a manual car...So they special order them that way for that area...
OK, here with daylight and only light rain I headed out with my little book to take a look at the mess I've invited into my life.
First things first, it wasn't holding a charge. I nabbed the battery and headed off to the O'rieleys. The battery from "budget bro's" was shockingly scrap. I rather expected this and picked up a new one.
This may have also lead to charging issues. these were holding the terminals on...
With the fresh battery and new bolts in place she roared to life with a single twist of the key. It's alive!
I decided to poke around under the hood and try and figure out what I've actually got. At the base it's the stock L69 305HO. According to the PO the long block is stock. it's topped by an unknown Air Gap style aluminum manifold. and an unknown Edelbrock carb.
The gasses are plumbed out through a rusty old set of headers, I believe they are heddmans, but I can't really make out the tag...
Finally the spark is supplied by all of this fun stuff:
That probably explains why it runs like a raped ape in spite of being a 305. I have a lot of learning to do.
On the front passenger side ear of the carb, where it bolts down, you would find the part number of the carb. That will tell you what it is.
The intake appears to be a pro-comp.
Headers, if the tag is oval, are hedman. Hooker used a rectangular tag.
Looking at the cage and number panels, im assuming that it was previously a autocross or hpde car....
The interior is more of the same.
Leaky T-tops, and carpets that smell just like my aunt Jo-ann's basement.
All in all this car is built to the tennent of "good enough" It has a host of speed parts thrown at it with a make it work attitude. It doesn't look like I'll need to do much in the way of mods to the driveline, but I will need to spend a pile of time refining the mods that are already there.
Towards the top of my list is new door pins, and weatherstripping for the doors, hatch and t-tops. Then clean up the carpets, bolt in a set of 4th gen seats and harnesses. This thing will be ready to run.
Dusterbd13 wrote: Looking at the cage and number panels, im assuming that it was previously a autocross or hpde car....
The number panels are mine. They're magnetic.
LSX all the things.
Mad_Ratel wrote:John Brown wrote:Oddly enough this brings up an interesting note. Dad bought a slightly used 2004 bmw 545i 6 spd in 2008. It came from Jersey. BIL bought the car in 2015 and rear ended someone this summer in it. He wants another identical car but 550i. ALL of the results for a manual car were in Jersey. Did a fly and drive to pick up his new one. Dealer said that in Jersey the guido's ALWAYS want a manual car...So they special order them that way for that area...Mad_Ratel wrote: Seriously? I cant find these things running for under 3k in my area. and manual? NO one bought a manual camaro/firebird in the southeast apparently...They were all Jersey natives and "Aye-yo in de ate-ees day was moah concerned about the gold chain" (I grew up in west central Florida in the eighties AND worked at a Chevrolet dealer, my experience could have been unique
A lot has changed through the years 
Hey! I have the same book! ("The Thing Explainer", not "things that annoy me". That would be a much larger book...)
Sorry, all I see is a big pile of awesome.
Welp today was a bit of a disappointment. I got the car insured and went in to get plates. The seller wrote the date wrong, crossed it out and corrected it.
this invalidates the title.
I have to make another 100 mile round trip to get a bill of sale and have it notarized so I can get a plate... Grrrrrrr.
Then I get home and the car has a flat. I haven't even driven this thing yet... No victories today.
I did find a set of 16x8.5 C$ salad shooter wheels for $100. I'm trying to find out if they'll bolt up without adapters, if they will I'll jump all over it.
In reply to AClockworkGarage:
I can tell you right now the bolt pattern is the same but the offset is wrong on those. So you'll need spacers/adapters.
I remember once having the mentality that "muscle cars can't autocross well."
Then I saw a gutted out z like this with some serious modification tearing it up and ripping some serious times and it quickly humbled my unfair judgment of them. I'm excited to see where this goes!
I got ahold of the PO and we can get the title straightened out... after the holiday weekend. Bleh...
With that... 'resolved' I turned my attention back to the planning. I would need wheels and tires. This is easier said than done. Apparently the world has left the 3rd gen behind. I cannot seem to find any tires smaller than 17" and no wheels larger than 16" unless I run adapters. I'm not even certain the SCCA will allow me to run with them. I'm also not thrilled about spending more money on running gear than I did on the car itself.
This pretty much eliminates every option.
Option #1 is a set of 16" ZQ8 alloys with 225/45/16s. this lands in just under a grand, but is a significantly shorter tire.
Option #2 is a set of 17"x7" US Mag Ramblers. They'll have a decent tire selection and are a reasonable price, buy they are obviously aftermarket so that's kind of a turn off.
Option #3 is my favourite. 17"x9 Hawks motorsports GTA replicas. this would give me a beautiful mesh wheel in black or gold with a decent selection of tires. they are designed specifically for 3rd gen F-bodies but at $240 per, they are far and away the most expensive.
tires are pretty much going to cost $6-700 on top of all that. but that should be the last big purchase to get this show on the road. Well that and $400 for new weatherstripping.
Scca is fine with adapters. I run 3.5 hubcentric to fit the 17x10 vette wheels on the elky.
Minor victory. We have a plate.
Don't kid yourself, that is a major accomplishment! Now it's yours in every way and no one can throw any surprises at you once you've put all your money and sweat into it. Im always nervous about falling in love until I know she's mine!
Before I get started I like to have a graphical representation of the finished project. Sometimes I get close, sometimes I don't. I used to sketch these out by hand but lately I've been using forza to do the heavy lifting.
For example, my last project started as this idea:
and ended up here:
That's pretty close...
So here's my amazing 3d rendered final concept of the CAM-Z:
We've got a long way to go.
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