Blazekillerace

Hey all, recently I've been finishing up my vette. She's not quite ready yet, still need to put the engine in and so on. But anyway, I recently had a thought. I read about some people road racing their c3's. I thought it would be a pretty cool project to make a streetable track car.

The thing is, I see people talking about how bad the c3's "body flex" is, and what is needed to fix the problem. Honestly, had me worried. Let alone half the stuff I don't understand quite yet. The car is getting a roll cage due to my local drag strip's rules.

So one of my questions is, what path should I take? A streetable non-competitive road racing car? Or a streetable drag car?

Looking for some advice from anyone with experience. Not entirely sure what all needs done, let alone if my C3 is even capable of handling well without major changes to frame, or swapping for new suspension setup's. Appreciate any advice or help guys. Thanks!

Blake

johnny c

danny pop told me the only thing his c3 has is JRI suspension, lsx swap, larger wheels (BFG rivals,falline wheels), and flares. his car was quick as snot. everything ele was the original factory equipment.

Gordonm

Danny pops car has a few more mods than that. Those brakes and rotors are not stock nor is the roll cage to stiffen up the chassis. I agree it is not a tube frame car or have C 6 suspension but I'll be the has a few secrets up in that chassis. Plus he is an excellent driver.

johnny c

he has a roll bar, not a full cage. just like what the OP is installing in his car.
the wildwoods are not really necessary. NASCAR canada races with oem single piston GM calipers. the same ones that come on your car. that's probably the most raced caliper on the planet. it's junk, but not required to switch them. just replace the pads with something that can take the heat. i think PFc makes one. edit: found it-> http://www.ogracing.com/performance-...ad-01-compound

danny is fast. but i hear he's canadian

Gordonm

Not looking for an argument at all but this is hardly stock suspension. But a lot can be done with a stock frame and parts for a C 3.

Popp, who's a Corvette specialist at McClusky Chevrolet in Cincinnati, does all the car preparation on the '72. The engine is a 670-hp, 8500-rpm, destroked LS7, Gen 4 Small-Block V8 built by Lingenfelter Performance Engineering and topped with a Holley EFI system. The transmission is a Muncie four-speed. The chassis uses Vansteel suspension pieces, Addco stabilizer bars, JRi shocks, Wilwood brakes, Forgeline GA3R 18-inch wheels and BF Goodrich g-Force Rival tires.

7t2vette

C3 Corvettes came from the factory with fixed 4 piston calipers, not floating 1 piston calipers. The pads you linked to are also not correct for a OEM C3 caliper.

7t2vette

Danny Popp's rear suspension:

johnny c

yea but you don't need a top built car for a track day. you'll need all of that stuff to win a race. but to just to have fun at a track day none of that is necessary.

the only thing you will absolutely need is a helmet and a set of race pads.

i was unaware of that thank you for the correction.

donyue

Hi Blake,

Well my vote would be a non-competitive road racing car. I think you can have more fun driving around to events (car shows, swap meets, cruise nights, etc.) instead of only with a streetable drag car.

But it also helps if your car is capable of good handling and good power.

It won't be cheap to build, but a resto-mod or pro touring car should make things pretty fun overall and you still get to drive it on public roads with fun curves.

I live an hour from the Rocky Mountains.

JMHO.

cagotzmann

I have a stock 1978 corvette I started with. I was using my 2010 Grandsport for track driving. After a set of tires / brakes etc. I decided to try my 78 on the same track. Other than being much slower, the pleasure of road track driving is very similar. So the first step was to make the car safe. I replaced all the suspension bushing with poly. Added SS Brake lines, added vbandp suspension street / salmon kit.
Then worked with different brake pads. here is the post that discussed the C3 brakes.
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c3-t...8-results.html

Next are better tires / rims (17" or 18") so the brakes will work much better. After the tires will be the transmission / Rear ratio's that work best on the track I have access to, and lastly will be the engine. My car is a auto and thinking on changing to a Richmond 5 speed road race unit.
http://www.richmondgear.com/index.ph...peed-road-race

But I my stick with the th350 with manual shift upgrades.

The engine will be a ZZ5 GM Crate motor with EFI.

My C3 vs C6 picture.

If you want to win road race track events then purchase a C6 Z06 or wait for the 2015 Z06, but either way corvette's are fun to drive on any track. For me road track driving beats drag racing anytime. I also visit SpringMountain twice a year to enjoy the lastest in corvette technology.

garygnu

there have been some good threads here recently on welding up the frame ,and adding some gussets .that mite be useful for road coarse car .what tranny will you be using ?

69427

Road racing is incredibly expensive, and a C3 won't be competitive, but there's plenty of track days for licensed street vehicles that's a ton of fun and reasonably priced. There's no rule book, so you can build your car the way you want, not the way the rule book says.
Just build it to be safe with the speed you're comfortable with, and have fun!

509 rat

he also uses the borgeson steering box, man I love that car, im building a clone to it except for the motor.

redvetracr

running your car on a road coarse a real road coarse is the most fun I ever had with my clothes on.

donyue

Actually, for anyone interested there is a pretty detailed article in Chevy High Performance on Danny Popp's 72. The link is below.

Interesting that there is no mention of a LS swap in the article. Not sure where the LS swap information came from? Article indicates a modified 355 - LT1.

http://www.chevyhiperformance.com/fe...ette_stingray/

Love the huge tires and wheels on this car!

Kid Vette

The LS swap came after the article.

Solid LT1

Borgeson! Boy I guess Danny didn't know about all the superior features of a rack&pinion.......neither did Optima Ultimate Street Car 2013 winner Brian Hobaugh....Borgeson in that C2 also!

Hmmmm maybe these guys should read the expert adivce from this forum rather than building and kicking behind with their old hunks of junk.

There is a member in my Vette club doing a SRIII chassis 68 Vette once during a conversation, he was describing how old Vettes don't handle....my wife ( multiple Autocross champion in our C3 and C5 Z06 Vettes ) did a double take at this statement.....then asked me are 68 Vettes that different than our 72 LT-1?.....My response....nope it just takes the ability to understand what the car is doing and hit the gas correctly and point the Vette in the right direction....some people like my wife have that ability some spend lots of $$$$ chasing a fallacy brought on by hyped up marketing.

Looks like I might have our C6 Z06 sold so I can have a stack of Benjamin's to grease our C3 LS3 swap to completion.....

minitech

Buy a helmet made for auto driving and up to date.

Go hang out at a road course near you, talk to the guys. With your helmet with you ask to get rides with them. Learn as much as you can and what people do there. You will get an idea of what to do.

Best if you can get a HPDE driving school in to be shown the ropes. Otherwise there are usually instructor level people at a track that would help you.

Do those things before doing anything to your car and after learning what you need and how far you want to go direct the money there.

You might build a nice street car and have it on the track a few times per year and have the greatest time of all. Put the mod money into seat time on the track

TedH

I read where the engine cradle needs added gussets to resolve frame fatigue. I would think wherever the frame has welds, there would need to be added metal to fight flex; especially since you would be running with stickier tires and stiffer suspension for the corners.

Lt1er

If that is you driving, you are horribly hard on the clutch during your up shifts.

yes, I also go to spring mountain and have considered buying a Radical and really be doing some lap times