c5_droptop

I have a 1969 Coupe that I am working on. The car was already there mechanically when I got it and has the following:

Original 350/350. Stroked to 383
Edelbrock RPM Heads. Appear to be straight plug.
Edelbrock RPM Intake
Holley 750 double-pumper
Comp Cams Hydraulic Roller Cam, model XR282HR
MSD 6A and Pro Billet Tach Drive Distributor
Keisler 5 speed
Serpentine Belt setup – 1994 Chevy Pickup
B-Cool Radiator with twin Spall fans
Dual mount rear spring. Front Mono Spring and Lower Tubular A-Arms
from Vette Brakes and Products not installed yet.
3.36 rear-end
American Racing TT II's, 17x8 with 245-45R17's

While the car will mostly be used for weekend cruising and fun drives but I would like to be able to take it out on the track from time to time.

What are some things I need to think about as far as mods to help with the track performance that will not detract from the day to day driveability?

Some ideas that I have picked up are:
Offset trailing arms. Good for another inch or two of tire on the back
Traction bar from VBP

I would like to avoid fender flares if I can. Not that I am opposed to them, in fact I even like the looks of them, I am just not sure that I can cut into the car...

Thanks in advance,
Dave

PS Sorry if this is detailed somewhere. I did some searches and couldn't find anything.

autoxer6

Vette Brakes has a lot of great suspension packages that you can think about. However there are some more important things.

1. Tires, this will make the largest difference by far. My dad has Falcon Azenis tires on his '69. These are still street tires and you can go to a Dot R race tire if you want but I would finish sorting the car before you put a race tire on.

2. Break pads & fluid, make sure you have some track rated pads. You have a fairly heavy car and a good amount of power.

3. Alignment You'll want at least a degree of camber. Vette Brakes web site has some alignment guidlines. (I run 2.3 degrees of camber on my '04 Z06 autocross car, it's not terrible to drive but it is hard on tires.)

4. Sway bar, at a minimum an 1 1/8" front bar will help with the roll stiffness.

4. Shocks, bilstein, or koni a a good choice. The Bilstein are a better value but the Konis are adjustable

If you take care of these things you will have a safe and pretty good handling car. The vette brakes suspension packages are a pretty good way to go if you are looking for a step up. Just dont neglect 1-3 above.

Chris

vettebrakes

Since you already have good suspension set-ups. The adjustable systems from VBP are great. They allow you to set it up for street driving as well as track days.

I would recommend the offset trailing arms for larger tires, but also they are so much stronger than the stock sheet metal ones. They will help to eliminate any frame damage. They have a two inch offset as well as a tab to relocate the parking brake cable. You will find that these arms are so much better made than the stock ones. They also come complete with their poly bushings already installed so you can just slip them on. If your bearing assemblies need to be rebuilt, they can remanufacture your complete assemblies, add the trailing arm and send it back to you. This way you can just mount the complete assembly. For the dollars involved that is the best way to go. They will completely remanufacture the assemblies back to factory specs and you just need to remount them. This way you will know exactly what you have when you hit the track.

I would recommend you call them and speak with Steve or Gary in tech at 1-800-237-9991 regarding the traction bar. They can help guide you with some of your choices.

Jason Staley

Here's the setup for my street / occasional track C3. Like you I didn't want fender flares, because I wanted the car to remain close to stock from the outside and I cruise in it rather often including a few road trips to Bowling Green (~4-5 hours away).

Here's a list of my modifications for track use:Things I would put on the top of the list is brake cooling ducts, anti-bumpsteer blocks, and the best performance tires you can get. I've only been doing HPDE's for a couple of years and I already managed to warp the front rotors prior to adding the ducts.

The other really important thing is to make sure you have enough toe-in set in the rear suspension so that it never goes into a "toe-out" condition while your in a corner. The rear suspension has horrible bumpsteer due to the C3 suspensions design. This results in a very bad oversteer situation at just the wrong time. I would advise reading Greenwood's VIP article. Its full of helpful tips. This is the reason I moved the rear crossmember up 5/8". The idea behind this is that the half shafts should slope down toward the wheels when the car is at rest - this minimizes the bumpsteer. This is covered in the VIP article in detail.