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For Bilstein shocks, try Vette Brakes, Van Steel or even Summit Racing. Bilstein has two different versions; there is a "Sport" shock and a "Z51" shock
I bought my Z51 shocks from Summit Racing as they have free shipping for orders over $99
well autoX season is coming up pretty quick! ive pulled the trigger on the banski rear suspention trail, toe,and camber links. they will be here Monday. Ive also started adjusting toe/camber in the front getting ready for our race next weekend , should have the rear links installed by then. I will say im starting to miss the abs brakes (abs controller hasn't been active since we got it 11+ yrs ago) ,cause on hard braking entering the front tires lockup.
on another note, with the cars street setup is the car normally pushy/ understeer bad ?
Look at VBP (Vette Brakes and Products) for some ideas / suggestion. Nice thing is, if you decide to ever change springs, they make fiberglass springs in house and can literally "cook up" anything you desire; personally I installed one of their 485 inch pound springs after they advised me that 500 inch pounds was the limit for a street car; it looks like a fiberglass two by four, mounts simpler than the stock spring, and is definitely stiff, but I like it.
If you're working on the rear get the poly bushings that mount the batwing to the chassis and the extra long bolts for the spring ends (to allow adjustment of the rear end height) and the poly pads they mount through.
VBP also offers specially revalved Blistein shocks specially for track and auto cross; these are special order and are not recommended for street use. And expensive.
Do anything you can to stiffen the drive train; specifically inspect the C beam for worn. oversize or egg shaped mounting holes; repair or replace if necessary. And definitely get, or fabricate some C beam plates
When every things apart, consider drilling the differential and installing a 1/8th inch NIP pipe drain plug;
and six new u joints
that's about it for the rear suspension....now as to the rest of the car....
Not looking into the drive line just yet but will before long, so thanks for the advise. Could you tell me what the plates are added for?
And I'm noticing the front only allows for about 2deg of neg camber. Are the offset lower bushings the preferred way to get more camber?
Also how does the car handle with the aggressive autoX setup vs the street setup?
well autoX season is coming up pretty quick! ive pulled the trigger on the banski rear suspention trail, toe,and camber links. they will be here Monday. Ive also started adjusting toe/camber in the front getting ready for our race next weekend , should have the rear links installed by then. I will say im starting to miss the abs brakes (abs controller hasn't been active since we got it 11+ yrs ago) ,cause on hard braking entering the front tires lockup.
on another note, with the cars street setup is the car normally pushy/ understeer bad ?
The C4 stock street alignment will have an under steer (pushy) condition. This is because an under steer condition is easier to recover from than an under steer.
Originally Posted by jlfx car audio
Not looking into the drive line just yet but will before long, so thanks for the advise. Could you tell me what the plates are added for?
And I'm noticing the front only allows for about 2deg of neg camber. Are the offset lower bushings the preferred way to get more camber?
Also how does the car handle with the aggressive autoX setup vs the street setup?
You will lucky to get 1.5 degree neg camber with stock bushings. You will need the offset bushings to get more negative camber. Be careful and make sure your intended class will allow offset bushings.
An aggressive autox alignment will typically be fidgety on the street, especially when you have ruts on the road. If you use the car for a lot of street driving, more negative camber will wear the inside if your tires quick.
I didn't see any reference to your question on the overdrive unit. I'm no expert but IIRC from the manual the overdrive is electrically controlled. Check the FSM but it could be as simple to test as removing the connector from the overdrive unit. If that checks out, figure out which wire is the hot wire and put a switch in it, then you can control whether overdrive is available or not.
Just a thought. Wish I could be more sure but the 4+3 from mine was replaced with a 5 speed before I bought it.
I've been running track events for about 20 years with my '85. Track events are totally different from autocross but the basics remain the same. Autocross events are competitive while track events are just for fun. That sort of changes everything.
Whats up guys as im sure some of you already might know this is my first post and look farward to being part of the interactive community.
I have been a heavy equip mechanic for 13 yrs
car audio& fabrication for almost 20yrs
professional rc car racer for 4yrs (dont laugh till u have raced indoor carpet) lol
For those of you that know about autoX racing bare with me , those that dont its basically 200+- road cones in a parking lot and u want to go as fast as possible thru them without running them over ...lol
so needless to say we hardly get over 40mph in maby one area (avg 25ish) 55-75sec layouts...
And I feel if I can get used to the long nose the vett might be pretty competative .
with the tpi being really tq happy without much rev might just be ok.
My plan: I want to remove all unwanted extra weight so I can maximize acceleration/braking effectiveness.
Current issues: when im driving car and make quick L&R turns it feels like the rear is swaying around but looked at the rear suspention and dont seem to have any bad bushings (tho they are old and will be repaced this winter theirs no wabble in the rear hub with car lifted either. Any help here would be great . What I noticed was it dont exactly have a upper control arm to rear hub ....
I also want to remove the smog and ac componets and ut has the serpentine belt so anyone that has a parts list to remove them and relocate the alt would definately save me some time ...
The overdrive on the 4+3 trans automatically engauges any time the car is started (after warm up) so doing auto cross I know its going to try to engauge as I shift into second when im not paying attention... so anyone know the best way to add a interupter switch to that circuit for at the track?
Performance . Yea I know the tpi dont have much head room with the 5.7L... so has anyone installed 1.6rr onnthe heads or bigger duration cam with good gains ?
Car already has custom exhaust tho it is kinda rigged... no mufler and a single cat in the "H" pipe area.... looks to be a 3" . So some suggestions for a cheap exhaust would be nice also. Btw love the sound of this exhaust for sure .
Any other suggestions would be more than helpful.
Already bought some simi race tires. Thy are falcon tires that are 260shore ( lowest I could find above 100, at a decent price )
any tks in advance for any input
What class with what organization will you be running? I think the best class for the car in scca is bsp. If your just racing for fun and don't mind where you get classed and who your up against then no problem, but if your wanting to compete then you have to be careful what mods you spend your money on. The right wheel and tire combo will cost a small fortune unless you stay in stock.
You wont find any upper control arms in the rear because your axles act as a upper control arm.
The c4 is a blast to autocross, especially with 315 slicks on four corners and a 383 under the hood.
It's been my experience that autocross related advice has yielded better results in the autox and roadrace section, solofast is a great contributor
Thanks. We are a small group called hubcityspeed. Theirs only 4 Street classes and 4 race classes based on tires I'm running falcon race treaded tires but just fall short on the scale so they are still considered a street tire.
This summer I might run some scca but don't know anything about their classifications. As for my rear-end parts... It seems the FedEx driver stole them.... I ha e him on camera leaving with my package and reporting it as delivered. So not sure how this will turn out
Hope there's nothing fishy here, I had the UPS man deliver a big roll of countertop formica with a 3" hole in the box that went all the way thru the formica too but not thru the other side of the box. When he set it down in my cabinet shop he put it down with the big hole where I couldn't see it. I only noticed it the next day, I got my money back but missed a deadline for the cabinets because of his trick.
Thanks. We are a small group called hubcityspeed. Theirs only 4 Street classes and 4 race classes based on tires I'm running falcon race treaded tires but just fall short on the scale so they are still considered a street tire.
This summer I might run some scca but don't know anything about their classifications. As for my rear-end parts... It seems the FedEx driver stole them.... I ha e him on camera leaving with my package and reporting it as delivered. So not sure how this will turn out
Man that sucks, at least you have him on camera. Now it's just a inconvenience and not a loss.
First I would focus on the basic maintenance, like you said, replacing bushings is a good place to start. LIke somebody else said , decent pads like Hawk pads plus fresh fluid is a must, & make sure your brake booster doesn't have any leaks. I don't know much about the 4+3, or whether it's supposed to be in OD like you say. On my later C4, with 700r4, & 2.59s, I can do some entire courses in manual 1, longer courses in manual 2.
One thing to consider when looking at rr's, cams, race tires etc. is that mods often put you in classes with hard-tuned cars & really fast drivers.
Not looking into the drive line just yet but will before long, so thanks for the advise. Could you tell me what the plates are added for?
Beam plates have two purposes.
First they capture the upper nut atop of the beam and turn a two wrench, and you can never, or so it seems, get the top wrench onto the nut, into a one wrench, ain't this easy, tightening the beam bolts from the bottom.
Second, and more important, they spread the load and provide more clamping force onto the C beam. Even using large washers, the stock set up always allow for some fore and aft movement, eventually allowing the hardened bolts to wear the holes in the C beam oversized or "egg" shaped. A lot of times this becomes first noticed when the shifter stalk "rises" during hard acceleration.
Personally I fabricated my own plates; its a pretty simple project.
06-11-2014, 12:11 PM
