Auto Cross
Thread Starter
Safety Car
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 3,558
Likes: 4
From: Oakland California
Auto Cross
I'm thinking about doing a little bit of auto cross in my '74 and am in need of some info/help. My '74 is stock right now and am in need of help in trying to figure out what suspension components you guys recommend? I've ordered some tubular control arms from VBP and am thinking about ordering a composite rear spring, what do you guys think I should go with? I was going to contact VBP for info./recommendation, but they were closed. Also, What wheels are you guys running? I was thinking about some C5 rims, or some ZR1 rims, but not sure. Are any of you guys running the ZR1 rims, if so what is needed to run them on a C3? There's a set locally for 350obo. Thank in advance
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Burning Brakes
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 861
Likes: 0
From: WNY
I auto cross my 74 as well.
I run 17" wheels with a slightly stickier tire and cross drilled rotors with aftermarket calipers. I upgraded to 420lb front springs and kyb gr2's last year and that helped a little.
Over the winter I upgraded quite a bit=
I upgraded the kyb's to Bilstein sports, the 420lb composite rear spring from VBP, a much larger front sway bar (1 1/4"), switched back to manual steering (removed power steering componets per instructions in a thread here), changed out to hawk brake pads, and dropped in a 383 just for the hell of it.
I can tell you the spring, swaybar, and shocks made a world of difference. the entire ride of the car is different now and it feels much firmer. I like the feeling of no power steering when cornering at speed - the factory power steering is terrible for feedback, it always had a lose feel to it.
I cant wait to try it out this year - our first event is april 4th.
I run 17" wheels with a slightly stickier tire and cross drilled rotors with aftermarket calipers. I upgraded to 420lb front springs and kyb gr2's last year and that helped a little.
Over the winter I upgraded quite a bit=
I upgraded the kyb's to Bilstein sports, the 420lb composite rear spring from VBP, a much larger front sway bar (1 1/4"), switched back to manual steering (removed power steering componets per instructions in a thread here), changed out to hawk brake pads, and dropped in a 383 just for the hell of it.
I can tell you the spring, swaybar, and shocks made a world of difference. the entire ride of the car is different now and it feels much firmer. I like the feeling of no power steering when cornering at speed - the factory power steering is terrible for feedback, it always had a lose feel to it.
I cant wait to try it out this year - our first event is april 4th.
Burning Brakes
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 861
Likes: 0
From: WNY
Im not running a rear sway bar - Still on the stock small block config as far as that goes. I'll have to see how it handles this year, but last year I had no problem keeping my rear planted around corners.
You'll find a lot of people who autocross rwd either go with a small rear swaybar or none at all - the larger bars tend to cause the inside tire to lift a bit and makes it harder to get out of the corner. You also see a lot of people who swap to true race coil overs go with no sway bars at all for the same reason - to keep all four tires planted as best you can.
On our cars a larger front sway bar does wonders for keeping the front end pointed in the right direction in a hard corner - gives you a little bit more of an ability to keep the rear end from sliding out on you (helps control oversteer by promoting more understeer is what im trying to say)
You'll find a lot of people who autocross rwd either go with a small rear swaybar or none at all - the larger bars tend to cause the inside tire to lift a bit and makes it harder to get out of the corner. You also see a lot of people who swap to true race coil overs go with no sway bars at all for the same reason - to keep all four tires planted as best you can.
On our cars a larger front sway bar does wonders for keeping the front end pointed in the right direction in a hard corner - gives you a little bit more of an ability to keep the rear end from sliding out on you (helps control oversteer by promoting more understeer is what im trying to say)
Premium Supporting Vendor
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 4,312
Likes: 70
From: Clearwater FL
How serious do you want to get?
We like to set cars up on big spring rates and medium size sway bars. Definetly go with an adjustable shock. We like to be a little soft on compression. We think of shocks as the speed control of the platform. On Danny Popps old race car (1969 Vette) he was just about double the spring rate of a replacement BB spring rate. He's now into a C5 but he has won many national championships on big springs and medium bars.
I would get CCW wheels and run Hoosier. Either the A6 or the R4's
We like to set cars up on big spring rates and medium size sway bars. Definetly go with an adjustable shock. We like to be a little soft on compression. We think of shocks as the speed control of the platform. On Danny Popps old race car (1969 Vette) he was just about double the spring rate of a replacement BB spring rate. He's now into a C5 but he has won many national championships on big springs and medium bars.
I would get CCW wheels and run Hoosier. Either the A6 or the R4's
Thread Starter
Safety Car
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 3,558
Likes: 4
From: Oakland California
How serious do you want to get?
We like to set cars up on big spring rates and medium size sway bars. Definetly go with an adjustable shock. We like to be a little soft on compression. We think of shocks as the speed control of the platform. On Danny Popps old race car (1969 Vette) he was just about double the spring rate of a replacement BB spring rate. He's now into a C5 but he has won many national championships on big springs and medium bars.
I would get CCW wheels and run Hoosier. Either the A6 or the R4's
We like to set cars up on big spring rates and medium size sway bars. Definetly go with an adjustable shock. We like to be a little soft on compression. We think of shocks as the speed control of the platform. On Danny Popps old race car (1969 Vette) he was just about double the spring rate of a replacement BB spring rate. He's now into a C5 but he has won many national championships on big springs and medium bars.
I would get CCW wheels and run Hoosier. Either the A6 or the R4's
Le Mans Master
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 5,727
Likes: 38
From: Fremont CA
For starting out as a beginner your getting some BAD ADVICE here. You need to learn how to drive before any "trick parts" will help you out.
I would reccomend running a fatory "Gymkahna" style suspension to learn how to drive the car. Putting tubular control arms on your Vette will move it deeply into a modified class and won't help you learn the sport of autocross. You should buy some decent shocks like Bilstein "Sport" shocks, the Gymkahna sway bars (1" or 1 1/8" front bar, and the 7/16" rear bar.)
Get a decent alignment for driving the Vette hard at an autocross, run you street tires for the fist few events then start asking or observing which tires are running on the winners cars. Talk to the competitors in your class and find out what is being used and try their set-ups until you learn the feel of the Vette and keep theing simple and FUN.
I guess #1 priority would be the alignment, shocks, sway bars then tires. AFTER all these changes you can start getting into susension springs, racing seat, parts, motors, ect.
I take a well set-up stock Vette chassis/good alignment/sticky tires combination over any aftermarket parts bastardization any day.
I would reccomend running a fatory "Gymkahna" style suspension to learn how to drive the car. Putting tubular control arms on your Vette will move it deeply into a modified class and won't help you learn the sport of autocross. You should buy some decent shocks like Bilstein "Sport" shocks, the Gymkahna sway bars (1" or 1 1/8" front bar, and the 7/16" rear bar.)
Get a decent alignment for driving the Vette hard at an autocross, run you street tires for the fist few events then start asking or observing which tires are running on the winners cars. Talk to the competitors in your class and find out what is being used and try their set-ups until you learn the feel of the Vette and keep theing simple and FUN.
I guess #1 priority would be the alignment, shocks, sway bars then tires. AFTER all these changes you can start getting into susension springs, racing seat, parts, motors, ect.
I take a well set-up stock Vette chassis/good alignment/sticky tires combination over any aftermarket parts bastardization any day.
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Le Mans Master
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 5,727
Likes: 38
From: Fremont CA
I just noticed, your in Oakland, CA look up the WSCC website and attend some events at Vaca Valley college in Suisun and have some fun, don't waste your $$$ on mail order parts. Here is a link: http://www.wscc.ws/
Burning Brakes
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 861
Likes: 0
From: WNY
It really depends on what he wants out of the car - If he wants to stay in a stock class he is very limited on his options of what to choose for factory replacement parts - and its not exactly cheap to make changes to these cars more than once. Depending on the motor modifications he has already, he may not be able to compete in a stock class as he sits at the moment. It depends on the SCCA region and how picky they are with the class rules a lot of times.
He also, like most of us, has a 30+ year old car that likely has mostly original parts. If he has already ordered control arms then he probably had a reason other than just autocross since that is a major change to the car. Same with a rear leaf spring - if its original and likely a bit rusted and worn out then its going to do him no good learning on that.
It really comes down to what he wants to do - start learning the car in a stock config and modify down the road, or setup the car before hand and learn as is. Everyone on here who races will have a different opinion on the configuration and what works for their driving styles.
He also, like most of us, has a 30+ year old car that likely has mostly original parts. If he has already ordered control arms then he probably had a reason other than just autocross since that is a major change to the car. Same with a rear leaf spring - if its original and likely a bit rusted and worn out then its going to do him no good learning on that.
It really comes down to what he wants to do - start learning the car in a stock config and modify down the road, or setup the car before hand and learn as is. Everyone on here who races will have a different opinion on the configuration and what works for their driving styles.
Thread Starter
Safety Car
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 3,558
Likes: 4
From: Oakland California
I'm going to start looking for some AutoX events so I can go see what people are doing with their cars. Hey Solid LT1, I past through the Oakland Coliseum today and saw that people were doing some AutoX, I think it was, do you know anything about it? I also saw a couple of C2's there. I couldn't stop to look because I was with my family, but I'm trying to figure out if that's a every weekend thing so I can go and check things out there. I just looked over in the Nor cal. section here and saw that I missed an AutoX event yesterday. I'm going to see if I can get someone locally who does AutoX so I can get some info on what they recommend.
Melting Slicks
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 2,520
Likes: 11
From: Hinckley OH
It's been a long time since I ran an AutoX, but I would recommend just running a few with the car as-is. Then you will know where you want to put the improvements. Besides, you'll have a lot of fun.
Abby Normal
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 53,303
Likes: 92
From: Press "2" for English
seriously though, if you want to get into autox, keep your eyes open for a miata or something for cheap. doesn't have to be pretty, just run. especially for autox, it's going to be way cheaper and i think more fun than the giant pig our cars are in stock and near stock form.
Thread Starter
Safety Car
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 3,558
Likes: 4
From: Oakland California