v2racing

Since there are questions about some of these parts quite often on the forum, I thought I would give my driving impressions of the finished product. Everything on the car is new, as I did a frame off and welded and gusseted my frame. I went to poly on the front with tubular a-arms. I have a spreader bar and solid motor mounts. I even put poly body mounts on. The rear has aftermarket offset trailing arms, heim rod Smart Struts with the rear end raised in the frame and mounted solid. The chassis is about as stiff and as good as you can get a stock C3 without a roll cage added. I also have Goodyear F1 Supercar tires in 18".

The Steeroids installed easily. The worst part was getting the u-joints aligned to be as free as possible. The first thing I noticed driving with the Steeroids was that the steering was not very free. It had drag in it like something was too tight. It did not return to center on its own even with 5 degrees of caster. I dropped the rack to see if it was the steering column or the u-joints. They were free and rotated easily. I have all new ball joints and thought maybe they were just tight. I regreased them with Mobile 1 synthetic grease and they seemed to free up a bit. I sprayed all the heim rod ends with silicone lube and worked it into the joints, that also seemed to help some. I also had play in the steering. I had new bearings in the steering column but that is still where I traced the play back to. The bearing retainer was loose in the column and the bearing had play in it. I removed the retaining clip and put a clamp in its place, this took the play out of the retainer, but the bearing still had some play. I put a clamp on the shaft, pulled on the shaft and shoved the clamp up tight to the bearing and cranked it down. No more play.

So now I started driving it. It was still a little tight, but it gets better every time I drive it. The tightness is in the rack itself. I know these are rebuilt GM racks, so whoever rebuilt it got something too tight. It is breaking in though.

The steering is very quick, a little too quick for really high speed driving, but would probably be great for autocross and good for everyday driving. I put a flow restrictor fitting in my new power steering pump but left the pressure up to what should be 1100 to 1200 psi. I also have underdrive pulleys on it so the pump is not spinning as fast. There is very good road feel to the steering and not overpowered at all, not at all like some have reported with way too much steering assist. It feels like modern steering in a performance car. At idle with the underdrive pulleys, there is some loss to the power assist, but not too bad. The turning radius is a little larger now, but not really a problem. All in all, I like it.

The hydroboost brakes works very well. The pump mods also has helped the hydroboost to have less power assist. The brakes have good road feel and feedback and are very linear in their application. They almost feel like really good manual brakes. I have stock calipers with o-ring conversions and stainless braid in place of the rubber lines. I run DOT 5 fluid and the brakes are rock hard, no squishiness at all. I've run DOT 5 since the 70's on all types of street and race vehicles with zero issues. I have good pads, not racing quality though and I have cross drilled and slotted rotors. The o-ring conversions do feel different than the lip seals. I can feel it take a little longer for the brakes to release after coming to a complete stop. I'm only talking about probably fractions of a second, but I can feel it. I have a very sensitive feel for what the vehicle I'm driving or riding is doing, which helped me a lot in my racing career. Some might not notice the release lag.

Even with the cut 550 lb front spring, the shortened 360 lb composite spring, 1 1/8" front roll bar, 5/8" rear roll bar and no rubber, just poly and heim joints in my suspension, the ride is pretty good. The Bilstein Sport shocks work well for both handling and ride. The car had HD's on it when I bought it, and the back end had too much bounce for me with the glass spring. I can still feel there is more bounce with the composite over a steel, but it is very well controlled with the Sports. There are better adjustable shocks for the track, but I think it's pretty tough to beat the Bilsteins for the price on the street and for someone who only hits the track or an autocross ocaisionaly.

The Goodyear F1 Supercars can't hold the power of this angry little mouse motor at all, but they ride and handle pretty good. They are far from the best in modern tires, but are light years better than the 15" offerings. I ran them before on my 80 Vette. They have one scary thing I don't like. They hold pretty well in the corners until you reach the limit, and then they just suddenly let loose and don't recover well at all. Not an ideal situation for driving at 100%.

The solid motor mounts and the solid mounted differential, along with the poly body mounts are not an issue at all. I have no vibration from the engine or drivetrain. Obviously, If your engine isn't balanced properly, you would feel it. I also had my driveshaft balanced and I run Denny's Driveshaft Nitrous ready half shafts, which are high speed balanced. I very carefully setup my super 10 posi when I built it too, which resulted in it being smooth and quiet. The springless posi is new to me, but it is working great.

All in all, I'm very happy with how the car turned out. The handling is very good and feels pretty neutral, it rides decent, stops very well and it has more than enough power to get in all kinds of trouble. One other thing I'm very happy with, since everything has been apart, replaced or rebuilt and reassembled, it has zero rattles! Much better than the rattletrap I started with.

Mike

naramlee

im curious, why the Goodyear F1 Supercars? I mean there are obviously better and worse tires... why those?

have you used a gopro to see what the sidewalls are doing at the limit? im guessing they have rather soft sidewalls if they are going crazy on the outer limits of being pushed?

v2racing

They were the least expensive performance tire in my sizes at a time I needed not to spend a lot of money. Next spring I will probably go to Nitto NT05 tires.

Mike

naramlee

HAHA!!! cheers then, I run their brother, the NT01's... I hear a lot of ppl love the 05 tho and great price on them

jb78L-82

Great feedback!! Thank You!

I am not totally surprised about the R&P conversion since I have read similar comments from other over the years. Curious why you did not go Borgeson for a quicker box. I have a GTR1999, Gary Ramadei, blueprinted rebuilt/upgraded OEM box that is seriously 100% better than when the car was new.

I also have poly everywhere, spreader bar, 550 springs/360 monospring and Bilstein Sports and HD's. The ride on my car is really outstanding, firm but not harsh. No rattles as well.

I have 1 1./8 inch front sway bar and OEM style 3/4 rear bar...with all my mods, the car is VERY neutral near the limit.

I have VBP SS calipers that I put on in 1985 with OEM lip seals and they are still perfect today...I change the brake fluid with DOT4 every 4-5 years. SS braided lines as well and and OEM brake booster and the brake pedal is FIRM, no sponginess....

v2racing

Actually the Steeroids is already a little quick steering. It's not bad because I'm not running triple digit speeds all the time, but quicker yet wouldn't be good in my opinion. I just wanted to try the rack because I like them in the newer performance cars. I like the rack on this Vette. With the revalved pump it really has a good feel of the road. I think most people have the over assisted steering because they don't change out the flow restrictor and just try to change pressure, which is a mistake.

Mike

mrvette

VERY early on when buying my '72 in '95, I put on a 88-91 vette serp drive, and still had the sloppy old steering, so I used the old pump flow/valve/fittings in the serp drive pump....even has the double flare fitting on it....I unsure so many years later if it was pressure or flow that changed, but since then I have installed the Rack and HB brakes also.....and the OP sounds like he duplicated my car.....except I have stock control arms....and thinner sway bars....I don't compete, so I just appreciate it on the street.....

OH, I have '89 vette wheels Nitto 275/50/17 in back and 255/50/17 in front....