Finally getting to the end now. I bought this car in 2001. Put 1800 miles on it over the next 15 years for various reasons. Took it off the road in 2016 and Bman and I pulled the body off in late 2017. This is a once in a lifetime build for me. I am never going to sell this car, will never get close to my money out of it lol, and I will drive the wheels off it. I fell in love with a car on that famous race car thread from 10 years ago and am loosely basing my build off that car. It is the first picture in the thread. Goal for the car is a no frills, fast, light great handling car. It will have manual steering, manual brakes, no radio, no vacuum, no heater and so on. Hopefully it will be very close to 3000 pounds when finished. Gotta thank this forum for all I have learned here over the years since I bought this car. So 427HotRod, Richard454, David Howard, Gordonm, Alan Rothman 76strokervette, Tracdogg2, Bman76, Les, thanks especially to you all for your help. I will do a build thread when we get the body on in a couple of weeks. Below are the chassis details. Huge thanks to Mike Dyer! He is the best. Unfortunately he is no longer here on the forum, but he treated me right, was very reasonably priced for the terrific, quality, and extensive work he did for me.

Engine: It is a 10 to 1 502 that was originally a crate that was rebuilt in 2003. It is internally balanced, runs AFR 315 CNC heads. Cam was originally a solid flat tappet, then refreshed in 2016 with a Mike Jones solid roller. Cam specs are 263 @ .050 Intake, 269 @.050 Exhaust. Net lift is .705 Intake, .695 exhauston a 110 LSA. Lifters are Morel bushing with pressurized oiling. I am running Jesel Competition shaft rockers with 1.8 intakes. Intake is a Holley Strip Dominator that I had Tony Mamo at AFR fully port and match to the heads. Carb is a Lance Patton built 1000hp. Engine made 653 hp at 6500 rpm and 609 ft lb of torque. Carlquist Competition Engines in Waterbury, CT, built, recammed and dynoed the engine.

Frame: Big thanks here goes to David Howard and Gordonm who set me up with Leroy Wennerberg and Eddie Spence at K&L Enterprise in Martinsburg, WV. In addition to painting the car, they tram gauge checked my frame, fully seam welded and gussetted it based on the old Chevy Power book. It was straight, fortunately, but needed a new rear Crossmember and all 8 body mounts were replaced. Used the David Howard flanges for making the transmission crossmember removeable. In addition Leroy came up with the idea of a bolt on plate under the always dented front crossmember.

Exhaust: Calvin Elston built the “421” headers and stainless exhaust system. Headers have 2 inch primaries into 2.25 inch secondaries to a 2.5 inch merge collector. I know, seems small but he said he would use it up into the 800 horsepower level. From there it goes to 2.75 inch pipe through the holes and 3 inch out the back. Calvin likes and recommended Hooker Aerochamber mufflers as there is no packing to blow out and they sound good and don’t lose any horsepower to glasspack type. Had sidepipes on the car for awhile but found it was harder and harder to keep my horsepower and to do that was way too loud and I got tired of it fast.

Front suspension: Tracdogg rebuilt my spindle and hub/bearing assemblies as mine weren’t in too good of shape. He also rebuilt my steering box. Hubs have 1/2 inch extra long wheel studs. Upper control arms are Global West. Lower control arms are Global West extended travel coilover arms. Coilovers are Ridetech. These Global arms are beefy dudes for sure. It isn’t pictured, but I am going to adapt the Ridetech splined sway bar to my lower arms.

Rear suspension: Ridetech rear. This kit is fantastic and bolted in beautifully. There was one exception. Their trailing arms don’t work with my 1480 axles. So again Mike Dyer saved the day. He reworked the arms, essentially boring the “tube” out for the axle flanges to fit. It was a lot of work but came out great. These trailing arms are beautiful and way overbuilt. Very strong design. Also using 30 spline 1480 inner axles.

Differential: I told Mike I wanted the absolute strongest 10 bolt you can build. Would have loved to go 12 bolt but I wanted 3.08 gears in the rear so that took a 12 bolt out of the equation. He said he could guarantee me the strongest HD 10 bolt around. Working with and talking to Mike, you quickly realize how many little tricks there are inside the housing to make them last. He shotpeens the posi case. He doesn’t polish the whole case, only around the window where they all break as he doesn’t want to remove metal where unnecessary. He also meticulously fits the caps and said every housing he has seen needs tweaking in this area. Definitely not a just buy a cap and bolt it in proposition. His build with the 1480 axles should live a long life. He did Billet caps on both sides and ARP ring gear bolts. Should mention David 76strokervette here as Mike uses his caps, and my tranny yoke has his caps on it. Look for more from him in the future. Great stuff! Used the 1350 Billet yoke and the insides are REM polished and Cryo treated.

Transmission: Richmond 4+1 with McLeod RST twin disc and 12 pound aluminum flywheel. Lakewood bell and a Moser 1350 yoke. Clears parking brake stuff fine but we will see about tunnel interference once body is on. Didn’t want an overdrive tranny as my cam will probably like a 2500 rpm cruise speed so the 1 to 1 5th gear and 3.08 gears should work great.

Brakes: Wilwood D8-6, D8-4 combo with stock rotors

Wheels and Tires: Wheels are P.S. Engineering Trans Am 15x8.5 with 4.25 backspace. Tires are Avon CR6ZZ, 275 55 15 rear and 245 60 15 front. May be able to get 295’s in the back but won’t know until body is on.

Fuel system: Ricks Tanks tank with Aeromotive A1000 in tank pump. -8an Teflon feed
and return lines with Weldon regulator. Pic is just a mock up of where regulator may be.

Ignition: Crane optical distributor with locked out timing/no mechanical advance. Daytona Sensors programmable ignition box and coil.

Cooling: Dewitt’s/Griffin radiator with dual Spal fans.