How well do the IRS in a vette hold up?? I want to build a 9sec weekend driver but dont know much about the IRS in a vette. I have considered...(dont kill me) back halfing the car with 31x14 MT's and a 9" Ford. I know the latter will hold up to the type of power i want but how cost effective is it to buid the IRS to hold that? The tubbed rear will cost me 4200 complete to have done.

Thoughts? Good or bad?


Jerry

EDITED


[Modified by Shark Attack, 2:33 AM 9/21/2003]

 

Tubbed & dailey driver don't belong in the same sentence :jester . If your truely shooting for a 9 sec ride, the street drivablility is going to become questionable. That kind of power puts a lot of stress on the entire car so I don't know if you will be able to dailey drive this car anymore (Bence would be a great person to talk to about this ;) ).

I have a friend that has ran a 9.8 @ 147mph on 10" ET tires that could drive his car anywhere (but probably not everyday). He has tons of $$$ in his twin turbo sbc setup to make that kind of power & still be streetable.

As for you rear end question, a 9" would be a good choice for a 9 sec car IMHO :) .

 

You are going to build a 9 second daily driver? I also see from your profile that you are a student? Good luck.

 

Thanks for the replies. maybe I should clear it up a little. Weekend driver that could, if needed, drive from houston to dallas with no issues. I have my 01 Bullitt to drive everyday. Sorry I wasnt so clear in my eariler post.

Yup I'm a 34yo student and my wife is a 23yo student. We both work full time jobs and attend college full time, ( 4 classes a week ) and raise our 4 daughters, 12 (from my 1st marriage), 5, 2, 4mo. Its hectic at times but I am a gear head till I die. I have a BA in automotive diesle engineering allready. Now going for a BA in bio-chemacle eng. My wife is getting her BA in electrical eng. Lots of study time but what is life without the pursuit of higher education and Corvettes :D Thanks for the well wishes :cheers:


Jerry

 

Nine second / daily driver / drive to Dallas all do not fit in the same sentence. The only "real" cars that I know that can do this are the Buick Grand Nationals.

By the time you get the engine and transmission, frame, and all the safety equipment required for a 9 second car, you usually went beyond daily driver.
Could you drive it to Dallas - sure, if you like toasting your drag racing motor, stopping to cool it every so often or otherwise torturing your self on that trip.
Can it be done - sure.
Would it be practical - hell no.
Is it a smart idea - not really.
Will it take too much money - yep.

Either make it a 9 second car, or a driver, but not both.

Just my honest opinion.

As for the rear end question. If you really want to race it - yeah - 9" Ford with some 5 series gears, large butt tires, tubed with a new frame from the seats back. It's the only real way to do it. But good luck daily driving on that spool and 5 series gears.


[Modified by BSeery, 7:45 PM 9/20/2003]

 

Talk to these guys if you want to make an independant rear work to the fullest. http://www.tomsdifferentials.com/

9 seconds (11.99 or faster) means you need a roll bar if you are going to be drag strip legal. I would expect that you would not be happy crawling through the sidebars of a cage to get in and out of the car, even only on the weekends. Of course at 34 you're a lot more limber than I am. :cry

 

:withstupid:

 

Question then:

Why would it being tubbed make it a non driver? thats just the removal of body and frame material to allow for larger tires.

If to say a stock car used 355 gears, 245 45 17 tires and ran in 4th gear at 60 mph at 3000rpm, then why couldnot a tubbed car with say 31 14 15 tires and a gear equilivant to maintain the car at 60mph at 3000rpm run the same?

being that it is tubbed with a narrowed axle, give it a 4 link suspension, coilover shocks, detroit locker not a spool, how is it diferent?

now i understand when yo usay 9 sec and daily driver dont belong together but i beg to differ. lingerfelter has a 9 sec vette daily driven. i can name quite a few 9 and 10 sec mustangs daily driven to include a local viper that runs 990's.

So, say the cars makes 500 to the wheels, and if i am incorrect plese let me know, what would that run? 11's? 10's? just for arguments sake lets say it runs 11's every day at any given point thats not to unreasonable. Now go to the track and shoot 250-300hp of nitrous into it. would that in turn create a possible 9 sec ride?

hell in all this writing i forgot what my train of thought was on...lol I guess im just curious as to any of you out there that has done this or knows how to build an IRS to withstand that type of power, or is it more beneficial to put a straight axle in , cost wise. Thanks and keep the opinions comming.


Jerry

 

I love my bullit. :withstupid:

 

Jeez....ANOTHER sick Houston Vette dude that wants to run 9's!

HI GUY!! Welcome to my world!!

My car is able to do exactly what you say. I can drive it anywhere and have indeed driven to Dallas several times. I haven't carded the 9 sec slip yet, but I'll be after it soon. It was able to run low 11's a long time ago, so a few hundred extra HP hopefully has me going the right direction! Now it's just up to me to drive it and make the number! Of course I'm tring to do it the hard way without Nitrous and on pump gas.

I broke quite a few stock axle parts with the 427 and really with the 540. I didn't want to whack up the car to tub it and wanted it to look reasonably stock. I looked at the Tom's 12 bolt stuff, but you can only run 3.73 gears or more, and with my 5 speed I wanted less gear to really make it nice on the highway.

This led me to a pure custom built Dana 60 IRS setup using 3.5" halfshafts, 1480 series u joints and Tom's outer stub axles. It was a lot of work, but it all bolts in there in place of the stock stuff with no frame mods. But it ain't easy! And it ain't cheap! But it looks awful stock appearing (OK shafts are kind of big!) and most folks can't tell it until you point it out ot them. Stealthy!

Your goals can easily be met with a relatively serious motor, nitrous and an automatic. There was recently an entire rear assy. with 12 bolt guts, halfshafts, arms. axles, shocks brakes etc for $1500 listed here on the Forum. It had a spool in it, but a 12 bolt posi doesn't cost too much. 3.73's and a 28" tire wouldn't be too bad.

JIM