FS 87 Coupe 6 Speed Road Racing Car (Street Legal) with LOTS of Custom Work+Extras
11-28-2009, 05:28 PM
#1
Burning Brakes
Thread Starter
FS 87 Coupe 6 Speed Road Racing Car (Street Legal) with LOTS of Custom Work+Extras
CAR IS NO LONGER FOR SALE...SORRY BUT I DECIDED TO KEEP IT
Sorry for the VERY long write up but I want a potential buyer to know EVERYTHING about the car
I have decided I should sell my C4. I have a C5 FRC that I am putting a 442ci LS7 and a bunch of other stuff in to make it a Cannonball Run/Time Trails car and don't have the money to keep two Corvettes. I am also looking at getting a Formula 500 to wheel to wheel race…so this car has to be sold. My Dad and I have done all the work on this car since I have owned it and many hours were spent on it. We had very good advice along the way from our friend John Boos of Boos Performance (VERY reputable performance shop and VERY experienced and skilled road racer/shop owner/mechanic). I have all receipts and the entire maintenance record for the car including each gas fill up.
The C4 is a Z51 car that I bought from the 2nd owner. The 2nd owner is a car guy and maintained this car very well. It even came with the original window sticker in a plastic bag. The sticker is a little rough but still readable. The car has about 133,XXX on it (I can’t remember the exact number but I know it is around the 132,XXX-133,XXX mark…If you really want me to I can get the exact number for you.) The transmission, clutch, flywheel, oil cooler, and front C5 calipers have about 5,000 miles on them. The hood, rear window, and rear suspension pieces have around 2,000 miles on them.
The car weighs 2780 pounds with ¾ of a tank of fuel. It made 222rwhp and 317rwtq…no motor queen but with the light flywheel and very light car it actually does pretty decent. Since it is pretty light and I use PFC 01 compound pads at the track I can usually late brake just about every car at the track. This would make a PERFECT car to use at HPDE’s, autocross, or turn into a wheel to wheel car. It still is technically street legal though. It has DOT rated lights, a horn, ect. It currently is insured by State Farm just like any other 87 Corvette and licensed in MN. It is just like driving a car with a bit of work done to it on the street during the day with the windows down. It is a little noisy on the highway because the lack of sound deadening but not too bad. I would not hesitate to drive this car to car shows, a Sunday cruise, or even to the track. I actually drove it gutted out and everything to the Black Hills for the 2008 Black Hills Classic and didn't think for a second that it wouldn't make the trip.
Here are all the aftermarket parts and work done to the car. I am sure I am forgetting something since there is a ton of time and work put into it but I will keep thinking of anything I missed. I am a very honest seller and want the future buyer to be happy with the sale and know EVERYTHING about the car:
Engine:
-TPIS 52mm throttle body
Transmission:
-Originally it had the Doug Nash 4+3. I replaced that with a brand new ZF6 speed transmission that I bought from a dealership in Georgia. We added a Spec Aluminum flywheel and Spec Stage 2+ clutch along with a Hurst short throw shifter and shift ****. A Dakota Digital convert was installed to allow the speedometer to work with the ZF6. Anyone that has ever converted a 4+3 car to a ZF6 car knows how big of an improvement it really is. It isn't too challenging to make the conversion but it does take a decent amount of time to finish it.
Safety:
-1 3/4" Mandrel bent roll bar with 0.120 thickness steel welded to the frame
-Driver and Passenger Ultrashield road race seats. Drivers side has Sparco rails. Passenger side did not come with rails so we made our own mounts out of welded steel tube bolted to the floor and seat (Don’t think this was a hack job as I am sure it is just as safe if not safer than some “professionally made” seat mounts on the market). It should be noted that the buyer might want to add seat braces to the tops of the each seat. I was planning to but never did.
-Pyrotech 6 point cam lock harnesses (Out of date but still suitable for HPDE's or Time Trials (I think they are able to be used at TT events but not 100% sure...Check your rules to be sure but I have never had a problem getting through tech with them)
-Hand Held Fire Extinguisher
Suspension:
-DRM trailing arm and camber brackets with poly bushings
-Sway bar poly bushings
-Vette Brakes and Products (VBP) trailing arms and adjustable camber rods…The adjustable camber rods make it WAY easier to adjust the rear camber. I currently have it aligned with -2 degrees front camber and -1 degree rear camber.
Exhaust:
-Hooker Super Competition 1 7/8” ceramic coated headers to 3” exhaust with no cats
-FloPro mufflers with 3” inlets and LT1 style rolled stainless steel tips on the outlets
Brakes:
-C5 front brakes
-Stainless steel brake lines
-Brembo front C5 rotors
-44 LED’s per tail light...they a BRIGHT and trust me people behind you know you are using the brakes or have your turn signal on... You won't get run down by that distracted driver in the SUV ever with these hahaha
Weight Savings:
-Melrose T-Tops Lexan rear hatch. Custom hood pin design for easy removal. Note: To do the hood pin design the top high center brake light and panel were replaced with an 84-85 style panel with no high center brake light...This is technically not DOT legal because 1987+ cars legally need to have a high center brake light but I'm sure you wouldn't have a problem with this small detail if you were pulled over on the street.
-Melrose T-Tops lightweight race hood (somewhere near 30 pounds instead of the stock hoods 100 pounds weight). There is hinges on the front of the hood and we made a small prop rod to keep the hood up while working on it. The race hoods do not have headlights so we removed the C4 fog lights and made brackets that mounted to the frame behind the crash support. We then bolted 94 Camaro DOT low beam headlights to the mounts we made. For turn signals we used DOT motorcycle turn signals with industrial marine plastic Velcro (Trust me this stuff is STRONG…I don’t even bother removing the drivers side turn signal on the track it is that strong.) We used the velcro to attach the turn signals so that they are easily removable. Simply un-velco it and release the quick disconnect plug (like the ones on battery tenders) and your turn signal comes right off. I remove the passenger side turn signal just in case the tow hook is needed for some reason. By removing it, it allows the tow hook to pivot more side to side without the risk of breaking the turn signal. The lights are all DOT rated so it is still legal to drive the car on the street. When we were doing it there was concern that the headlights need to be a certain height above the ground to be legal but we could not find that law in the books. I have driven it many times on the street including at night down to the local Friday and Saturday night car cruise location where MANY cops are and have never been pulled over by them. However they are not the best headlights when driving on very dark country roads at night. They work fine in the city and busy highways because there are so many street lights but if you are planning on driving the car in the country all the time at night they probably are not the best lights for that. We aimed them using the brackets and they do not shine in the eyes of oncoming cars.
-No side windows but I riveted snaps onto the inside of the car. I have clear canvas windows that I had made by a lady that makes canvas windows for boats and they have reinforced snaps on them. Simply snap the windows in and they do a pretty good job of keeping water out. They are not 100% water tight but will keep you dry in the seat in the rain. They also making washing the car WAY easier.
-Gutted side doors. We left the door latch/lock on just in case you want to lock the door. We cut the inside door lock rods very short though but they still are able to be used to open or lock the door from the inside if desired. I find it easiest to just open the door using the outside door handle.
-No radio or antenna
-Cigarette lighter with 3 plugs so that you could plug in a scan tool, lap timer, ect at the track or a gps, phone charger, ect on the street
-Battery relocated to rear passenger side storage box for better weight distribution and clear lexan cover over the storage box
-ALL emission components removed and gutted AIR pump
-ALL AC removed
-Custom made heating/defrost. We took a 12V blower motor from Harbor Freight and bolted it on where the big plastic AC box on the firewall used to be and used heating duct work that we custom cut to direct air through the heater core. We then have a switch on the dash to turn the blower on or off. There is plumbing valves to divert coolant either through the heater core (for cold days) or simply back into the engine after it passes through the radiator(for summer/hot days). If you turn on the blower without coolant in the heater core it blows cool air and defrosts the windshield. If you turn the blower on and have coolant going to the heater core you then get heat and defrost. By removing all of the AC stuff you have a LOT more room on the passenger side by the firewall inside the engine bay. With the custom duct work it is actually easy to reach the back header bolts on the engine.
Cooling:
-Big B&M oil cooler mounted in front of the radiator
-Not having the big AC condenser adds a LOT of air to the radiator. Track temps are usually around 190 coolant and 200-210 oil no matter how long or hard you run.
-160 degree thermostat
-I have always changed the oil with Mobil 1 10W-30 and have changed it regularly
Wheels:
-2 sets (Yes 8 total rims) of CCW Classic race rims with black centers. They are all 18X12” rims and all have front C4 offsets. CCW made me ½” aluminum spacers and we added 3“ ARP studs to the rear of the car. With the spacers you can run front offsets on all the rims and still use them on the front and rear of the car. This way you can rotate your wheels to maintain even wear and make your tires last longer and if one cords or gets torn up you can just grab a fresh rim out of the trailer and you don’t need to worry about rim sizes or the way the tire rotation is supposed to be. 1 set of the CCW’s has been used about 5-6 days on the track and the other set has maybe 1 or 2 days on the track so it’s pretty much brand new.
-The CCW’s have 335/30/18 Hoosier Porsche Cup tires. I think they are R3S04 compound and are a DOT rated R-compound. One set of the Hoosiers are corded out but are still mounted on the rims. The other set (the one with 1-2 days at the track on them) have at least 75% of life left.
-For the street/rain I have black chrome AFS Grand Sport replicas that are 17X9.5 front and 17X11” rear wheels. For tires they have Sumitomo HTR Z’s. The fronts are 275/35/ZR17 and the rears are 315/30/17. The rear rims are in pretty decent shape. The front rims however are not the best. I had a lot of brake dust on them and then they got wet and it pretty much bonded the dust to the wheels near the bottom edge of the rims. Also one of them has a little bit of curb rash. The car did leave the track in the rain and the front left tire still has a little grass stuck between the rim and tire bead. I was just leaving that there until new tires were needed as it is holding air just fine. I would estimate the rears as having about 30% tread left and the fronts at about 50% left. I was planning on just having the rims sent to a powder coater to be sandblasted and powder coated gloss black and then putting new tires on them once the tires that are on them are used up. Or you could simply use one set of CCW’s for the track and take the corded tires off the other set of CCW’s and put street tires on them.
-4 stock C4 rims with near bald Eagle GS-C tires. A stock 16” C4 rim will not fit over C5 brakes. They still are able to work on the back though.
Additional parts:
-Rear wheel bearings have been replaced with HD wheel bearings that use roller bearings instead of ball bearings like stock wheel bearings.. They are MUCH better than the other bearings I tried before these were on the market. If you track a C4 I am sure you know about the wheel bearing issues. If you have not seen the HD bearings a simple google search for “HD C4 wheel bearing” will find you them and you can see for yourself how much better of a design they are.
-Hidden Kill/Security switch just incase you drive it on the street and need to park it somewhere
-2 extra alternators with lifetime warranties. One is from NAPA and the other is from O’Reilly. That way if you are at the track and it fails you have 2 places to choose from that are hopefully nearby to exchange it when you have time.
-2 stock leather sport seats. Normal wear for their age but the drivers side does have a small rip in it.
-Stock hood. It is missing one headlight assembly though (I sold it to a guy that needed it) but you will be able to find another one for somewhere around $150-$200 if you want to have a complete hood.
-Stock Rear hatch
-An extra power brake booster
-A trailer hitch for the car that has not been installed ever. This was going to be installed so I could drive the car to the track and pull a small trailer with the slicks and parts on it.
-Stock Bose radio with speakers
All normal car maintenance (replacing rotors, pads, brake booster, ect...) has also been done and when anything went wrong it was fixed the right way.
Now the things that need work:
-The radiator fan stopped turning on automatically. We put a switch on the dash next to the wheel to manually turn the radiator fan on and off. When I am on the track I don’t even need to turn the fan on since it flows enough air to keep it cool. If I am in staging then I watch the temperature and turn the fan on at 220 degrees because if it was still automatic it would turn on at 224 degrees.
-The stock Bilstein shocks are not as stiff as I would like for the track. I was thinking about sending them in to Bilstein to have them re-valved to my liking since that is cheap to do. I was also thinking of adding coil overs to the car.
-The valve seat guides are old and because of that it acts like some old Chevy motors and smokes a bit of oil right when the it fires up but as soon as it runs for more than a second it is burning clean. It also burns a little bit of oil on the track. I always just checked the oil before every season and made sure it was good.
-The car came loose in the trailer once and it rolled down the ramp into the back door while on the highway. The back door of our trailer has adhesive sand paper like traction strips on the door for when it rains. When the car rolled back the bumper was resting on two of those strips and it rubbed off some of the paint on the bumper. I don’t have any pictures of this but I will try to take some soon.
-The cars paint is to be expected of high mileage black Corvette. It was re-painted by the first owner. The car was down in Florida for about 10 years. Then the first owner moved up to MN and repainted it. He held onto it for a few years and sold it to the 2nd owner who also held onto it for a few years before selling it to me. The lower rocker panels have wear on them because of the rocks and sand on track that big R-compound tires pick up and kick onto the rocker panels. The cars paint does have swirls in it but a professional detailer might be able to remove most of them or make them not very noticeable.
-I was going to Army drill in the fall once and it had misted a bit during the night and the road was damp. I went around a turn over a bridge and it kicked out sideways on me. I almost saved it but didn’t quite get it. I hit the bridge side concrete wall with the front drivers side corner of the bumper. I hit at about 10mph and it scraped up the bumper pretty good on just the front left corner. I had it fixed by a company that builds the scrapped off section back up to stock dimensions and then I had it re-painted by a body shop. You would never know that it had ever been in an accident by looking at it and no accidents are on the CarFax report that I know of. However when we took the bumper off the crash support on the drivers side to fix the bumper the crash support behind the bumper had a crack in it. Since I was turning it into essentially a track car I didn’t really care about the crack since the honeycomb pattern is still fine and the shape of the crash support is still the same so it still would protect the car and occupants in a crash. If the car ever went as far as a wheel to wheel car I’m sure it eventually would trade paint with a few cars or barriers so I didn’t bother spending the money for a new crash support. The frame, hood, radiator, ect are all in perfect condition still. You can see the crack through where the drivers side fog light used to be if you look close. See the last picture at the bottom taken from the front with the bumper and hood removed to sort of see it. I can get an up close through the fog light if desired also.
-When I bought the car it had cracked floor pans on the passenger and drivers side. I sanded down both sides and made a clean surface. I used a fiberglass repair kit and properly patched the pans. Then I used some under body spray (just like what the factory uses to coat the bottom of the floor pans) and painted the bottoms. I used a decent amount of fiberglass patch and it’s probably thicker in the front of the pans now than the factory pans that cracked used to be. I made it thicker so that it would have a lower chance of cracking again since I really didn’t want to get dirty and dusty with fiberglass dust ever again with the car. The inside patches are very strong but they are not the prettiest show quality job you have ever seen…but at least they are strong.
-The cruise control used to work but for some reason it no longer works.
-We took as much weight out as we could without being to picky. The inside of the doors could be cleaned up a bit to look more professional. The center dash section could use a dress up panel also. I have an aluminum panel I cut for where the passenger side dash pad used to be but I didn't like how it would reflect sunlight sometimes so I took it off. You can have it if you want it though.
Some results I have had with the car:
I got the fastest time for the entire 3 day weekend at the Car Craft Nationals in St. Paul,MN autocross event in 2008 with this car.
Also in the 2008 Corvettes Do Brainerd (NCCC event at Brainerd International Raceway) I got the FTD for the Autocross day at the track. There were roughly 100-115 cars and the course is set up on Brainerd's 3 mile road course. They don’t use the 3 longest straights so it is more like a 1.5 mile road course. Then on the 3 longer straights of that 1.5 miles they set up a slalom to keep the top speeds around 80mph. Competitors were able to do 14 runs for time.
The following day they remove the cones and you do the Brainerd 3 mile road course with a rolling start (you trip the lights at about 40-50mph) and start off your lap with the 1 mile straight followed by the 2 fastest turns of any road course in all of North America…I was HEAVILY out horse powered there as I was only going 118mph when I got to the first turn...to put this in perspective a bone STOCK C5 is probably going about 135-140mph and some modified cars are going 160-170+mph at the end of the straight. Since the car has 335’s on it I didn’t have to lift for the 1st turn. Competitors were able to do 10 runs throughout the day with about 80-90 people competing. Since I was heavily out powered I was only able to get 3rd overall but I finished behind the two cars I had beaten out on the autocross the day before. The winner of the high speed day had a C6Z06 and the 2nd place had a C5Z06 with new R6 slicks. Note: These were the the 2nd and 3rd place overall finishers from the day before.
Clearly this car has some potential if the suspension was updated and more horsepower was added.
I actually was planning on making it a NASA Super Touring 2 car. All you would really have to do is weld a cage onto the roll bar, add your choice of coil-overs, and when the motor finally quits...By the way it has acted so far that could be a very long time but who knows. It always fires right up, gets good gas mpg (about 32mpg at 70mph in 6th gear), and has NEVER broken down motor related. I actually have never broken down on the track with it where I was unable to finish the day. The motor is high mileage though so when the oil is HOT at the track and you are stopped in staging the oil pressure isn't at what it probably was from the factory. It is about 15psi in staging and about 30-40 WOT on track. I shift it at about 4800rpms (since TPI intake manifolds don't make power after than anyway). You could add a nice 383 or even convert it to an LS1 since those are not to difficult to put into C4’s now (they even make manifolds to work on an LS1 in a C4 that has a ZF6). I was just going to leave it and fix it when it finally went. With a nice 383 or LS1 the car would be PERFECT for a budget race car or track day car.
Here's some pictures:
^^^My Dad and I with our cars after I won my class and got FTD at BIR
^^^After I won the Car Craft Autocross
^^^PS that's a marker cone that's knocked over haha
^^When you remove the hatch it is in El Camino mode. If you take the roof off it's almost a convertible
^^The CCW's
^^The snap in window
^^^The window snapped in
^^The ZF6 trans, Spec clutch and aluminum flywheel, and Hurst short throw shifter and ****
^^^The AFS rims on the car before the car was gutted and still had the back hatch and antenna.
^^Note: The lap timer on the center section of the dash will not be included with the sale
^^^One of the piles of stuff removed from the car
^^Both my cars together
^^^If you look close you can see the crack in the drivers side crash support. It is that little white tear about 4" from the left side of where the fog light edge would have been by the license plate.
Now for the price:
I don’t really need to sell it any time soon so I am not in a huge hurry to get rid of it. It has already been stored in our heated storage garage for the winter and if it doesn’t sell right away that’s fine. I was going to wait to sell it until the spring because that’s a much better time to sell a Corvette, but I figured I would put it up for sale now just in case the next owner wanted to do work or add a cage to it before the next season starts.
$11,000 OBO (If you are remotely interested but think the price is too high make me an offer and I will consider ALL REASONABLE offers. If the right offer comes along who knows I might sell it for less...)
$8,000 OBO WITHOUT the CCW wheels
Trust me there is a LOT of work into this and plenty of money has been put into this car. I have for sale ads locally also.
Feel free to call for any more details or discuss the price. I can take pictures of anything you guys request.
Eric Winsor (651)707-6584
Sorry for the VERY long write up but I want a potential buyer to know EVERYTHING about the car
I have decided I should sell my C4. I have a C5 FRC that I am putting a 442ci LS7 and a bunch of other stuff in to make it a Cannonball Run/Time Trails car and don't have the money to keep two Corvettes. I am also looking at getting a Formula 500 to wheel to wheel race…so this car has to be sold. My Dad and I have done all the work on this car since I have owned it and many hours were spent on it. We had very good advice along the way from our friend John Boos of Boos Performance (VERY reputable performance shop and VERY experienced and skilled road racer/shop owner/mechanic). I have all receipts and the entire maintenance record for the car including each gas fill up.
The C4 is a Z51 car that I bought from the 2nd owner. The 2nd owner is a car guy and maintained this car very well. It even came with the original window sticker in a plastic bag. The sticker is a little rough but still readable. The car has about 133,XXX on it (I can’t remember the exact number but I know it is around the 132,XXX-133,XXX mark…If you really want me to I can get the exact number for you.) The transmission, clutch, flywheel, oil cooler, and front C5 calipers have about 5,000 miles on them. The hood, rear window, and rear suspension pieces have around 2,000 miles on them.
The car weighs 2780 pounds with ¾ of a tank of fuel. It made 222rwhp and 317rwtq…no motor queen but with the light flywheel and very light car it actually does pretty decent. Since it is pretty light and I use PFC 01 compound pads at the track I can usually late brake just about every car at the track. This would make a PERFECT car to use at HPDE’s, autocross, or turn into a wheel to wheel car. It still is technically street legal though. It has DOT rated lights, a horn, ect. It currently is insured by State Farm just like any other 87 Corvette and licensed in MN. It is just like driving a car with a bit of work done to it on the street during the day with the windows down. It is a little noisy on the highway because the lack of sound deadening but not too bad. I would not hesitate to drive this car to car shows, a Sunday cruise, or even to the track. I actually drove it gutted out and everything to the Black Hills for the 2008 Black Hills Classic and didn't think for a second that it wouldn't make the trip.
Here are all the aftermarket parts and work done to the car. I am sure I am forgetting something since there is a ton of time and work put into it but I will keep thinking of anything I missed. I am a very honest seller and want the future buyer to be happy with the sale and know EVERYTHING about the car:
Engine:
-TPIS 52mm throttle body
Transmission:
-Originally it had the Doug Nash 4+3. I replaced that with a brand new ZF6 speed transmission that I bought from a dealership in Georgia. We added a Spec Aluminum flywheel and Spec Stage 2+ clutch along with a Hurst short throw shifter and shift ****. A Dakota Digital convert was installed to allow the speedometer to work with the ZF6. Anyone that has ever converted a 4+3 car to a ZF6 car knows how big of an improvement it really is. It isn't too challenging to make the conversion but it does take a decent amount of time to finish it.
Safety:
-1 3/4" Mandrel bent roll bar with 0.120 thickness steel welded to the frame
-Driver and Passenger Ultrashield road race seats. Drivers side has Sparco rails. Passenger side did not come with rails so we made our own mounts out of welded steel tube bolted to the floor and seat (Don’t think this was a hack job as I am sure it is just as safe if not safer than some “professionally made” seat mounts on the market). It should be noted that the buyer might want to add seat braces to the tops of the each seat. I was planning to but never did.
-Pyrotech 6 point cam lock harnesses (Out of date but still suitable for HPDE's or Time Trials (I think they are able to be used at TT events but not 100% sure...Check your rules to be sure but I have never had a problem getting through tech with them)
-Hand Held Fire Extinguisher
Suspension:
-DRM trailing arm and camber brackets with poly bushings
-Sway bar poly bushings
-Vette Brakes and Products (VBP) trailing arms and adjustable camber rods…The adjustable camber rods make it WAY easier to adjust the rear camber. I currently have it aligned with -2 degrees front camber and -1 degree rear camber.
Exhaust:
-Hooker Super Competition 1 7/8” ceramic coated headers to 3” exhaust with no cats
-FloPro mufflers with 3” inlets and LT1 style rolled stainless steel tips on the outlets
Brakes:
-C5 front brakes
-Stainless steel brake lines
-Brembo front C5 rotors
-44 LED’s per tail light...they a BRIGHT and trust me people behind you know you are using the brakes or have your turn signal on... You won't get run down by that distracted driver in the SUV ever with these hahaha
Weight Savings:
-Melrose T-Tops Lexan rear hatch. Custom hood pin design for easy removal. Note: To do the hood pin design the top high center brake light and panel were replaced with an 84-85 style panel with no high center brake light...This is technically not DOT legal because 1987+ cars legally need to have a high center brake light but I'm sure you wouldn't have a problem with this small detail if you were pulled over on the street.
-Melrose T-Tops lightweight race hood (somewhere near 30 pounds instead of the stock hoods 100 pounds weight). There is hinges on the front of the hood and we made a small prop rod to keep the hood up while working on it. The race hoods do not have headlights so we removed the C4 fog lights and made brackets that mounted to the frame behind the crash support. We then bolted 94 Camaro DOT low beam headlights to the mounts we made. For turn signals we used DOT motorcycle turn signals with industrial marine plastic Velcro (Trust me this stuff is STRONG…I don’t even bother removing the drivers side turn signal on the track it is that strong.) We used the velcro to attach the turn signals so that they are easily removable. Simply un-velco it and release the quick disconnect plug (like the ones on battery tenders) and your turn signal comes right off. I remove the passenger side turn signal just in case the tow hook is needed for some reason. By removing it, it allows the tow hook to pivot more side to side without the risk of breaking the turn signal. The lights are all DOT rated so it is still legal to drive the car on the street. When we were doing it there was concern that the headlights need to be a certain height above the ground to be legal but we could not find that law in the books. I have driven it many times on the street including at night down to the local Friday and Saturday night car cruise location where MANY cops are and have never been pulled over by them. However they are not the best headlights when driving on very dark country roads at night. They work fine in the city and busy highways because there are so many street lights but if you are planning on driving the car in the country all the time at night they probably are not the best lights for that. We aimed them using the brackets and they do not shine in the eyes of oncoming cars.
-No side windows but I riveted snaps onto the inside of the car. I have clear canvas windows that I had made by a lady that makes canvas windows for boats and they have reinforced snaps on them. Simply snap the windows in and they do a pretty good job of keeping water out. They are not 100% water tight but will keep you dry in the seat in the rain. They also making washing the car WAY easier.
-Gutted side doors. We left the door latch/lock on just in case you want to lock the door. We cut the inside door lock rods very short though but they still are able to be used to open or lock the door from the inside if desired. I find it easiest to just open the door using the outside door handle.
-No radio or antenna
-Cigarette lighter with 3 plugs so that you could plug in a scan tool, lap timer, ect at the track or a gps, phone charger, ect on the street
-Battery relocated to rear passenger side storage box for better weight distribution and clear lexan cover over the storage box
-ALL emission components removed and gutted AIR pump
-ALL AC removed
-Custom made heating/defrost. We took a 12V blower motor from Harbor Freight and bolted it on where the big plastic AC box on the firewall used to be and used heating duct work that we custom cut to direct air through the heater core. We then have a switch on the dash to turn the blower on or off. There is plumbing valves to divert coolant either through the heater core (for cold days) or simply back into the engine after it passes through the radiator(for summer/hot days). If you turn on the blower without coolant in the heater core it blows cool air and defrosts the windshield. If you turn the blower on and have coolant going to the heater core you then get heat and defrost. By removing all of the AC stuff you have a LOT more room on the passenger side by the firewall inside the engine bay. With the custom duct work it is actually easy to reach the back header bolts on the engine.
Cooling:
-Big B&M oil cooler mounted in front of the radiator
-Not having the big AC condenser adds a LOT of air to the radiator. Track temps are usually around 190 coolant and 200-210 oil no matter how long or hard you run.
-160 degree thermostat
-I have always changed the oil with Mobil 1 10W-30 and have changed it regularly
Wheels:
-2 sets (Yes 8 total rims) of CCW Classic race rims with black centers. They are all 18X12” rims and all have front C4 offsets. CCW made me ½” aluminum spacers and we added 3“ ARP studs to the rear of the car. With the spacers you can run front offsets on all the rims and still use them on the front and rear of the car. This way you can rotate your wheels to maintain even wear and make your tires last longer and if one cords or gets torn up you can just grab a fresh rim out of the trailer and you don’t need to worry about rim sizes or the way the tire rotation is supposed to be. 1 set of the CCW’s has been used about 5-6 days on the track and the other set has maybe 1 or 2 days on the track so it’s pretty much brand new.
-The CCW’s have 335/30/18 Hoosier Porsche Cup tires. I think they are R3S04 compound and are a DOT rated R-compound. One set of the Hoosiers are corded out but are still mounted on the rims. The other set (the one with 1-2 days at the track on them) have at least 75% of life left.
-For the street/rain I have black chrome AFS Grand Sport replicas that are 17X9.5 front and 17X11” rear wheels. For tires they have Sumitomo HTR Z’s. The fronts are 275/35/ZR17 and the rears are 315/30/17. The rear rims are in pretty decent shape. The front rims however are not the best. I had a lot of brake dust on them and then they got wet and it pretty much bonded the dust to the wheels near the bottom edge of the rims. Also one of them has a little bit of curb rash. The car did leave the track in the rain and the front left tire still has a little grass stuck between the rim and tire bead. I was just leaving that there until new tires were needed as it is holding air just fine. I would estimate the rears as having about 30% tread left and the fronts at about 50% left. I was planning on just having the rims sent to a powder coater to be sandblasted and powder coated gloss black and then putting new tires on them once the tires that are on them are used up. Or you could simply use one set of CCW’s for the track and take the corded tires off the other set of CCW’s and put street tires on them.
-4 stock C4 rims with near bald Eagle GS-C tires. A stock 16” C4 rim will not fit over C5 brakes. They still are able to work on the back though.
Additional parts:
-Rear wheel bearings have been replaced with HD wheel bearings that use roller bearings instead of ball bearings like stock wheel bearings.. They are MUCH better than the other bearings I tried before these were on the market. If you track a C4 I am sure you know about the wheel bearing issues. If you have not seen the HD bearings a simple google search for “HD C4 wheel bearing” will find you them and you can see for yourself how much better of a design they are.
-Hidden Kill/Security switch just incase you drive it on the street and need to park it somewhere
-2 extra alternators with lifetime warranties. One is from NAPA and the other is from O’Reilly. That way if you are at the track and it fails you have 2 places to choose from that are hopefully nearby to exchange it when you have time.
-2 stock leather sport seats. Normal wear for their age but the drivers side does have a small rip in it.
-Stock hood. It is missing one headlight assembly though (I sold it to a guy that needed it) but you will be able to find another one for somewhere around $150-$200 if you want to have a complete hood.
-Stock Rear hatch
-An extra power brake booster
-A trailer hitch for the car that has not been installed ever. This was going to be installed so I could drive the car to the track and pull a small trailer with the slicks and parts on it.
-Stock Bose radio with speakers
All normal car maintenance (replacing rotors, pads, brake booster, ect...) has also been done and when anything went wrong it was fixed the right way.
Now the things that need work:
-The radiator fan stopped turning on automatically. We put a switch on the dash next to the wheel to manually turn the radiator fan on and off. When I am on the track I don’t even need to turn the fan on since it flows enough air to keep it cool. If I am in staging then I watch the temperature and turn the fan on at 220 degrees because if it was still automatic it would turn on at 224 degrees.
-The stock Bilstein shocks are not as stiff as I would like for the track. I was thinking about sending them in to Bilstein to have them re-valved to my liking since that is cheap to do. I was also thinking of adding coil overs to the car.
-The valve seat guides are old and because of that it acts like some old Chevy motors and smokes a bit of oil right when the it fires up but as soon as it runs for more than a second it is burning clean. It also burns a little bit of oil on the track. I always just checked the oil before every season and made sure it was good.
-The car came loose in the trailer once and it rolled down the ramp into the back door while on the highway. The back door of our trailer has adhesive sand paper like traction strips on the door for when it rains. When the car rolled back the bumper was resting on two of those strips and it rubbed off some of the paint on the bumper. I don’t have any pictures of this but I will try to take some soon.
-The cars paint is to be expected of high mileage black Corvette. It was re-painted by the first owner. The car was down in Florida for about 10 years. Then the first owner moved up to MN and repainted it. He held onto it for a few years and sold it to the 2nd owner who also held onto it for a few years before selling it to me. The lower rocker panels have wear on them because of the rocks and sand on track that big R-compound tires pick up and kick onto the rocker panels. The cars paint does have swirls in it but a professional detailer might be able to remove most of them or make them not very noticeable.
-I was going to Army drill in the fall once and it had misted a bit during the night and the road was damp. I went around a turn over a bridge and it kicked out sideways on me. I almost saved it but didn’t quite get it. I hit the bridge side concrete wall with the front drivers side corner of the bumper. I hit at about 10mph and it scraped up the bumper pretty good on just the front left corner. I had it fixed by a company that builds the scrapped off section back up to stock dimensions and then I had it re-painted by a body shop. You would never know that it had ever been in an accident by looking at it and no accidents are on the CarFax report that I know of. However when we took the bumper off the crash support on the drivers side to fix the bumper the crash support behind the bumper had a crack in it. Since I was turning it into essentially a track car I didn’t really care about the crack since the honeycomb pattern is still fine and the shape of the crash support is still the same so it still would protect the car and occupants in a crash. If the car ever went as far as a wheel to wheel car I’m sure it eventually would trade paint with a few cars or barriers so I didn’t bother spending the money for a new crash support. The frame, hood, radiator, ect are all in perfect condition still. You can see the crack through where the drivers side fog light used to be if you look close. See the last picture at the bottom taken from the front with the bumper and hood removed to sort of see it. I can get an up close through the fog light if desired also.
-When I bought the car it had cracked floor pans on the passenger and drivers side. I sanded down both sides and made a clean surface. I used a fiberglass repair kit and properly patched the pans. Then I used some under body spray (just like what the factory uses to coat the bottom of the floor pans) and painted the bottoms. I used a decent amount of fiberglass patch and it’s probably thicker in the front of the pans now than the factory pans that cracked used to be. I made it thicker so that it would have a lower chance of cracking again since I really didn’t want to get dirty and dusty with fiberglass dust ever again with the car. The inside patches are very strong but they are not the prettiest show quality job you have ever seen…but at least they are strong.
-The cruise control used to work but for some reason it no longer works.
-We took as much weight out as we could without being to picky. The inside of the doors could be cleaned up a bit to look more professional. The center dash section could use a dress up panel also. I have an aluminum panel I cut for where the passenger side dash pad used to be but I didn't like how it would reflect sunlight sometimes so I took it off. You can have it if you want it though.
Some results I have had with the car:
I got the fastest time for the entire 3 day weekend at the Car Craft Nationals in St. Paul,MN autocross event in 2008 with this car.
Also in the 2008 Corvettes Do Brainerd (NCCC event at Brainerd International Raceway) I got the FTD for the Autocross day at the track. There were roughly 100-115 cars and the course is set up on Brainerd's 3 mile road course. They don’t use the 3 longest straights so it is more like a 1.5 mile road course. Then on the 3 longer straights of that 1.5 miles they set up a slalom to keep the top speeds around 80mph. Competitors were able to do 14 runs for time.
The following day they remove the cones and you do the Brainerd 3 mile road course with a rolling start (you trip the lights at about 40-50mph) and start off your lap with the 1 mile straight followed by the 2 fastest turns of any road course in all of North America…I was HEAVILY out horse powered there as I was only going 118mph when I got to the first turn...to put this in perspective a bone STOCK C5 is probably going about 135-140mph and some modified cars are going 160-170+mph at the end of the straight. Since the car has 335’s on it I didn’t have to lift for the 1st turn. Competitors were able to do 10 runs throughout the day with about 80-90 people competing. Since I was heavily out powered I was only able to get 3rd overall but I finished behind the two cars I had beaten out on the autocross the day before. The winner of the high speed day had a C6Z06 and the 2nd place had a C5Z06 with new R6 slicks. Note: These were the the 2nd and 3rd place overall finishers from the day before.
Clearly this car has some potential if the suspension was updated and more horsepower was added.
I actually was planning on making it a NASA Super Touring 2 car. All you would really have to do is weld a cage onto the roll bar, add your choice of coil-overs, and when the motor finally quits...By the way it has acted so far that could be a very long time but who knows. It always fires right up, gets good gas mpg (about 32mpg at 70mph in 6th gear), and has NEVER broken down motor related. I actually have never broken down on the track with it where I was unable to finish the day. The motor is high mileage though so when the oil is HOT at the track and you are stopped in staging the oil pressure isn't at what it probably was from the factory. It is about 15psi in staging and about 30-40 WOT on track. I shift it at about 4800rpms (since TPI intake manifolds don't make power after than anyway). You could add a nice 383 or even convert it to an LS1 since those are not to difficult to put into C4’s now (they even make manifolds to work on an LS1 in a C4 that has a ZF6). I was just going to leave it and fix it when it finally went. With a nice 383 or LS1 the car would be PERFECT for a budget race car or track day car.
Here's some pictures:
^^^My Dad and I with our cars after I won my class and got FTD at BIR
^^^After I won the Car Craft Autocross
^^^PS that's a marker cone that's knocked over haha
^^When you remove the hatch it is in El Camino mode. If you take the roof off it's almost a convertible
^^The CCW's
^^The snap in window
^^^The window snapped in
^^The ZF6 trans, Spec clutch and aluminum flywheel, and Hurst short throw shifter and ****
^^^The AFS rims on the car before the car was gutted and still had the back hatch and antenna.
^^Note: The lap timer on the center section of the dash will not be included with the sale
^^^One of the piles of stuff removed from the car
^^Both my cars together
^^^If you look close you can see the crack in the drivers side crash support. It is that little white tear about 4" from the left side of where the fog light edge would have been by the license plate.
Now for the price:
I don’t really need to sell it any time soon so I am not in a huge hurry to get rid of it. It has already been stored in our heated storage garage for the winter and if it doesn’t sell right away that’s fine. I was going to wait to sell it until the spring because that’s a much better time to sell a Corvette, but I figured I would put it up for sale now just in case the next owner wanted to do work or add a cage to it before the next season starts.
$11,000 OBO (If you are remotely interested but think the price is too high make me an offer and I will consider ALL REASONABLE offers. If the right offer comes along who knows I might sell it for less...)
$8,000 OBO WITHOUT the CCW wheels
Trust me there is a LOT of work into this and plenty of money has been put into this car. I have for sale ads locally also.
Feel free to call for any more details or discuss the price. I can take pictures of anything you guys request.
Eric Winsor (651)707-6584
Last edited by Git Er Dun; 03-02-2010 at 01:32 AM.
11-28-2009, 06:23 PM
#2
Drifting
One correction. I sold your Bose radio and speakers while you were in Iraq. I'm sure I must have put the money in your bank account, hahahaha.
We also still have the stock rear hatch glass and gas struts. And it's still got that cool dark tint too. I would assume you'd give that to whomever bought the car, unless you're planning to sell that seperately?
I'm Eric's dad. I've driven this car on the street and track. I very much enjoy it. It's got lots of grunt. It's always a great head turner. Everybody will want to race you when they pull up next to you, just because they want to hear it roar and see it go.
We also still have the stock rear hatch glass and gas struts. And it's still got that cool dark tint too. I would assume you'd give that to whomever bought the car, unless you're planning to sell that seperately?
I'm Eric's dad. I've driven this car on the street and track. I very much enjoy it. It's got lots of grunt. It's always a great head turner. Everybody will want to race you when they pull up next to you, just because they want to hear it roar and see it go.
11-28-2009, 06:52 PM
#3
Burning Brakes
Thread Starter
^^^Oh yep forgot you sold the sterio stuff. Yes the hatch is going with the car. When this car is gone ALL my C4 stuff goes with it...Clean out your storage garage a little bit hahaha. And as my Dad said it turns a lot of heads...especially on the street. For a stock motor it does have a lot of grunt. Not a ton of HP but the torque is pretty good. This thing is just a ton of fun to drive. It feels like you are driving a race car even if you are just going to pick up something from the store.
12-15-2009, 07:57 PM
#5
Le Mans Master
Awesome track car!!!! Good luck with the sale.
There's been a ton of work done there.
Thanks for serving our great Country
There's been a ton of work done there.
Thanks for serving our great Country
Last edited by Vette Daddy; 12-16-2009 at 02:42 AM.
12-15-2009, 08:21 PM
#6
Burning Brakes
Thread Starter
Thanks. Looking back on all the work it has been a GREAT father/son and car building experience. My Dad built his 86 C4 up when I was still too young to work on it a lot with him but it was great having him help with everything on my car because he still remembered most of it all from building his 86 up. We changed some stuff for the better that he would have done differently if he did it all again.
Whoever buys this car will have fun driving it each and every time they drive.
Whoever buys this car will have fun driving it each and every time they drive.
Last edited by Git Er Dun; 12-15-2009 at 09:00 PM.
12-20-2009, 10:06 PM
#9
Burning Brakes
Thread Starter
Another bump. If you are considering a cheap reliable track car this is it!
If you are considering this car but still think the price is unresonable I'm sure we can work something out...
If you are considering this car but still think the price is unresonable I'm sure we can work something out...
01-05-2010, 12:50 PM
#11
Drifting
bump for a cool car.
i'm actually looking for a c4 DD while i build my black FRC!
i'm actually looking for a c4 DD while i build my black FRC!
01-10-2010, 06:42 PM
#12
Racer
Member Since: Jun 2008
Location: Janesville WI
Posts: 420
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Eric
I would be all over this car if I wasn't already waist deep in my LS1 swap. You have already done much of what I plan to do. With an LS1/T56 your car would pretty much be my finished plan.
Good luck w the sale!
I would be all over this car if I wasn't already waist deep in my LS1 swap. You have already done much of what I plan to do. With an LS1/T56 your car would pretty much be my finished plan.
Good luck w the sale!
