Jeff's '79 Camaro.

Yeah, i know its Not an s12, but its my garage, if you don't like it, GTFO. ..and wipe your feet!

Anyhow, On here i'll detail all the plans as I go along. I'll start with where i'm at. The car is just nasty at the moment. Rust everywhere, maybe one caliper is working, runs on like 4 cylinders (currently has a 350). Steering column is all fuckered up.

Now onto the plans (that are likely to change.)

ENGINE: 327. 4bbl carb likely in the ballpark of 650-750 cfm. Motor will wind up to 8000 rpm, with the help of sturdy valve springs, cams, crank might be stock (if its forged.), and a balanced and blueprinted rotating assembly. motor will be bored, unsure if it will be just to clean, or go like .030 or something. more details to come.

TRANSMISSION: 6-speed out of a newer corvette. driveshaft will be 1 piece aluminum. more details later.

DIFFERENTIAL: still a toss up here. Could be a Ford 9" adapted to a Canted-Lever setup. Might also use something GM from a newer vehicle, but no matter what, it will be IRS! No corvette rear ends. mono-leaf just isnt me.

EXTERIOR: Can you say Fiberglass? Hood, Doors, Trunk, Rear quarterpanels IF I CAN get them. why you ask? weight. Windows will be lexan. Wheels are undecided yet, but you can bet that they wont be cheap.

INTERIOR: Possible roll-cage, but this isnt a drag car, so its not likely. More likely to have the factory dash, with minor tweaks (trim, colors, etc.) Seats will be stock, maybe not from a 79 camaro, but definately from a GM vehicle, so it looks close to stock. Power windows & locks (maybe).

SUSPENSION: This is where the money is at! Front will be of a SLA-suspension. Control arms will be made of T-whatever aircraft aluminum. Adjustments will be made VIA set screws (very similar to toe adjustments on rear of current impalas.) this is so i can dial my suspension into whatever i want. It will be on Springs. I dont like air. I will be runnning a Rack n Pinion for steering. sorry, no pitman arms here. The rear suspension is likely to be a canted lever set up using a modified ford 9 inch. It will be fully adjustable (camber, toe, wrap-up) I am undecided on sub-frame connectors, but may be forced to, due to the power the car will have (at least 400hp).

What is the purpose of this car? I want to be able to drive it when and where i want. It will NOT be strictly for track, but will be designed for road-course style tracks. In a sentence, it will have the Power of the classic american muscle car, Handle like nobody's business, and look very close to stock. yeah, its gonna rock.

Pics to come...

Hey Jeff, did you read where I talked about aluminum vs. steel driveshafts in that other thread? Unless you're gonna be strictly drag, aluminum isn't a good choice for a street car.

Oh, and

I agree about the control arms. There will be WAY too many stress cycles and you will likely have a failure when you least want it. (to me that would be anytime)

There are a lot of companies that make tubular control arms that are TONS lighter and stronger than stock ones. They are made from tubular steel. Not aluminum.

EDIT:
Oh and I have seen the talk about the aluminum drive shaft and I'm surprised about this one. I have one stock on my S-10 4x4. I can't believe they would put that on there of there would be even a chance of it failing.

Get some pics up! Any links to pics of the suspension set up you want? I have a GM F-2 also and am curious as towards what suspension you mean. Do you mean SLA strut from an F-4 or somthing using stock piviot locations.

 Do you plan on doing heavy modding for your rear end? Like custom floor and trunk pans? I'm pretty sure you could use a Corvette IRS and use coil-overs in place of the stock leaf. I see alotta Fords have IRSs but I haven't seen alotta GMs. Are they out their? Sourcing the half-shafts will be the trick. You could always redrill hubs and rotors from the more common 4.5 to the GM 4.75, but it gets to be a bitch in replacement parts. 'Vettes use a universal type shaft which isn't to costly for customs, still not good though, but the price of splining CVs can get pretty bad. And also from what I understand; alotta thought has to be put into the balance and weights of half shafts to stop wheel hop/axle tramp on IRS cars

 I think my freinds IROC F-3 has an aluminum driveshaft from the factory. I also see alotta factory cast aluminum A-arms. But couldn't tell you more than that about thier reliability.

Wow, I was going thru the Summit catalog, and saw a good deal of what you mentioned, and obviously you aren't afraid to spend some cash.

But the car will be fantastic when finished.

I would love to have a V8 that could spin to, and make power, at 8000rpms  

just a quick update.

I finally got the car to my new house. what a rusty mess. I'll try to get pics this week.

http://www.totalcontrolproducts.com/gBar.html  

thats the site that makes the rear end suspension.

and lastly, the motor will be Twin turbo.. im decided on that.. i'll update later when i have time, lol.

How much are you planning on dumping into this thing? If you are going to turbo it then I would suggest getting something like an Accel DFI. It will make tuning sooo much easier than using a blow through carb set up.

And the responsiveness will be just that much better.

why the corvette zf trans when you can get a later model t56?

How new is newer on the trans? The C6 variant has a divorced transmission. That would be an interesting build into a 79 Camaro for sure.

i was refering to firechicken/camaro/gto etc.

the vette t56 would be cool as hell though if you were willing to do enough chassis work to make the transaxle work.