tube80z

I picked 13 inch wheels for a smaller diameter to ge the car lower without messing up the geometry and have less rotating weight. After a lot of research I picked formula atlantic tires because of availability (cheap on the used market) and they had the latest in constructions. A lot of people have told me this won't work -- I didn't listen. I run Hoosier tires in R25A (when it is coler) and R35 when it is warmer. Just remember that different tires have different spring rates and this all has a major impact on your suspension tuning. Pick something and stick with it or you will be chasing your tail. Cary

I don't have pics at work of this. I'll try and find a pic tonight. The heim attaches to the car with the head hanging down. On the sway bar is a split clamp with ears. This is bolted to the bar and then this is bolted to the heim attached to the car. Maybe that helps? Cary

Nope, you make a bracket with ears that hooks to any bar that you have. Think of a split clamp with ears. Here's a pic In this case the heim hooks to the swaybar. Just think of this in reverse. Cary

So you effectively have studs if I get the gist of what you did. Should work. If you're going to weld things to the car I'd look at putting a boss either inside or outside for a heim joint and hang the swaybar from it. Much lower friction way to mount. Cary

Where's the spring going to go? It's trapped. It may not seat correctly and that may end up damaging parts but I've never seen an issue from running on the streer or autox/hillclimbing with coilovers. It usually only happens when you jack the car up. There are a couple of things you can do to help as well. You can wire the springs to the spring seats (some use zip ties) or you can use droop limiters to make sure the spring is always seated. Having enough droop so that the spring is completely unseated isn't going to get you anything. It also makes jacking the car off the ground a little easier. Cary

You basically have two options. Two classes you can run in and keep a semi-steetable car on DOT tires. Those are street prepared (BSP) and street mod (SM2). It sounds like you want to do a number of mods that would move you closer to the SM end. From the little that I have kept up with SM it sounds like bolt-in subframes are now legal and that means you can relocated all the suspension pickup points and make the amrs longer. The other option are the three slick tire classes. Those are FP, EM, and the new AP. With the exception of AP, which is a bit of an unknown, you will not have a very streetable car if you intend to be semi-competitive in these classes. Most creature comforts are thrown at right off the start. It's really up to you at this point. I'd opt for a semi-street legal car if I were to do this all over as it helps to get some mileage on certain parts. And if you can truly replace subframes then SM2 sounds as good as any and you're likely to have a few people to run against. Disregarding what PAX says, I think in an older car like the Z that prepared will be faster than SM. Mostly because of what you can do to reinforce the chassis. Cary

You have a few too many open ended questions to completely answer this one. I will offer that you don't want to mount the bar in needle bearings. As the car flexes they will bind as they are not designed to deal 2-axis misalignment. A better solution, commonly seen on Trans-Am cars these days is to hang the sway bar from two heim joints. This will allow for bending of the bar and mounts as well as rotation. Another option is the pillow ball mounts you can find for many of these bars. They have a spherical bearing the bar goes through. Coleman, SCP, speedway should have all these parts. Cary Cary

.095 1.5 inch tubing should be fine. I have seen many cars built that way at a shop near me that have won many championships. For your weight target be prepared to bolt in weight. My project is an EMOD V8 powered autoxer. All the pieces (complete frame) and everything else piled on the car weighs 1640 pounds. It is built with .095 for the outer sections and main cage tubes and a lot of .064 and .049 used as bracing for sections that showed low stress in simple FEA tests. You will need to check on materials if you plan to roadrace. I'm pretty sure all the tube needs to be the same thickness in GT and DOM. Cary

Is 90 degrees a misquote? Because if that's it I wouldn't bother. A fluid recirculator would be a much better option. Cary "had glowing red rotors on my autox car this past weekend :-)"