converting my 78' 280 street car to a competitive track car.

[Jonnyz racer]

I need help with a list of tasks to get my street Z to a track car. I figured I need to start with suspension, bushings & torsion control. Can anyone help? I'm a newbie to the site & appreciate any help.

[RebekahsZ]

Go to the Suspension FAQs at the top of the forums and look for some basic alignment settings proposed by the late Johnc. Those will get you close enough. Don't get lost in the bushing trap. You should do a coilovers conversion early on with camber plates. That will be required to achieve Johnc's alignment recommendations. Install Koni or Bilstein shocks and mount R-compound 225 series tires. That should do for a while. Then do the Arizona Z Car big disc conversion. If you go to V8 power and big sticky tires you will overwhelm the stock brakes. But if you have an L6 motor or just autocross, stock brakes are fine with Porterfield racing pads/shoes. Good luck! You will get many opinions and you will get picked on with such an open question, but I've given you plenty to work with.

[beermanpete]

Start with the safety equipment needed for the type of racing you intend to do. The club or organization that runs the racing activity should have a rule book available that spells out the requirements. Also, read the rules regarding what mods are allowed and specifically prohibited for the class you will run in.

[clarkspeed]

Safety, Reliability, Driver Skill, Speed. Modify/Improve in that order.

[Savage42]

Clarkspeed is correct.  At least he is looking at making the car handle better, but good tires are the cheapest, easiest and quickest way to go faster around a track.  After that, you spend more money for smaller chunks of time.   

 

I am amazed at how many people will add tons of power (no matter what make or model of vehicle) and then run hard with stock or cut spring suspension, stock brakes and the worst tires.....not to mention no desire to actually learn how to become a better driver. 

 

At least you have a ton of info to go through on here to see what you want to do based on goals, budget, etc. 

[clarkspeed]

Yep, put R compound tires on any car and it suddenly becomes a race car. Other than that, poly bushings all around, decent street shocks, and all fresh brake components with a track friendly pad/shoes. Good alignment. That would get you started.

[gnosez]

There are a number of non-technical issues as well to consider:

 

1) Budget

2) Skills needed (if not add more money into your budget)

3) Tools and space

4) Time

5) A possible other location to have parts delivered to (assuming the arrival of expensive bits and pieces might cause someone to ask - so how exactly how much money are you spending on this car? sort of question)

6) Type of race events (fun day, SCCA, vintage, etc.) as you don't want to have to redo something like a roll cage (welded vs bolted) after you get everything installed