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vette IRS rear?? whodunit


fl327

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has anyone went vette IRS, i was talking it over with my colleagues and thought that it would work out pretty good with tons of gear ratios and posi, and would seem like a little bit simpler than going ford 9 inch. any advice is great.

Leonard

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Guest Anonymous

yeah, ya'd have to do a lot of research first...best bet on a vette IRS would probably be one that came outta a ZR-1, maybe? Figure, stout motor, needs stout rear....maybe some speed demon's wrecked a new Z06 in your area, probably be the strongest, plus, it'd be pretty new

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Racnoth, I know where you are going but I will bet if there is a wrecked ZR-1, us peons could not come close to even knowing about it. Keep in mind also that C-5s have a rear transaxle and I am sure that rules it out, although the though of a complete C5 drivetrain with a shortened driveshaft/tube is intriguing but sounds expensive.

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Henry Castanzo from the Georgia Z club used a Vette rear in his hybrid Z. This was from the mid-year Vettes - 67-82? Sorry, I don't have his e-mail but it may be available thru some of the links on the Z web sites.

I'm starting the chassis for my car that will use C-4 Vette suspension front and rear. Looks good on paper, but it isn't finished yet!!

Al Keller

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You can find his email address at http://www.georgiazclub.com/

 

He used an aluminum center section diff. I thought it was from a C4 vette but not sure. I remeber him saying it cost him a fair piece to shorten the arms of the housing and have adapters made for some generic Spicer telescoping halfshafts. The looked like male and female slip yokes, but I'm not sure. He knows about HybridZ, not sure he reads it regularly.

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thanx guyz, im still doing my homework on this one, im still at the suspension braking part of the game, as well as chassis reinforcements, im thinking that a the vette irs from a big block model may be the one to get????? it seems like no matter what ive done to reinforce the r200, i get a little thunk-dramatically reduced by new driveshaft bolts and a solid diff mount which vibrates a little but holds the thunk out better, but not enough to make me confident in a car i plan to run 12's and autocross in....

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The older big block rears aren't the hot ticket I don't think. Seriously, review some of the Chevy rags. One of them had a reader's letter not long ago talking about a swap and they seemed to shy away from the big block unit. They claimed it was weak and while th ereader put forth that it must be strong due to HP ratings of th eday they pointed out that these were "optimistic". I believe you'd be better off for many reasons using one of th elater ones - at the very least they migh tbe easier to find! Maybe call up one of these rod type shops that build IRS rears and see what they say?

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Guest Anonymous

heheh....lets go find an IRS out of a 69 ZL-1 Vette...all aluminum 427, made around 400-500 HP...don't remember exactly...it ran something around low 12's, on the tires of the era....pretty impressive, if ya ask me...oh wait....we can't get these rears...seeing as how they only made two of the cars...be nice though... icon_biggrin.gif

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Guest Anonymous

Their were several fellows at the Tidewater Z Club in Newport News VA that have the Vette rears in their Z cars, most used the mid-late 70's units. One of them was a machinist and he made the custom halfshafts.

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I've got the center section from an 82 vette that is being fitted to my 240z not a whole lot of work to be done I'm coping a buddies 73 that has the center from a 79 vette (same as an 82 but steel) next time I have it in the air I'll try to snap some pix. Basicly you cut the arms down to the same width as the datsun mustach bar take the 2 bolts that hold the stock cross bar and use them to hold a peice of C channel to the body. then cross bolt the vette unit into place. the halfshafts can then be shortened by a very competant(sp?) fab shop. I've also toyed with the idea of machining a groove into the back of a steel unit and welding a datsun cross bar into the groove and using the stock hardware. the aluminum units were only used on the 1980-1982 models the early cars were steel.

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