Road race third gen build

[kcaalarcon]

I guess I ll kinda call this my build thread even though a good percentage of the work I plan on doing is already done and I'm not gonna do pictures and up dates of every time I move the car 5 feet since most of you don't care that much. I will post pics as I go and as I get stuff done. Here's what I have for now tho. 1988 pontiac firebird. Started out as a 2.8 v6 car. There's a couple pics of when I first got it and what it looks like now

[Schwartz Performance]

Good to see you on here Kristian.

-Dale

[Schwartz Performance]

And you need to post specs... we all care about your suspension upgrades just as much as pictures :)

-Dale

[kcaalarcon]

Figured I'd fish to see if anyone has any interest or even cares at all before I spend the time typing in all the stuff I've done

[Schwartz Performance]

Oh trust me.. Lots of people care about third gens on here.
Just do it!

-Dale

[MrQuick]

Looks like you got some good Aero going for you.

[srh3trinity]

I cant wait to do a third gen. Owned two in the past and I miss the first one I had.

[ArtosDracon]

I love those notch back hatchs, they just look right on these cars to me. Has a little bit of a Mad Max feel to it, which is almost never a bad thing. Subscribed.

[kcaalarcon]

Well il list what I've done.
Suspension/body-
Suspension is hotchkiss sway bars 36/25 front to rear. I'm in the process of getting solid rod end end links and making brackets to make the bars adjustable.
Global west wonder bar
agr gear box 12:1,
stock a arms but i took some plate and boxed the under side to make them stronger and more rigid to have less deflection.
Aluminum a arm bushings
1/2" taller ball joint which acts as a drop spindle and helps keep the suspension geometry in check
Baer bump steer kit with solid rod end tie rods
Ground control weight jacks front and rear. Rates are 900/225
Umi upper strut mounts
Spohn lower strut mount support plate that they use in their coilovers kits
Kore 3 aluminum road race hubs along with modified spindle (ill explain why later)
Custom bracing that's ties the front frame rails together and is a support for my diffuser
Rear lower control arms are bmr chromaly double adjustable with solid rod ends
Bmr relocation brackets for the control arm
Bmr sfc
Fays 2 inverted watts link
Unbalanced engineering decoupled torque arm (not yet installed)
Koni yellows (but I want to eventually replace the rears with some penskes/jri/ridetech/ or Vikings new
Berserker shocks maybe? So many possabilities)
Battery is mounted in the trunk
Car is as gutted as you can get
ten point roll cage from s&w that I'm going to be welding in soon and adding a lot of custom bracing (I need to practice my welding before I put it in tho)

More body-
Fiberglass ram air hood with aerocatch hood pins
Run cool hood louvers that in theory will let the hot air out of the engine compartment since hot air rises and is pushing up on the hood creating up force so the vents allow the air to escape in a way creating downforce (same theory as with the zl1 camaro hood)
Fiberglass rear notchback from hawks
Custom front grill inserts that will allow air to pass through
Front diffuser is made out of alumalite and is supported by the bracing I made for the front sections of frame and is completely removable. It is very rigid and is strong enough for me to stand on (I only weigh 160 though)
Rear splitter is made of the same material but I also built a frame to attatched it. It runs under the car almost the the watts link. And I made steal channels and put them in place of the alumalite where the exhaust is so it won't melt. The fins come down about 5"
I just finished installing (not in the pictures) a new g stream comp 800 wing that I built a full frame under the hatch to support it
I am also in the process of making 3.5" flares out of 1/8" plastic but I might scrap this idea and eventually get the equipment to make metal ones.
This will allow me to run 315 tires front and 335 rear

Drivetrain- the setup I have now is not permanent by any means. It's just temporary
Mostly stock lt1 with cheap headers, air intake, new injectors because the old one wheres trash and new distributor/coil/plugs/wires. Mostly just maintence stuff
700r4 with b&m shift kit
10 bolt out of a 4th gen ws6 trans am
That's where it's at now. Here's the list if what it will be once I'm out of school and can afford it
I have a t56 already that i am re hearing and building to handle more power (it's going to need to handle a lot (;
Rear axle will be a speedway engineering ful floating cambered 9". Have not decided on type of difforential or gears yet
Now the motor will be the fun part. Originally I was going to build a twin turbo all aluminum buick 231 that is made aftermarket now. The ides was to keep it light. But I can not mate that up to a t56. So my plans changed. My idea now is why not a pontiac engine? Like an all aluminum butler performance 455 with a set of twins on it? Ill let you guys use your imaginations and guess power numbers.
That's in the future however because I do not have money for it now. Once I'm out of school it shouldn't be a problem at all though

Exhaust-
3" stainless steel borla
Once I have turbos however I will be changing it up and running side exit exhaust that comes out of the body in between the passenger door and rear tire with the muffler mounted inside the car where the rear seats where. Pretty much the exact same thing bruce Raymond did with his camaro

Brakes/wheels-
Forgestar f14 19x11 and 19x9
Tires are 265-30-19 and 295-30-19. Hancook in rear and some cheap brand in front but they will be replaced with larger and I will be moving my rear wheels to the front once I flare my fender
Brakes are a gen 2 cts-v brake swap. Front, 14.6" rotors with 6 piston brembos that have the largest brake pads I have ever seen in my life
Rear are 14.5" rotors with 4 piston brembos
Braided brake lines all around
Ls1 master cylinder
If you're ever just looking for a challenge. Try that brake swap. It's a pain in the a$$

I think that's everything for now. Or at least the main stuff

[srh3trinity]

I like the idea of flares and it will fit with the front splitter and rear diffuser. I have looked into that brake swap and there isn't a lot of aftermarket support for it so I abandoned it. I like the idea of OEM rotors and a nice wide range of pad choices.

[HellPhish89]

IN!

may i suggest the rocker splitters as well?

more pictures or rear diffuser?

[mitch_04]

Although it's a little crazy for my tastes, 1 word comes to mind...

AGGRESSIVE!!!

[kcaalarcon]

Some interior, rear splitter and brake pictures. The cans next to the brakes are so everyone can get an idea of how truly large the brakes are
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[kcaalarcon]

New G stream wing and the mounting frame I built since the fiberglass hatch would never hold up. And also the Fx1 pro seat
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[Badger]

Nice build and great to see another 3rd Gen built for the track!! I'm interested to see more. I recently finish my 3rd Gen T/A racer and love it! Tore it down to the bare unibody before redoing the entire car. Are you going to run this in NASA? I run my T/A in the new Outlaw Vintage class, sad to think a 3rd Gen qualifies for Vintage but it does! If you want any details on the cage I did or anything else, feel free to ask!! Good luck with the rest of the build!!

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[kcaalarcon]

I've seem your car before and it is very well done. I like it. I will be running whatever classes that I can qualify for but mostly just road courses and autocross that don't have specific classes. So basically whatever I can get my car into

[BADNBLK]

Glad you took my advise and found your way here! I told you there is people that are knowledgeable enough to appreciate everything you did with that car. I'm subscribed and excited to see more :)

[kcaalarcon]

Thanks Brandon. So far it's going better than last time haha

[87camaroZ28]

I really like this build. I especially like that you are not afraid to modify the looks of the car. The mechanical work is shaping up nicely to. I can't wait to see you run it and see how competitive it is.


Greg

[Badger]

What region are you running in? I'll be at VIR in October with my T/A in a decent sized group of Outlaw Vintage cars.

[kcaalarcon]

Well so far I'm not doing anything at all with my car since it doesn't run yet. And it defiantly won't be running by October so you probably won't be seeing my car anywhere around

[Yukon Cornelius]

Anything happening?

[SS PUNISHER]

In for updates...

[kcaalarcon]

I have not updated for a long time due to no time or money to work on the car thanks to school, buying another project car and picking up downhill mountain biking as a hobby. Finally back to it however.
So here is what has happened, pulled the motor out, did a little rebuilding. New forged pistons, rings and rods, all new bearing, gaskets, typical rebuild stuff that no one cares about. A bunch of the bolts have been replaced with chromalloy ones and some studs. lt1 aluminum heads have also been added along with some fancy head gaskets. The idea with the rebuild is to be able to boost this engine for a while, try to get around 500hp, and be able to be able to drive it like that for a while until I get a new engine.
I have started to swap the t56 in now also. I have a centerforce steel flywheel that came with the tranny. New Ram clutch. I just finished mounting the new pedals and
master cylinder. I need to put the transmission back together then it will be ready to go in.
For some reason I decided to take out my dash... So now that's gone, permanently. Im going to make a custom carbon fiber dash to mount my gauges in and a custom center console for all my switches. While I have it all ripped apart I decided i'm going to completely rewire everything and get rid of most of the extra wires since I am not going to have ac, stereo/speakers, interior lights, power door locks, and im going to the manual. Oh what fun that has been sorting out all the wires....
I sold my old exhaust and got the new system. have not finished putting it together but you can see what i'm doing from the pic. its all 4" piping from the 4 pipe back, with a Borla XR1 muffler.

Not related to the car, but if any of you are into biking you will like the one in the pictures. Rocky mountain brand, aluminum frame, 8" hydraulic disk brakes, 8 inches of suspension travel front and rear with a cantilever rear suspension. Fox shock in the back. Adjustable rebound and stiffness in both fork and rear shock. Its a pretty fun bike to fly down a ski hills or cliffs on.114582114583114584114581

[Ursus]

I'm sure this is a dead thread, but any updates? Just starting a build with an '89 formula and wanted to use that notchback, which is how I found the thread. My motors together and waiting for dyno time to open up before we install. Love the exhaust location, any more pictures of that setup?