What would GM do, Chevelle gt1?

[matty b]

Hey guys, Ive been kickin around ideas about how I should do the chevelle asthetics wise. Ive been looking at real GT cars like the Aston DBR9, 911 Cup car, Ferrari Stradale ect for styling cues and how I could integrate those into the 64. So I thought, what would GM do if they were to do a works GT1 version of a Chevelle with todays materials and technology. From the looks of all the cars I listed I noticed that interior wise the cars maintained the lines of a stock car but used materials like carbon instead of leather wrapped dashes and door panels. I figured I could do door panels that looked stock with the trim and little emblems but made out of carbon, carbon dash cluster, carbon racing seats ect. I considered a quick release hub steering wheel and other things like that. Im coming to you guys to see what kind of things you would think that a modern chevelle gt1 would have. Im talking about looks mostly since I dont have the capabilties to actually build a car of that caliber but just the looks to give it the feel. If you have any cool little things that would give it that extra touch Im all ears. Thanks!!

[JayR]

I dig it and totally get it! Sounds like a great plan and I look forward to seeing you run with it.

[bigvegan]

Do you mean a factory GT car, or a GT1 class racer?

(http://www.flickr.com/photos/ss7/1271637239/ - Here's a shot of the Vette C6R interior, not overly user friendly or attractive.)

If you meant the GT1 style, wasn't that more or less what John Parsons II Much Nova was, only using a Chevy II instead of a Chevelle?
(He's on here as parsonsj, and his car is featured here -
http://www.popularhotrodding.com/features/0709phr_1967_chevy_nova/index.html , it's pretty awesome.)

If you mean a factory GT car, that's basically the goal of a lot of high-dollar pro-touring cars already. If you're trying to do it on a budget there are trade school night classes in automotive interior that teach you the skills, and then it's just a question of time and effort. For the carbon fiber, there are some pretty handy tutorials on how to get a shockingly realistic carbon fiber look by using spray paint and shelf-liner. (seriously!) Or you can teach yourself carbon fiber fabrication. It's harder than fiberglass, but as long as you're not doing structural pieces, it may not be out of the range of doing yourself (or so the youtube videos suggest).

The only other thing I'd advise is to plan out the entire interior beforehand, and make sure it has a unity of theme (color, materials, etc.) running all the way through. There are plenty of high-dollar cars that look like someone just through money at them, so they look like a parts catalog rather than a cool car, while there are plenty of low-dollar cars that look awesome because the builder kept things simple and uniform and did his homework before putting things together.

Good Luck! Those old Chevelles are awesome!

[matty b]

Bigvegan- yeah Im talking gt1 class, like the lemans touring cars. The c6.r is a perfect example but is a bit more cluttered than some of the other cars. Most PT cars out there that Ive seen fall into the customized Muscle car group. What Im saying is that they are more or less dressed up like a street rod more than a GT car. Billet steering wheels, big stereos and things like that dont help performance and a true race only GT car has only whats needed to go fast. I was just asking what you guys would think would be done to the car if say instead of the c6.r it was a chevelle? I dont have alot of expierence around cars like that (Ive grown up around drag cars) and pics are hard to come by of interiors of the real gt cars. Im going to do push button fuse breakers for my fuse panel since I have in fact wired a BMW club racer and thats how he said they do it. But yeah what cool things have any of you noticed on those cars that would give it the feel of a true lemans type race car? Bigvegan, I am definitely planning the interior and exterior to flow with each other and thats why Im hear right now. Color pallete will be dark silver, light silver, carbon, black, red. Red will accent things around the car such as supension components, brake calipers, stitching on the seats, coilpacks and other interior bits. Alcantara wrapped dash cover and headliner, you get the gist. But yeah there are a ton of little detail they put on those cars that I can possibly begin to remember that maybe you guys do.

[JayR]

Some other cars that come to mind are the Cadillac CTS-V ALMS cars, German Touring Car/DTM Series and Australian V8 Supercars.

Car And Driver did a comparison test of the stock CTS-V and the factory racecar a couple years ago that had a lot of good pics that you should be able to find on Google or the local library.

Let me know if you want to see some ideas on paper or want to bounce ideas around.