1957 Chevy Black Widow 2.0

[rat_rod_russell]

Here we have my Pro-Touring / Street Fighter version of a 1957 Chevy 150 Two Door Sedan. The Idea was to take the Black Widow inspired 57 Chevy that dominated NASCAR in 1957. A few guys took the fuel injected motors from the corvette and select hardtops and dropped it along with heavy duty 6 bolt suspensions into a base line 57 Chevy sedan. After destroying the competition this car was the sole reason for the dumbest rule NASCAR ever made, No Fuel Injection. With NASCAR refusing to evolve it has lost its allure to many people but me, I hate NASCAR. So here’s an updated version of the round-e-round terror but with a suspension a little more advanced than the original and a little better motor to boot.

This car was designed on a few basic parameters. One It’s going to seat 4 people and have trunk room. The last car I had was a 2 seater roadster so there was nothing but me a little room in the trunk for stuff. It has to be a good daily driver. I’m 22 and can’t afford more than 2 cars at a time, so I have my beater Mazda and this bad boy. 3 It had to get good gas mileage, lets face it gas prices suck. And It had to be able to rip up anything that I’m going to run into around here, not hard but I want to be completive at the auto cross and when the local rice heads pull up, I’ll have no problems icing the little punks.

With that being the major outline The motor was easy LS1 cheap and you can still make a ton of power with very little modification but still have the reliability we all know the LS motors for as well at the gas mileage there know for. Special attention was put into the gearing and rear end ratios So we dished out the money for the viper gearing as well as lots of other internal goody’s for the T56, a stage 3 spec cluck to stick it, and 3.73 gears, a little more fun out of the hole but we’ll still only be turning 1690 RPMs at 70 MPH with the 275/40/R18 rear wheel combo. I’ll leave the rest to the list for you guys.

-Chassis
Hot Rod Jim’s C4 Rolling Chassis
Lowered 6” front and 5” Rear
85 Corvette Suspension
2 Turn Power Rack and Pinion
All Urethane Bushings
QA1 Single Adjustable Coil Over Shocks
NO SWAY BARS front or back
Dana 36 Rear Differential
3.73 Gears
Stock Limited Slip Clutch Pack
C5 Corvette Brake Upgrade
Twin Piston Front Calipers
12.6” Front Drilled Slotted Rotors
Single piston Rears
11.8” Rear Drilled Slotted Rotors
Hawk Pads
17”x8.5 Front Rims with 245/45/R17
18”x10 Rear Rims with 275/40/R18

-Motor Transmission
LS1 03 Corvette
T56 Viper Spec
2.66, 1.78, 1.30, 1.00, .74, .50
Stage 3 Spec Clutch
Steel Fly wheel
1 7/8 Long tube Headers
Full 2.5” Dual Exhaust
Crossover
Cheery Bomb Glass Packs
Steel Driveshaft
Tuned With EFI Live

-Exterior
Black Widow Paint
150 Trim and Logos all Air Brushed On
C5 Corvette Flags with “Fuel Injection” logo
Shaved Door handles
Remote Poppers
Remote Actuated Trunk
Dark Tent
Narrowed bumpers

-Interior
04 GTO Power front Seats and Bench Rear Seats
Black leather
K-O wool Insulation
6.2 Inch touch screen Head Unit
CD/ DVD Player
4 - 6”x9” 600 Watt Mids
2 - 6“ 300 Watt Front Mount Mids
1 - 12” 1000 Watt Dual Voice Coil Sub
AMPS galore
Simi Gloss Black Dash and Bezel
Auto Meter Gauges


https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2008/06/001-2.jpg

I'll post some more pics when I get some free time tonight.

R^3

[SaturnVUEguy]

Very nice! I'm not used to seeing the 57s with this body, keeps making me think its a 56

[jy211]

what's that interior looking like? :secret:

[BossaNova]

I like it a lot. Can't wait to see more.

[rat_rod_russell]

I have to thank you guys for the serious wealth of information on this site. Nobody wants to align my 57 so with the help of friend of mine, Skip, I found a tone of good info on how to do your own suspension alignments so I’m going to get onto that today. I was out most of last week with a cold and when I was out Dad decided it would be more fun to work on my car. So I come back and the bumpers as well as the hood and trunk are all bolted up and aligned. Kinda annoying, I know he means well but I wanted to do it, but It’s getting done and It looks pretty good but I still got a little “fitting” to do.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2008/06/002s-1.jpg (http://www.hrjinc.com/immages/projects/in_progress/57_2d_sedan/stance/002.jpg)

JY211
I like the color on your 55, I’ve marked your PT garage so I can keep an eye on it. As for the interior I don’t have it all worked out yet but here are some photos of the seats before I started cutting them all to hell. The back seats specifically I’m modifying the top part of the seat so It won’t stick up in the back window.


Click the photos to make them bigger. The first two are of the front seats the last one is of the back.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2008/06/002s-2.jpg (http://www.hrjinc.com/immages/projects/in_progress/57_2d_sedan/interior/002.jpg) https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2008/06/004s-1.jpg (http://www.hrjinc.com/immages/projects/in_progress/57_2d_sedan/interior/004.jpg) https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2008/06/005s-1.jpg (http://www.hrjinc.com/immages/projects/in_progress/57_2d_sedan/interior/005.jpg)

I’m always looking for criticism, I take it real well and it normally leads to good info so If you have any comments at all please post them I'm always looking for ideas.
Thanks again
R^3

[cspengler]

This is going to be a cool ride when finished.

[SaturnVUEguy]

You keeping the "sights" on the hood? The rest of the car looks clean and smooth, which makes those look a little out of place.
Please tell me its the lighting that gives the wheels that yellowish color in this pic.

Aside from that, it looks great, and I love the front grill

[rat_rod_russell]

You keeping the "sights" on the hood? The rest of the car looks clean and smooth, which makes those look a little out of place.
Please tell me its the lighting that gives the wheels that yellowish color in this pic.

Aside from that, it looks great, and I love the front grill

Yes the rims are "pure white" the same can of paint as the white section on the car.

I was thinking about making something but I'm thinking about painting them black. Just like the bumpers and other chrome stuff I didn't want to spend money on. If it doesn’t make the car go faster, handle better, more comfortable or cooler in my opinion I really have a hard time spending money on it. A Tri Five of this age every piece of pot metal on them needs to be replaced. So I sand blasted and body worked them all. They were going to be air brushed just like the side trim but the air brush artist dropped the boom on them and due to my age and lack of patience I want to drive the car.

So the alignment was supper easy, I’ll go around and thank the specific thread later. I was hammering her up to 70 ripping tires loose the whole way and cramming the brakes right at the auction lot parking lot up the road and swing back strait and clean on the first try. I don’t have the seat belts in yet so I won’t start slaloming the reflectors between the lanes until tomorrow when I hunt down that last head light short and get the inspection taken care of and put in the seatbelts.

Russell

[55chevyman]

Hey Russell,
Car looks great, looks like you have made a ton of progess on the car since you last posted on the tri-five forum. You get tired of CHEVYNUTS bs on yalls chassis?

[rat_rod_russell]

Sorry all we’re still slammed and this week is Thump week her in Lovely Luling. So we had to take 2-3 days and clean shop.


Hey Russell,
Car looks great, looks like you have made a ton of progess on the car since you last posted on the tri-five forum.

Not Really, just bolted on the exterior bits, and with our frame its just that, boltons.


You get tired of CHEVYNUTS bs on yalls chassis?

Yes and no, he makes good points sometimes and helps a lot of people out but I just can seem to explain to him that they stopped making the C4 suspension because there is better technology out there. he's got them figured out and thinks thats as good as it gets. But to each his own.


So I found out first had that the T56 transmissions don’t like to run without transmission fluid. All the bearings just die on you, fancy that. So I’ve been teaching myself how to rebuild manual transmissions. I had an aluminum flywheel on the car and the guys at Thunder Racing said TAKE IT OFF. So I had to run down to south Texas to look at a car and Jim had nothing to do that day because we were waiting on parts so I asked him to swap the flywheels for me. He did and I forgot to refill the transmission before we put the body back on. I checked everything else but when I went to fill the transmission I pulled the reverse lockout solenoid like the guys at D&D suggested and slammed a bottle of ATF up there. What I didn’t think about was the fact that the shifter was right there. The fluid hit the shifter handle and all came back at me. I was under the car so I thought the transmission was full. So the car has 4 miles and the input bearing gave up 50’ from the shop. I lucked out and only toasted the bearings. The gears are all fine none of them were run long enough to blue and de-temper. A friend of mine is holding my hand on this one. Rusty owned and was the transmission guy for a Viper racing team. He also worked at Ferrari of Houston for 8 years; needless to say he’s good with cars. He’s also building a 56 with a twin turbo 327 that I’m going to try to take some photos of tomorrow. He’s just fixing up the other T56 we had here. It had eaten it’s synchronizers after 130,000 miles. I’m going to throw that one in after he gets done with it then start my journey into the gear box.

Here she is all street legal and dead. So we pushed her out front to look pretty.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2008/06/003s-1.jpg (http://www.hrjinc.com/immages/projects/in_progress/57_2d_sedan/stance/003.jpg)

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2008/06/004s-2.jpg (http://www.hrjinc.com/immages/projects/in_progress/57_2d_sedan/stance/004.jpg)

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2008/06/005s-2.jpg (http://www.hrjinc.com/immages/projects/in_progress/57_2d_sedan/stance/005.jpg)

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2008/06/006s-1.jpg (http://www.hrjinc.com/immages/projects/in_progress/57_2d_sedan/stance/006.jpg)

R^3

[jy211]

coming along nicely! :smoke:

[compos mentis]

Sorry to hear that Russell...looking forward to better things for 'ya!

[rat_rod_russell]

Fun in the streets. Good thin Sunday morning is slow around here. Luckily a buddy of mine who knows a thing or two about cameras stopped by, I showed him how to use mind and where the rapid shot option was and here’s the result.

I didn’t think about this until a buddy of mine and his super tuned EVO stopped by and showed me a few things he was playing with. The stock Redline limiter kicks off your fuel at redline my cam 6400 RPMs and lets you back in at after the motor has dropped you 100 RPM’s. In road racing since you’re so close to the red line all the time if your motor kicks off all the sudden then kicks back in 100 RPM’s later it would be like hitting a Jake Brake when you’re getting ready to shift. So I went into map B3303 and changed All gears to fuel Cutoff 6400 ReEnable at 6399, a major life saver that will make it a little easier on your motor since I don’t have a tack yet (I’m still making some decisions about my gauge arrangement).

Standing launch and a nice drift through the local auction barns parking lot. I’ve really been playing a lot with the rear suspension settings getting making for the best ride and still getting the best launch. In these shots I side stepped the clutch at 6200 (I had the lap top plugged in so I had a tack) and tried to make the tires spin for a smokey burnout but little to nothing just hook and book a little squat on the rear but the ride quality is still there.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2008/07/000-1.jpg

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2008/07/001-1.jpg

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2008/07/002-1.jpg

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2008/07/003-2.jpg

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2008/07/004-2.jpg


https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2008/07/drift01-1.jpg

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2008/07/drift02-1.jpg

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2008/07/drift03-1.jpg

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2008/07/drift04-1.jpg

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2008/07/drift05-1.jpg

And anyone looking to rebuild a T56 if you don’t mind shipping it I would highly suggest Rusty the Viper guy who rebuilt mine, clean and tight and If you take it to him out of the car he’ll cut you a good price. PM me if you want his number.

[PRO 48 Fleetline]

Cool Build but that really needs some steel wheels and dog dishes on it to complete the sleeper widow look nice work:firefire:

[nekkidhillbilly]

like the white wheels

[rat_rod_russell]

I got my first chance in over a year to race with the auto cross guys. It was sheer luck that they were having a “Divisional in a Day”. That means 2 tracks in one day and twice the runs. This is just the first of the stuff I got but here are some photos showing the car’s body roll with a Hot Rod Jim “Basic” chassis, no sway bars, and QA1 Ultra Ride shocks. This is our best riding chassis. Yes you’re going to sack a little handling capability but for the money you can beat the ride quality.

My new equipment for this weekend, I recently acquired a Max Q GPS Data logger and interface PDA. This little guy mounts to your dash and uses the GPS systems to track your motion then graph it out giving you speed lateral G forces left to right long G forces front to back. Then it will plot your course and color code it to show your deceleration and acceleration in relation to your line around the track. The main reason we went with this unit is because of the price. With the low price there are a bunch of autocross racer who have them and then you can get the data from other drivers and lay it over you’re to see side by side how you compare.

I also acquired a little video camera and a new suction cup mount for the car. I have a few more videos but this one is from the data showing my .9G spike on my 3 afternoon run. Shown in the red circle on the track data and the blue circle in my time card, the yellow circle is from the series of photos showing the body roll of the car running the wide corner and the short slalom. I also tossed in some random photos showing the car from a few different angles.

The tracks, the morning track ran one way and the afternoon track was changed a little then run the other way. So if you see the car in the same place but looking the other way it was because of the time of day. The still camera shots were taken from the same point. They don’t want you walking around with cars zooming around the lot.

Analysis of the data and the days runs showed my averaging .78-.86 G’s in most of my corners with this suspensions set up. The times show steady improvement in every pass. In conclusion the driver was not skilled enough to push the car to its limits all day long. (See the two links under Data) You can see my first run was horrible. I cut 7 seconds out of my time where most seasoned drivers could only shave .5 to .75 of a second from there times. The tires we are running on the 57 right now are junk. The general brand tire is crap. I’m looking into a set of Invos for the car in the near future. Where I did spike some numbers There’s no way I would make that on a skid pad. The car would have spun out very early on due to body roll. Where I am inexperienced I’m a total idiot when it comes to controlling a car and reacting to the “feel” of the car. My .9 G pull occurred after in the second corner of a slalom so I had a little more forward momentum to throw sideways and achieve those numbers.

What to look forward to. I’m developing a “Sport Package” for our chassis to include shorter stiffer springs all the way around, adjustable 4 bars, adjustable sway bars with rigid suspensions links and QA1 Dual Adjustable shocks, I’ll have the upgrade done by this weekend ready for the autocross in San Antonio. More photos, video, more data and more options.

Russell

Slalom Run
f01.jpg (http://www.hrjinc.com/immages/projects/in_progress/57_2d_sedan/racing/spokes_6/f01.jpg)
f02.jpg (http://www.hrjinc.com/immages/projects/in_progress/57_2d_sedan/racing/spokes_6/f02.jpg)
f03.jpg (http://www.hrjinc.com/immages/projects/in_progress/57_2d_sedan/racing/spokes_6/f03.jpg)
f04.jpg (http://www.hrjinc.com/immages/projects/in_progress/57_2d_sedan/racing/spokes_6/f04.jpg)
f05.jpg (http://www.hrjinc.com/immages/projects/in_progress/57_2d_sedan/racing/spokes_6/f05.jpg)
f06.jpg (http://www.hrjinc.com/immages/projects/in_progress/57_2d_sedan/racing/spokes_6/f06.jpg)
f07.jpg (http://www.hrjinc.com/immages/projects/in_progress/57_2d_sedan/racing/spokes_6/f07.jpg)
f08.jpg (http://www.hrjinc.com/immages/projects/in_progress/57_2d_sedan/racing/spokes_6/f08.jpg)
f09.jpg (http://www.hrjinc.com/immages/projects/in_progress/57_2d_sedan/racing/spokes_6/f09.jpg)
f10.jpg (http://www.hrjinc.com/immages/projects/in_progress/57_2d_sedan/racing/spokes_6/f10.jpg)
f11.jpg (http://www.hrjinc.com/immages/projects/in_progress/57_2d_sedan/racing/spokes_6/f11.jpg)
f12.jpg (http://www.hrjinc.com/immages/projects/in_progress/57_2d_sedan/racing/spokes_6/f12.jpg)
f13.jpg (http://www.hrjinc.com/immages/projects/in_progress/57_2d_sedan/racing/spokes_6/f13.jpg)
f14.jpg (http://www.hrjinc.com/immages/projects/in_progress/57_2d_sedan/racing/spokes_6/f14.jpg)

Other Photo
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2008/08/001s-1.jpg (http://www.hrjinc.com/immages/projects/in_progress/57_2d_sedan/racing/spokes_6/001.jpg) https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2008/08/002s-1.jpg (http://www.hrjinc.com/immages/projects/in_progress/57_2d_sedan/racing/spokes_6/002.jpg) https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2008/08/003s-1.jpg (http://www.hrjinc.com/immages/projects/in_progress/57_2d_sedan/racing/spokes_6/003.jpg)

Data
Race Data Gif (http://www.hrjinc.com/immages/projects/in_progress/57_2d_sedan/racing/spokes_6/race_data.gif)
Race Times (http://www.hrjinc.com/immages/projects/in_progress/57_2d_sedan/racing/spokes_6/times.jpg)

Movie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWbaT-vJHaI

[Bishop73]

Very cool car, glad I found this thread. I had the pleasure of seeing your car in person this past weekend at the Lockhart O'reilly cruise in. Look forward to seeing it again.