Dare to be different...

[454bug]

Hey guys, I wanted to introduce myself to this forum. My name is Ray. I have been bitten by the Pro-Touring "bug" (NO PUN intended!) like many others and have decided to do something a little different...

I have owned many hot rods over the years. I owned a 1965 Corvette convertible (327/4-speed/4.11)for 22 years. I owned a 1967 Chevy II (454/TH400/4.11) for many years. I owned a 1938 Ford Pro Street Coupe (514/C6/4.57) for a number of years. I had "Pro Street" setups on all those cars.

[454bug]

I owned my first car when I was 9 years old. It was a 1962 VW bug. I grew up in a town of 1,200 people in Texas (Danbury, Texas - South of Houston). There were two cops and one cop car... The two cops both worked part-time (as cops) while their real jobs were operators at the Monsanto Chemical Plant close by. They didn't care if youngsters drove cars without Driver's Licenses if we didn't break the law any other ways (you don't break the law if you're not caught, right???). Over my teenage years I dreamed of having a V8 engine in a bug. Well, fast forward about 35 years and I now have one. I visited a Car Museum in San Antonio, Texas in 1995 and saw a bug with a 454 bbc in it. It was the makings of one of my dream cars...

A few years later I purchased the car. I brought it home to Lafayette, La. I started looking at the car closer and found many things that I didn't care for or agree with pertaining to the setup and construction. The construction of the car was done in 1985 and MANY things were done with older technology and setups.

I started making changes as I could afford them to make the car closer to my liking...

[454bug]

I added a trans cooler, better fans, took out the 3.00 gears and replaced them with 4.11's (Ford 9"), installed 15"x14" rear wheels, installed 29"x17"x15" M&H Racemaster rear tires, pulled out the ugly Stewart Warner gauges and dash and built a new custom dash with Dakota Digital gauges, installed a B&M Megashifter, installed a full manual valve-body in the Turbo 400, ceramic coated and installed new Hooker headers (ironically, 1967-1969 Camaro headers fit right in), built a new 3-1/2" exhaust all the way out the back, installed a lineloc, built the motor to my liking (468 cu. in., 11:1 compression, .714" lift solid roller cam, roller rockers, stud girdle, 1050 Dominator, ported square-port factory heads with 2.30"/1.88" S/S valves, etc.), 650hp...

[454bug]

The car was fast in a straight line but not very safe stopping or going around corners...

[454bug]

This is the car as it has looked for the last few years. My best quarter mile time has been 10.60/129 mph in street trim (full 3-1/2" exhaust out the back of the car and M&H Racemaster 29x17x15 street tires).

[454bug]

I recently got out of other hobbies and freed up some money to upgrade my car. I was going to make my car faster and safer. I purchased an Art Morrison Independent Front Suspension and Wilwood 4-wheel disc brakes. I purchased a set of CNC-ported 335cc AFR aluminum heads... I was just trying to improve my quarter mile times and make it safer at the same time. It is almost impossible to stop this car from 130 mph with 4-wheel drum brakes...

[454bug]

In April, 2008, I attended a weekend of fun for our 40th anniversary party of the Texas A&M University Sports Car Club. We rented Texas World Speedway for the weekend and ran time trials around the 2.9 mile road course with about 90 cars.

Below is a picture of my buddy's 1964 Corvette that was a twin to the 1965 Corvette I owned while we were in school. He was one of the few guys that has kept his car over all these years... Another one of my college buddies was nice enough to let me race his 1963 Split-Window coupe and I WAS HOOKED!!

[Memphis]

Nice ride, I'm sure the vw guys hate you for doing that lol.Welcome . BTW doing the photobucket thing is cool I don't think I'm the only one who hates clicking attachment pics loool

[454bug]

Thanks a lot! I know... I really like the photobucket setup so much more than the "imageshack" site. I really didn't like the small "thumbnails" setup they used.

I am now in the process of upgrading from street/strip to Open Track action!! I have really gone crazy this last month!!!

This is the front suspension I have just installed...



The car has a full-length 2"x3" rectangular tube chassis. Unfortunately, the guy that built the frame used a REALLY heavy-wall tube (.250" wall). It is very heavy but also VERY rigid as well. Frame stiffness is a GOOD thing but there is a limit to everything!

[454bug]

Here are some installation pictures... First, the "before" pictures...

[454bug]

Now, some upgrade pictures...

[TonyL]

Insane! I love it! Im sure you've seen many "German Look" bugs out there. It's about time there was an American Look version!

[454bug]

To get ready to go road racing I needed to upgrade the brakes that I just installed...

This is what I just installed (11-3/4" Rotors with Dynalite 4-piston calipers)...



This is what I am replacing them with... (14" Rotors with Superlite 6-piston calipers)...

[454bug]

I had just installed Wilwood 12.19" rear disc brakes with internal shoes for the emergency brakes with Dynalite 4-piston calipers...



Now I am replacing them with 14" rotors with internal emergency drum shoes with Superlite 4-piston calipers...

[454bug]

These are my old rear tires and wheels... Weld wheels - 15"x14"...

M&H Racemaster - 29"x17"x15" (13.2" Tread Width)...

My new tires were going to be Mickey Thompson S/R - 29"x18"x15" (15.5" Tread Width)...

I was planning to put 15" Billet wheels on the car...

[454bug]

These are the new wheels I am going to run on the car... The front wheels will be 18"x10-1/2"... The rear wheels will be 18"x12"...

I have to decide between these two styles... (I WOULD LIKE SOME OPINIONS FROM YOU GUYS!!!)

These racing wheels are around 3 pounds lighter than the street models and stronger (titanium bolts).





with these center caps...

[TonyL]

Oh sweet!

[454bug]

These are the tires that I am going to use... TOYO R888's...

295/30/18 on front (11.8" tread width)...

335/30/18 on rear (13.4" tread width)...

[454bug]

Since the track at Texas World Speedway has about a 3/8-mile straight away on it's 2.9 mile road course I need an overdrive to work with my shorter 26" tall rear tires. Therefore, I studied the situation and didn't like my options with the GM overdrive tranmissions so I decided to go with a Gear Vendors Under/Overdrive on the back of my Turbo 400... With 4.11 gears, 26" tall tires, 7,000 rpm's, 0.78 overdrive equals 170 mph!!! HOLD ON!!!

[454bug]

The REALLY COOL decision I made was to go to a Master Shift "Paddle Shifter" setup...

As you can see, there are two sets of controls on this setup. I will program the controller to act in this way: The two push-buttons will control only the transmission in a 1-2-3 shifting pattern... The two paddle-shifters will control the transmission and the overdrive in alternating order to create a 6-speed automatic...