I am whieghing the idea of having the Camaro as a strait-line accelorator (ie. bracket racing) or a G-machine (ie. rally cross)

Has anyone made a G machine out of a 3rd gen? If so- how much, what parts, and what results?

I think they are a great canidate for a corner carver! A new IROC Z boasted .85 g stock and another .15 of a G wouldn't be that hard.

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Colin Finkle
87 Sport Coupe Camaro, 5.0 L V8

 

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[This message has been edited by Jim 86 Bird (edited August 08, 2001).]

 

If you're talking about making your Camaro handle better, you'll want to change out the sway bar end links and frame bushings to poly, both front and rear, as well as the tranny mount and torque arm bushing. Replace the rear trailing arms with Spohn or other aftermarket pieces (like Global West) with spherical bushings on one side or both. Don't go with poly bushings on each side of the arms since they'll bind up in suspension movement. Get an aftermarket panhard rod as well, although poly bushings are OK on both ends here. Good tires are a must, such as BF Goodrich Comp T/A ZR's, Firestone Firehawk SZ50's, or any other Z-rated 16" tires (or larger if you want to get new/bigger wheels).

Also, replace the front lower control arm bushings with poly, replace the ball joints, inner and outer tie rod ends, idler arm, and center link. Don't forget about good struts and shocks like Bilstein, Koni, or Tokico. Lowering springs are OK too, especially if your car sits like a 4X4.

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Greg Westphal
'87 IROC 355TPI/A4

 

colinfinkle-

Greg has offered a lot of good suggestions but he forgot to mention the most important mod. Weld in sub frame connectors will radically change how your car handles in hard cornering. I'm in the process of building a '87 IROC to do occasional auto cross events and be a mean street terror! I've installed Hotchkis weld in connectors and a hotchkis strut tower brace. I also installed custom cut 700 lb global west springs in the front and custom cut global west 160 lb springs in the rear. Since I did all the mods at once I can quantifiy the contribution of each item but I know the sub frame connectors really tighted up my car. I have no body roll when I corner hard. My car handles like it is on rails! I just purchased Koni adjustable shocks and struts for my car last week. I'm going to install them this weekend so I'll keep you updated on how my ride quality improves.

There are many options in terms of sub frame connectors, spohn makes some that have cross braces that tie into the transmisson support. I would search the board for SFC's and you should be able to get a good idea which sfc will work for you.

-Josh

 

I was just watching PHR TV and they say that some braces above the engine in a third gen really tighten things up.

Which is more important: a great suspension or a really stiff chasis?

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Colin Finkle
87 Sport Coupe Camaro, 5.0 L V8

 

I think a stiff chassis leads to great suspension. On third gen cars their weakest link is the fact that they are uni-body cars. Any time you have seperate sub-frames(front and rear) the car is very weak in the center. Sub frame connectors in particular tie the front and rear suspension together as if the car is a full frame suspension. This allows the front and rear suspension to work together instead of against each other providing a drastic improvement in suspension geometry. The other nice thing about subframe connectors is the fact they don't hurt ride quailty like changing tire size, springs, shocks, and struts. You have to decide what is more important handling or ride quality when you decide how much suspension changes you want to make. Camaros, and IROCs especially, aren't made to handle like towncars, but sports cars. I personally would rather have a car that can handle a curve 15-20 miles above the recommended speed even if I have to deal with a harsher ride on normal roads. I don't like sacrificing handling for ride quality.

Josh

 

The suspension and body work together. It's an entire system. A stiff suspension on a flexing body won't do you any good, or a stiff body and wimpy suspension won't do any good, either. The brace you mentioned is strut tower brace. A three-point brace is the best at keeping the front square to the ground. Check out Dan Burk's '84 T/A. He's monitored it at over 1G at Gingerman Raceway.
http://www.isthq.com/~dan/fcar.html

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Bob '89 Ram Air Formula 350
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