Many of you may have seen my build thread which is the in depth post of my build progress, but I wanted to throw out the "end" results of my THRASH to get this car race ready. I drove this car out of the shop for the first time on a Wed afternoon, and had the engine broke in, tuned, double checked and loaded on a trailer by Friday evening for racing Saturday morning and all weekend!!!!

Wed morning!


Wed PM after first around the block test drive



Outside Cheyenne WY about 11:40pm while putting miles on the engine to break it in...


Bathtime, first real one in 4 months!


Loaded on the trailer with my lil helper ready to head to the track


Next morning sitting outside the gates... first in line!


All dressed up for the dance



On track

 

Underhood




The back story:

I had been planning an LS swap for a long time. Bought a donor car, then life happened and had a couple (twins) more kids and the swap get put to the side. While on the side I started taking my plans and making them much more in depth than I originally planned.

LS1 was tore down and rebuilt to stock specs with good ARP fastners, I sent out a set of 243 heads for Advance Induction and had them perform their 62cc CNC port job on them with all new valve train from BTR. We installed an AI speced 229/232 625 lift cam and we were on out way. I stocked up parts and waited for the right time to start the swap. Well the right time was about 4 months before the car needed to be ready for the Optima Batteries Search for the Ultimate Street Car racing series event held at Pikes Peak International Raceway.

So my focus as it typically is became on making a healthy LS1 motor stand out and look fantastic while perfoming. Shaving the entire engine bay was in order. Recessed a shorter radiator under the core support, then radiused the front edge of the support and shaped to fit the cap flush. Added custom washer, and coolant bottle fill spouts in my battery trays that the caps are frenched into the metal for a seemless design. I made a twin air intake that runs to each side of the radiator with LS7 maf to monitor incoming air. I painted or powdercoated almost everything in mainly gloss black, but the engine features many shades of satin and matte black to add contrast.

During all of this I also got the itch for new wheels... Well if I'm gonna do it, do it right. I ordered up a set of Forgeline FF3 Heritage series wheels. Kinda a classic 5 spoke style, that was styled after some of the super popular wheels of the late 80's and 90's.... when this car was in its prime! I went with a 18x10 Front, and 18x11 rear when swapped my exsisting tires to the wheels which are 275/35 front, and 295/35 rear

I bolted it all together and was able to race a full weekend of Autocross, Road race, and speed stop challenge with no major malfunctions. Much more driver tuning needs to be done as I'm still not used to all the additional power the engine has. I can't wait to show you all the next steps!

 

 

Your car has been one of the cars i've admired since joining back in 2007. Whenever someone would dog thirdgens with the stereotypes associated with thirdgens i would show pics of your car to show its potential when done right. Now you have really stepped up your game! Congrats and keep representing how a thirdgen should be done.

 

Wow that is quite the compliment! I really appreciate it. I'll keep repping man!

 

Can you give me some info on the headlight conversion?

 

Yeah man. They are the from SkinnyBoy lighting and are a quad mini D2S square projector. I had to trim my headlight retainers to make sit flush, and I pie cut the rear of the buckets to allow them to flex a little. the install is pretty straight forward, just double the normal as I'm running a double headlight system. I still need to spend a little time cleaning up the exposed areas of wiring as it was pretty late at night when I got them going.

Crazy amount of light, and with the switchback halos they work really well to keep the cops off me about no having turnsignals.

 

totally awesome. I am always impressed with your updates and was especially stoked for you that you got the car all buttoned up in order to run the optima USCA event. way to go man.

 

Just a phenomenal job! Great vision and making that vision come to life! Props to your family for supporting you through this hobby. I know sometimes life does put things on hold, but you proved that this hobby can be done with balance!
Also really dig the D2 Conversion! That will be my next mod.

 

I will remember that struggle to get this thing done for the rest of my life, and I will set the bar for any future struggles. The USCA event was the icing on the cake, or the pot of gold at the end of my rainbow. Thanks!

Family is the most important thing I will ever do no matter how cool the car is/was whatever. I'm lucky to have them with me, and being the motivation I needed some nights to get it done. Daddy never quit! The Headlights are awesome. I was already running a skinny boy kit, and they worked well, but the quad set up is amazing!

 

You should get a white thirdgen, name it "WRONGNWHT" and do an iron duke swap

 

I wanna build a white one someday with hugger orange stripes for my wife, not sure about a 4 banger, but that is funny lol

 

i want that featherlight trailer

 

As much as I'm leaning towards matte black for my next repaint, I can't ignore how good the thirdgen camaros look painted orange with black stripes.

White looks clean. Black looks mean. Orange looks... damn that's right. Rhyme isn't possible.

 

Its nice cause its light, but that's about it lol