I was wondering if you could all help me with some advice and suggestions on building my car up, Im not entirely sure whats out there, and am relatively green to the hobby, as such I thought I'd rely on everyones wisdom here... I've already slipped a a few related questions into existing threads but I thought I would put it all together and see what everyone recommends. Right now my car is in the developmental stages, but within the next few months I should be able to put quite a bit of money and time into it.

(My car right now is a 83 w/ factory rear axle gearing, th350, and carburated 350, with no other mods besides a minor exhaust system + intake

Eventually (read as: within the next year or two) I intend to build the engine up to around four hundred plus hp and a similar torque value, and want the car to perform mild strip duty, and mostly like quite a bit of open road/ toruing style racing.)

<b>As for the Transmission and Gears</b> - I plan to put a manual transmissions into it, but Im unsure of which type would be best, or what gearing would be most beneficial, as with the rear axle. Ideally I'd like them to both be the most efficaint blend of straight line acceleration, and high speed performance as possible. I also plan on upgrading to four wheel discs, and any advice on that I would also greatly appreciate.

<b>For suspension</b> - Im going to buy pretty much the biggest tires I can fit under my car, the z28 sway bars, an adjustable ladder bar, new shocks, new springs, SFC's, panhard bar, trailing arms etc. As such, what brands would you recommend, and what should I stay away from? I was mostly just considering with using the same mods they used in the dec CHP mag (all edelbrock parts w/ eibach springs and some brand of shocks I can't recall right now.)

Thanks for your time and anything helpful you might have for me.

 

What type of racing will you be doing? Drag? Roadracing? Top end racing?

 

all of the above - focusing on the latter.

 

You will be fine with just about every suspension piece made for our cars. You will find that people tend to like Spohn (site sponsor) and BMR. In my opinion you cannot get a better part for the price between the two. They also tend to use a little thicker tubing than some of the others out there.

As for transmission you would want to look at a T-56. It has the strength to take the abuse of 400hp all day long, yet has the gearing to keep the revs down on the highway. Because of the 2 overdrives you can get away with a pretty stout rear gear to maximise your engine spower band. When looking for the best all around manual tranny you reall can't go wrong with the T-56.

 

Thanks for the help man, I really appreciate it... and in fact am going to try to run down a t - 56...

Any suggestions for the rear axle bit at all>?

 

*bump*

 

can you get the T-56 from a junk car or do you have to get an aftermarket T56?

 

either or, Im told.

 

You will need a T-56 out of a LT1 car. That is your cheapest route.

 

how much would it be to get one from a junkyard? Also, is it a direct swap?

 

Well they go from 500 to 1500. It bolts right up but there is more to it than that. You have to do a few other thing like getting the speedo to work and such. A search will tell you the details on that.