Hey guys I am looking for some advice on what is a good path to go as far as setting up a thirdgen to autocross. I am currently looking a good base car to start from. I am trying to find a 305 TPI/5-speed with 4 wheel disc as my starting point. This car is going to be strictly for autocrossing and nothing else so comfort, and streetability are of little concern. If the car does not need it, it will more than likely be coming out to save weight. I am not going to upgrade the brakes right away but it will be done in the future, mostly why I am looking for a 4 wheel disc car to start with. I know the must do's will be: SFC's inner and outter, 3 point STB, Adjustable front strut mounts for camber, and Adjustable Panhard bar. I will also be upgrading to 17" wheels with 275/40ZR17's and most likely will be running R-Compounds at some point. Other parts I have been looking at are Eibach Pro-Kit springs as I have heard the sportline like to bounce. Struts and shocks are a grey area, I think I could get by with HD Bilsteins, but would adjustable Koni's be worth it? I am also going to replace every bushing, brake line, brake pads, rotors, and steering component with new or rebuilt pieces. I have thought about putting in a manual steering gear box as well with a quicker ratio.

I am sure someone has done this before and am just looking to get pointed in the right direction to acheive my goal, which is to make a thirdgen into a pure autocrossing machine. So any and all advice will be appreciated! I have been away from thirdgens for too long and missed the awesome handling these cars have, it would take to much to get my Buick to where a stock thirdgen is at!

 

if your just looking for a good autocross car, you should think about a 3.1 with a 5 speed, it will handle alot better than its heavy nosed sister, i love my konis, and some people on here have run both, and say theres is no comparison to the konis


i would consider weigh jacks for your springs, if your thinking about r- compound tires/ the pro kit is too soft for you....

 

Well, it really depends on which class you want to be in if you are going to go to scca sanctioned events. Because there are a lot of small things that can put you in a class that is full of race cars. For example if you take the rear seats out, you go straight to street modified, and if you completely gut it while everything else is completely stock, you go to a prepared class, which is basically race cars with an outer shell of the car that it is supposed to resemble. So definitely take a look at the rule book and see which class would suit you the best because it can get quite pricey. Here's a link to the rule book
http://www.scca.com/contentpage.aspx?content=61
But most of the things that you listed are legal for esp which is a great class for these cars since the esp champion for the last couple years is in a third gen.

 

Problem is, IMO, sfc's are a requirement just to have a happy car. I've got the crack at the back of the driver's window, and without SFC's that crack is only going to get bigger and bigger. To me it was necessary in general, not just for racing.

But unfortunately for AutoX, SFC's dump you straght into SM2 which is pretty much just race cars.

 

Get in touch with Sam Strano at stranoparts.com (hint: calling on the phone works best). He's got a few National Championship jackets for E Street Prepared, so he can get you started down the path of "biggest bang for the buck". During which time you'll be accumulating seat time, which is nearly always worth more than a big parts list in your sig.

I do understand the durability concerns, but the same approach to a legal ESP car can be used for an occasionally street-driven CP car.


Which model Buick? I used to autocross a '79 Malibu.


Norm

 

SFC's are perfectly legal in esp as long as they don't connect to more than three points per side, and if they connect to more than that, they would bump you to SM. (not SM2 which is now SSM)

 

I think that SFCs that aren't legal for ESP will bump you to CP.

I'm pretty sure that the SFC allowance in SM is carried over from ESP (SM can pick and choose from Stock, Street Touring, and Street Prepared allowances). You don't get any additional attachment points, and no lateral ties between the two SFCs - not even for supporting the chassis end of an otherwise legal torque arm that takes the TA pickup point off the tranny.


Norm

 

I stand corrected.

edit: I knew the lateral ties put you in CP. but I was thinking for some reason that SM would allow more attachment points which could make the spohn sfc's SM legal, but you are correct.

 

1987 Grand National, it is already setup for mostly drag than anything. I tried to auto-cross it once and ended up killing a lot of cones, there is just too much power to try and give it throttle with the wheels pointing anywhere but straight.

 

Which suggests slowing down the early throttle movement so that little changes in pedal position don't suddenly call up huge amounts more power. Most anything that improves "driveability" at lower speed/rpm will help a big-power car at autocross.

It's partly the car and partly the driver that goes into good auto-X times, and you'll probably be developing both sides of the equation at the same time.

Tweaking the suspension toward cornering - fixing the front vs rear roll stiffness, getting enough roll stiffness and resetting static alignment to keep the outside front tire near vertical, perhaps fixing the geometry (not just IC) is where this discussion is going to go.


Norm