1986 Camaro that turns!

[allenrj]

First a disclaimer, I've built this car over 7 years and its the week before finals so this is going to be a brief summary of the car and its history. I will also add pictures whenever I get a chance to get them all together from my various devices.

I purchased the car back when i was 14, for $1000, It had been sitting in someones backyard in Alexandria for a couple years and the father had purchased it to restore with his son but the son lost interest. The car was originially red and with GM's of the era the clear coat was completely gone. The car was originally equipped with a 305 TPI and 700r4 that was bad, the owner gave us an extra 700r4 to go with it and the adventure began from there.

My dad being the king of preventative maintenance had us pull the engine and reseal it entirely along with replace the bad transmission. Prior to the re-installation of the engine and trans we replaced all of the old worn out bushings, ball joints, shocks and anything else that was a potential hazard. The new components helped with the dry rot from sitting and you know 20 or so years BTW the car is 100% rust free. We also added in a new but cheapish dynomax exhaust because V8 along with some Foose Classic Legends that were ungodly heavy and were only 7 inches wide with 225 tires on all four corner. I was still young and had no clue what I was doing at this time.

After the car was back on the road and driving for about a year we started looking for paint shops that would do a good job and do it right. We found a local shop that was all about it but ended up jerking us around for six weeks with the car and never did anything but pull some trim off the day before we threatened to get the cops involved. Long story short the paint job is from MAACO and is far below my standards(having grown up going to car shows at Carlisle and other of the sort). The plan is to get through college and get everything settled and ultimately find a hard top car that I can transfer/build another car with the funds and time to do it the way I want to.

So back to the "originally equipped" 305, turns out someone took all of the 305 TPI components and slapped them on a chevy van 350 and threw it in the car with bigger injectors which caused the car to run horrible and never start when cold for a number of years soooooo what does everyone do? LS SWAP

I drove to NJ to buy a wrecked 02 Trans Am that we could use the entire drive train from which we did, we used the motor, trans, driveshaft, rear end, and gas tank for the swap and it worked flawlessly. Well mostly, the car haunts me with a cold start issue and wont idle by itself until the car warms up, we've traced it back to the IAC and have talked with many people and cant figure out why the IAC wont retract when cold.

After driving the car throughout high school I wanted to make it handle better and was introduced to autocross and track stuff from the club of which made me empty my wallet at the fastest rate possible. The mod bug to take this car known to fellow mullet men as a simple drag car and make it turn well had begun. The suspension has changed a couple times and ill just list the parts as the car sits today. Additionally, the 4l60e lasted one autocross season and was uhh lets say tired for the time being, so i picked up a t56 with 32k miles from a fellow ls swapped thirdgen that had all the parts needed and swapped it in over winter break.

Current Parts List
5.7 LS1
T56
Koni Yellow Shocks and Struts
Ground Control Weight Jacks
4th Gen gas tank(Internally regulates the pressure for the ls1)
4th Gen Rear end w/ Disc brakes
Upgraded 4th gen front brakes
2000 Forged OEM Vette Wheels all around 18X9.5 (275/35/18 w/ Potenza RE71r)
Fays2 Watts link(better suspension setup than panhard bars, allows rearend to stay centered through suspension travel)
GMMG Catback 2.5 from headers to y into 3 inch
Stainless Longtubes and single highflow cat
Tubular Rear control arms with relocation brackets to keep the geometry in check
Subframe Connectors(i will be adding additional braces to stiffen the wet noodle chassis that GM created)
Caster/Camber Plates(Not yet installed, sitting in the garage)
Stainless Steel brake lines and 4th gen master and brake boost(Sitting in garage)

Im sure that im forgetting a lot because the car has had a ton of changes but its extremely fun where its at. The t56 has a leak that ill be looking into once school ends and I plan to pull it out again and make sure everything is fine. In the long term id like to rebuild the ls1 with some cnc ported ls6 heads and a cam which should bump the car to around 450 wheel which is plenty for what I plan to be doing. Im looking forward to trying to get into the track stuff more but have been hitting every autocross event around and love to surprise people with what the car can do.

Like I said ill keep adding to this the more I remember and try to get some more pictures as time permits.

[Senor_Taylor]

I'm glad you've been a constant presence at autocross events for us! I personally love this car and its journey and I can attest that it 1) Sounds amazing and 2) is pretty freaking fast already. Thanks for not buying into Miata/BMW/Mustang and keeping some variety in the club. Also congrats on being an officer next year. I can't wait to see where this goes and what it looks like when it's painted.

[D_Eclipse9916]

I checked the garage and have2X 255/35/18 Hoosier fronts (wider than a 275 Hoosier, is a tire that was meant to get around a rule and then was banned for it in that class) and 2x315/30/18s for the rear. All autocross compound if you want them.


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[ScottyB]

i think this thing rules. always loved the 3rd gen from my Knight Rider days as a kid and still look way too long at trans am GTA's. i love the mod path with this and it strikes me as basically a more modern pro-touring build using a good foundation that gets overlooked.

keep going with it! any plans for the interior (seats, gauges etc) or are you going to stick with the stop/go/turn stuff right now?

[allenrj]

I checked the garage and have2X 255/35/18 Hoosier fronts (wider than a 275 Hoosier, is a tire that was meant to get around a rule and then was banned for it in that class) and 2x315/30/18s for the rear. All autocross compound if you want them.

Those would be great! Not sure when I'd use them due to the Cam-T rules of the 200 tread wear but may be great for circuit cross or something of the sort where the tread wear doesn't matter :lol:

As far as the interior seats and gauges are on the top of the list atm lol the mechanical speedo and gas gauge arent programmable and are all over the place. I've been looking at a racepak but havent decided yet. With the Ls1 swap i had to use a conversion box that takes the VSS signal and spins a cable so that I have a reading that is around 5mph +- but its very floaty.

As far as seats I want to pickup a set of Corbeau FX1 Pros, Ryan Herold had them in his car and I tried them out. The dilema is figuring out how to mount harnesses as harness bars arent made for thirdgens and the though of a cage is still a little out there.

[CaptainHenreh]

oh man, that's cool!

[rherold9]

As far as seats I want to pickup a set of Corbeau FX1 Pros, Ryan Herold had them in his car and I tried them out. The dilema is figuring out how to mount harnesses as harness bars arent made for thirdgens and the though of a cage is still a little out there.

My pro and regular are for sale if you are interested let me know. They are basically brand new. Used for 4 or 5 HPDE events.

As for the harnesses you don't want to run just a harness bar. Roll bar or leave the factory 3 points.

[D_Eclipse9916]

I checked the garage and have2X 255/35/18 Hoosier fronts (wider than a 275 Hoosier, is a tire that was meant to get around a rule and then was banned for it in that class) and 2x315/30/18s for the rear. All autocross compound if you want them.

Those would be great! Not sure when I'd use them due to the Cam-T rules of the 200 tread wear but may be great for circuit cross or something of the sort where the tread wear doesn't matter :lol:

You going to Hyperfest or Dominion? I can throw them in the trailer.

[davej]

I read the title and immediately my BS detector started going off...a Camaro that turns?! Nicely done though, it looks like a blast!

One of my roommates in college had a modified one as well, probably not as tight as yours, but man, it was a blast.
Also my favorite thing was blasting this on repeat for him.

[youtube]1v3CzvQ9e_w[/youtube] Fun starts about 2:00

[ScottyB]

this may be relevant to your interests
[youtube]m8_oJ5C9jZU[/youtube]

[allenrj]

I don't think ill make it to hyperfest due to having two autocross events that weekend and im doing the whole "points" thing but id love to get out to Dominion. When is that event?

I just watched the one take, that car has some "interesting" touches that i've seen on his social media but its slower than my toyota corolla haha.

As far as a rollbar/cage, have any of you installed one yourself? My dad just got a great new welding setup but a tubing bender would be a necessity. The though of one is iffy but sacrificing the back seats for safety and come additional rigidity wouldn't hurt too much. The only thing I would like is to do it correctly and not hack up too much, trying to stay away from the half asses thridgen community in the trailer parks.

[Jake]

Ryan (and I) can post about the Refrigerator Bowl later, but Chris just posted photos and I felt this one really needed a little spicing up. Today's Chevrolet!