01-28-2019, 10:39 PM
When I was asked back in October if I was interested in this car, I knew it would make a great project to build up for autocross. I've liked 5th gen Grand Prixs for a while, and now that I have one I want to make it worth a damn performance-wise. Stock this car makes 160 horsepower with 185 ft/lbs of torque with a 3.1 liter pushrod v6. Not the best, but that doesn't matter. Engine swaps for this car are well documented and can be done for under $700 easily.
![[Image: KBuZGQc.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/KBuZGQc.jpg)
With a car like this the suspension should be upgraded before one even considers triple turbo supercharging the engine to run 3 second quarter miles. Thankfully, this car has the sport package, so it already had a stiffer suspension system from the factory. What I am working on currently is stiffening it up further.
The stiffest sway bars that ever came on one of these first gen W-bodies were 34 mm in the front and 22 mm in the rear, and they came with the 1995-1997 Monte Carlo Z34. I recently pulled these from one in a junkyard.
![[Image: c5gHEtn.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/c5gHEtn.jpg)
Extremely dirty, but they'll work without any problems.
![[Image: WYYc5HH.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/WYYc5HH.jpg)
Here's the front bar after wet sanding. I'm going to give it a fresh layer of Rustoleum once it warms up a little bit.
Thats as far as I have gotten so far. I'm going to wet sand and paint the rear sway bar once I have the time to, and I plan on installing them when I have a warm weekend. To go along with these stiffer sway bars, I am getting front and rear strut tower bars. They are both in the mail, and I'll post them as they arrive. The factory front strut bar only ever came with Oldsmobile Cutlass Convertibles, and mine in particular came from a '96 with the 3.4 DOHC v6, which means if I do swap the engine it'll still fit fine. The rear was made by a guy on the w-body forums in a small batch a few years back, I managed to grab the last one he had, which is lucky because nobody makes strut bars for this generation Grand Prix anymore.
After I install these sway bars, I want to give the car coil-overs, which wouldn't be too hard except the car has a transverse leaf spring in the rear. There are guides on how to ditch this setup and give it traditional coil-overs, so thankfully I have lots of material to help me out. It'll be a pain in the ass but it will be worth it in the end.
This will be one of those projects that will always have improvements that can be made, but that is exactly what I want.
With a car like this the suspension should be upgraded before one even considers triple turbo supercharging the engine to run 3 second quarter miles. Thankfully, this car has the sport package, so it already had a stiffer suspension system from the factory. What I am working on currently is stiffening it up further.
The stiffest sway bars that ever came on one of these first gen W-bodies were 34 mm in the front and 22 mm in the rear, and they came with the 1995-1997 Monte Carlo Z34. I recently pulled these from one in a junkyard.
Extremely dirty, but they'll work without any problems.
Here's the front bar after wet sanding. I'm going to give it a fresh layer of Rustoleum once it warms up a little bit.
Thats as far as I have gotten so far. I'm going to wet sand and paint the rear sway bar once I have the time to, and I plan on installing them when I have a warm weekend. To go along with these stiffer sway bars, I am getting front and rear strut tower bars. They are both in the mail, and I'll post them as they arrive. The factory front strut bar only ever came with Oldsmobile Cutlass Convertibles, and mine in particular came from a '96 with the 3.4 DOHC v6, which means if I do swap the engine it'll still fit fine. The rear was made by a guy on the w-body forums in a small batch a few years back, I managed to grab the last one he had, which is lucky because nobody makes strut bars for this generation Grand Prix anymore.
After I install these sway bars, I want to give the car coil-overs, which wouldn't be too hard except the car has a transverse leaf spring in the rear. There are guides on how to ditch this setup and give it traditional coil-overs, so thankfully I have lots of material to help me out. It'll be a pain in the ass but it will be worth it in the end.
This will be one of those projects that will always have improvements that can be made, but that is exactly what I want.