Opinions?

[bottledbird68]

Ok, so I'm getting readyto start cutting up my 68 in a week or two.
As some of you know I also have an 02 zo6 chassis here that I'm planning to use donor parts from.
Originally I planned to just swap the whole vette chassis under the car, rearmount transaxle and all. Now I'm debating...
Here's where I'm at, swap everything zo6 related under the car, lengthen he torque tube to match, and call it done.
Or, swap the vette front clip, keep the factory center floor/unibody, and hang a 4th gen style suspension/4th gen width 9" under the back to keep the track width right and update the rear. I know they make other bolt in crap but A. I don't see any real benefits over the 4th gen design, and B. I want the rear track width to match the front so I plan on ditching the factory rear regardless.

The vette rear setup would be great for weight bias as well as coolness factor but would require a bit more fab work. Also, I already have all of it minus the diff, so, it's cheaper.
The wider solid axle would be easier, and hook up much better at the drags. But, I'd need to buy eveything.

Ultimately my goal is to road race the car hard and drive the wheels off it on the street. It's been a drag car for the last 17 years and while I'm sure it will see the strip here and there, I could really care less about having it set up for the 1/4. Decisions decisions. Just looking for some discussion to help me make up my mind.

[My84Z]

If you wanna turn do the whole vette setup if u wanna do burnouts hard launches and drag only do the front the vette transaxle and tourque tube will not take burnouts wheel hop and drag racing well and niether will a tourque tube especially one lengthend

[bottledbird68]

My primary goal is hardcore handling and general street use.
But, anyone who knows me also knows it'll get driven, HARD. Hence my indecision.

[DemonWithin99]

option 'A' IMO

[c4boom]

vet set up all the way

[bottledbird68]

Ok, so, after some research I've come to some conclusions. To keep the motor close to the stock location I need to extend the torque tube to keep the vette transaxle. I've found a couple ways to do it. Get the housing extended and get a custom carbon fiber shaft.
Or, found a local guy who has extended one before and will do another one again. But, says he needs to do some custom machining.
Now, from what I'm reading online extending the aluminum shaft in the tube is not a good idea since even stock length shafts have been known to bend in 6 speed cars and making it longer is only going to make that worse. Hence why thy say go carbon fiber, it doesn't flex like the aluminum will.
So, either custom carbon fiber, or a custom machined aluminum set up for a third of the cost.
My issue here is that no matter which way I have custom made one off parts. What happens if I'm 500 miles from home on a cruise, I sidestep the clutch at say 4 grand from a 20 mph roll and my custom shit comes apart? I'm screwed and weeks away from a replacement.
My only other option for keeping the vette stuff in the rear is to see if I have enough room to set the engine back far enough to keep the stock torque tube. From what I've read the tube needs to be lengthened around 4". So, need to see if there's room to slide the motor back 4" and still have room for my feet lol.
If not I think I'll just go with a conventional t56 and put a 4th gen style 9" and rear suspension under the car and just use the vette front clip. That way my track width stays the same front to rear and I can ditch the archaic leaf spring set up. Plus, if I make the car all 4th gen from behind the front seats then I can use the 4th gen rear seat, suspension, gas tank, and everything. So that also solves a lot of issues.
So, I'm torn. Ultimate handling and weight bias, or, compromise it, keep a solid rear axle, and keep the car more "good at everything, perfect for nothing".
Basically, I'd love to use all the vette stuff and have no issues fabbing things. I just don't think I want custom made one off parts in critical drivetrain areas. I like to drive my cars hard and want to be able to get replacement parts easily. Hmmm....

[My84Z]

just use a standard t56 ds and a gto or a cts v rear set up>???

[bottledbird68]

just use a standard t56 ds and a gto or a cts v rear set up>???

I could but the only reason I'd want to deal with the complexities of an IRS would be if it were to keep the weight distribution of having the vette transaxle too.
Otherwise I'll just stick a widened 9" in there, some control arms, a torque arm, and a set of coil overs and be done with it.

[ILuvPizzaTimes10]

am i wrong or is there a company that makes stronger torque tubes? extending/welding it seems like a stoopid idea as they like to break on cars with bolt ons and drag radials. id look into a new front to back strengthened tube not just cut and weld yours. just my 2 cents.

[c4boom]

ya what are all the super high HP cars doing

[bottledbird68]

From what I found and was directed towards lg motorsports makes a carbon fiber shaft.
Direct vette replacement was $1,300, so, I'd need a longer custom one. And then I'd still need to extend the housing for the shaft on top of that. So, I'm looking at probably around 2g's I'd guess for something that would hopefully hold up, and if it ever fails will cost an arm and a leg to replace and take who only knows how long to get.
I haven't really found anything better yet but so far its sounding less appealing from a durability standpoint.

[ILuvPizzaTimes10]

Don. what do the vette guys do for stronger torque tubes?!?!?!?!?!?! im not talking the D/S inside the tube But the tube/housing itself.

[My84Z]

Dte makes a brace but i think thats it. Otherwise they switch to a real ds i think

[bottledbird68]

They switch to a regular shaft? Didn't know there was stuff to do that if that's what they do. That would solve all my issues.

[My84Z]

I could be wrong since i don'town one but with all the different trans swaps they must unless i am mistaken

[My84Z]

Sorry just looked it up they change the shaft inside the tt not the whole tube :(

[bottledbird68]

Yeah been searching around myself for the past couple hours and all I can find is the driveshaft shop makes an upgraded internal shaft to whatever length you want out of stronger aluminum, or a carbon fiber shaft.
From what I'm seeing there is no upgrade for the outer tube itself. Just braces to stop it from flexing.
While it would be great to keep the vette stuff I'm starting to question if it's worth it from a durability/cost standpoint.

[bottledbird68]

Ok, so I took some half ass measurements this afternoon and it looks like I'd have to recess the firewall about 6" to keep the stock tube length. Doesn't look like it would work out so well that way since I still need room for my feet ;)
So, guess I need to decide if I want to trust custom stuff or just say screw it and stick with a live axle. Hmm...

[BryanH]

Whatever way you go, it sounds like its going to be a tough project. You'll probably want to figure out which way you are going sooner than later because changing your mind would probably get expensive.

There's a few different types of turn racing. Autocross, track days, and road racing are all somewhat different from each other. If you are serious about one of these or another type.. just realize that how competitive you are rarely has to do with your setup. Especially if you have no experience. Once people get experience, then tweaking the setup becomes more important. Someone who's had no seat time usually isn't very competitive in the best setup car on the course. Another thing is in some cases you realize that you were worrying about the wrong kinds of modifications and some modifications actually hurt your performance and handling.. or they help but just bump you up to a harder classification.

I'm guessing for your case, I would solely do this for the "cool factor". If you want to take it to some track days or autocrossing, no doubt will you get a lot of compliments even at events that are dedicated to other cars like the BMW or Porsche club autocross events. If you want to be competitive, its usually a whole different path that you need to take that people don't really understand until they get some seat time under their belt. Doing it for fun is always fine, but most people who do it for a year or two typically don't want to keep on just doing the event for fun and not be competitive. Thus I would try to figure out whether you think the time and money you spend on setting the car up will be worth the time you think you'll spend using it for what you built it for.

That's just my .02. I don't want to see anyone spend a lot of money on something and find out it didn't really help. I'm at the opposite extreme.. I stick with stock classes and like to be competitive in them because they are cheaper cost wise and I'm also not a huge fan of working on my car every week

[bottledbird68]

Yeah that's kinda where I'm at. Trying to decide if it's worth it.

From a coolness factor hell yeah. But, coolness won't make it work any better. Just trying to decide what will be best for me. I keep waffling on the rear choice. I do however need to make up my mind soon though.

On another note, called the drive shaft shop today. They make stronger aluminum shafts to go inside the torque tube and will make it any length I want for an extra $50. So that puts me about $950 for a shaft then all I should have to do is have the tube itself lengthened. Which shouldn't be too big of a deal to have done locally.

So, hmm, is it worth all the effort for a rear mount transaxle and IRS over a conventional trans and live axle. Funny thing is with what I have here for parts even with lengthening the tube and shaft it would probably cost me a grand less than a solid rear/link style suspension. Hmmm....

In all honestly I'll most likely never race the car competitively. I don't have the time or the finances. It'll just be for my own fun on the street and the once in a blue moon track day

[bottledbird68]

Ok, so put a lot more thought into this and bounced ideas/theory back and forth with my other half last night.
Decided that the coolness factor and extra handling isn't worth all the downfalls I'd have to deal with to keep the vette stuff. So, solid rear axle it is. I'm thinking fourth gen width rear to widen the track width and basically just graft in a whole 4th gen rear suspension, rail/floorpan/gas tank and all. Solves a lot of my issues.
Then keep the c5 front clip and use a regular ls t56 and normal driveshaft.

No matter what my floors/frame rails are all soft and need to go. Whatever isn't soft is so fatigued it's had it. I've already cracked the rear rails twice so they're going. I'm thinking that all this will fit nicely into my budget, and work great. With the added benefits of being able to find replacement parts pretty much anywhere should anything fail. That's why I'm looking at grafting in factory stuff over any of the aftermarket bolt in kits for a first gen.

Plus by keeping the car a solid rear I can still have a prayer of putting down the power from the turbo'd 6.0 I'm putting in :)

[irockidz28]

nice! atleast you made a desicion...now dooo it!

[bottledbird68]

nice! atleast you made a desicion...now dooo it!

Soon. As soon as the car sitting in the bay makes it's way into the booth mine should be heading in :)

[c4boom]

whats in the booth now?

[bottledbird68]

whats in the booth now?

Nothing useful. Some early 2000's Chrysler Sebring. Light nose hit my landlords working on. He told me once it's out we can get mine in there and get rolling on it. Talked to him more yesterday, hopefully next week. He wants my fuel system out. Traded him the whole aeromotive set up and some cash for the white truck I got ;). I decided I want a regular tank and probably dual walboros or a big Bosch in tank pump.