Tinman

Absolutely nothing, the floor was cut out. It did come with a full floor replacement pan.

http://www.columbusracing.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=784&pictureid=8965 Drug this home today. Build thread to come. 1968 Mustang parts for sale thread to come as well as I only need her skin. Yea, that sounds creepy.

If the current volume is to your liking, look into a Helmholtz resonator. It can easily be tuned to the RPM range that needs attention.

Thanks! Sorry, that was the first time I had taken the Z06 out on any track. I've always found the sound of factory C5s pleasing and never bad. However I do think I have improved upon an already great sounding platform. I haven't experienced the popping sound but have heard of issues with the factory C5 seats. The tunnel brace is a "structural member" that doesn't have anything to do with the seats. *In quote marks for the various opinions on it's usefulness.

Bummer. The T bird is a little too narrow to fit over the roll cage. The search continues.

Much appreciated but for something I'm going to cut into pieces and scrap almost everything but the painted bits, it's more than I want to spend.

It would be but I gave up on the 4 door wagon idea due to egress issues. I'm far from fat but would like to be able to get in and out easily through a long coupe door window. The cage makes any actual door useless, it's going to be a Duke boys type entrance/exit. Texted back and forth with him as he was looking for a work truck trade. I think my work truck is too ugly for him. Rarer than hen's teeth. I'm going to look at a Thunderbird Turbo Coupe this week. If it's solid and will fit over the cage, I think this project might just get underway. Stay tuned for the next half decade as I overthink and under engineer a catastrophe.

I dig the old school Mercedes direction. I imagine finding one in coupe form will be difficult to impossible. Four door sedans won't fit the rollcage structure very well and that's a sticking point for me. I looked briefly at the vintage Mercedes SLs but they are far too small to stretch over the chassis.

A new possibility is upon my radar, Mercedes CLK. Wheelbase is close enough. Overall width is about right. I've spotted one decent example on craiglist and I'm guessing there are more out there for cheap due to German engineering issues. If anyone happening across this thread knows of a cheap clean example with mechanical issues for sale, please post it here.

Merkur, very cool. I'm too hillbilly for a Euro ride though. Third gen F body would be cool but I don't think it has enough greenhouse room for the roll cage structure. If it's G body, it's has to be an aero version. Pontiac pulled it off best in my opinion but those are stupid rare. Eldorado? Fuck, that's a challenge to make look cool. I love a challenge. If you can find me an Amazon for a decent price, it's on.

Exactly.

The salvage title or kitcar process is both too much of a hassle and borderline impossible. Both require inspections and the later requires receipts for all major components which I do not have as the engine was built a decade ago. A full frame or unibody car will be fine as only the skin will make it to the final product. A truck body will not work as the roll cage section of the chassis would be halfway into the bed, along with the driver's seat.

Lots of excellent suggestions. Thanks gents. The Barreta GTU is a great looking body. Looked even better in the IMSA race car form it was named after. I don't think the roof would be wide enough though and that is an issue as I want to use the factory glass windshield. I like the Cordobas too. I'm imagining running the exhaust out of the opera windows in the C pillars. It's a sickness. G bodies would be wide enough but the wheelbase is a bit long and I don't think I could find a cheap one without a mess of around here. The Clyde Torkle Chicken Pit Special is still in the lead. With the 740 wagon running a close second.

I'll leave that on to you. I don't think I could pull it off.

And CR delivers. You won't catch me saying this in public, but yes the older Grad Prix's do have some nice lines. Height should not be an issue, lower roof line would be better. At ride height, the roll cage is roughly 42" from the ground. The more pictures of Awesome Bill from Dawsonville posted will greatly sway me towards the T-bird. The wheelbase chart, Win! But Neon, no. Volvo 740... wagon, hmm...

So, this has been on jack stands in my garage for far too long. http://www.columbusracing.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=784&pictureid=6642 2012 Howe TA2 road race chassis, fuck 2012! Half a decade and little progress. The original plan was to build it for NASA Super Unlimited and retire Black Betty, the 3800 powered RX7 I had been racing in NASA Performance Touring D. The build started off great. Set the SB2 SBC from the old gray RX7 between the framerails and built the 180 degree headers for it. Then things got in the way. I started racing Black Betty with the fine folks from Road and Track in the American Endurance Racing series. The remodeling of the house started. I bought a Z06, mid life crisis and all. And a bunch of other poor excuses for not working on it. But now, a new plan. I hate to admit it, but the Roadkill episode featuring the Nascarlo kinda put one of those cartoon lit light bulbs over my stubborn noggin. Driving something with over 600 naturally aspirated horsepower on 12" wide sticky tires that weighs less than a current compact car on the street sounds like my kind of fun. So I'm thinking I need a car with a clean VIN that will "fit" over the chassis The multi point challenge, I don't want to modify the Howe chassis in any major way that would prevent the original Super Unlimited plan to happen. I do not want to alter the wheelbase of the chassis and don't want to alter the wheelbase of the VIN donor more than an inch or two, it has to look right. I don't want to add too much weight, just going to steel versus a racing fiberglass body will likely put it close to 3500lbs. So, I'm on the search for a cheap two door car with a wheelbase of 104" +or- 2". It has to fit over the rollcage, so it will need to be front engine and rear wheel drive or at least have the silhouette that makes it appear so. Width is a plus as the door bars measure 72" wide. And a larger concern, unless using a Kenworth or Peterbuilt, wide body fenders will need to be fabricated as the track width is roughly four metric fuckyards. I would like to be able to blend the wider fenders on gracefully and not have them look ridiculous. What I have found so far and am leaning towards is a 9th gen (83-88) Thunderbird. Wheelbase is spot on. Overall width is an inch shy of the door bars but I have a contingency plan for that. Now, I ask you CR. What else is out there? What am I overlooking? Should I really be doing this?

Not much to report, at least nothing great or awe inspiring. Brian was able to squeeze it in on his dyno. It made very similar power to another Z06 equipped with standard style long tube headers. I was hoping to see an increase in torque around 3500-5000 but there is nothing extra there. I'm still very pleased with them for the sound alone, making music was the reason for the build. On the sound side of things, I installed a pair of GHL bullet mufflers and was disgusted with the noise it made. Absolutely horrid! They were sold and another pair of factory ti mufflers were installed so I can enjoy it a little before the weather turns ugly. When it does, I'll look into fabricating some mufflers in the hopes of turning up the volume and dropping the tone an octave.

How many innocent people must needlessly die in said scenario? I'm not going to get dragged into this "conversation". I just want you to think for a moment what you are suggesting. I'm done here.

Well, photobucket has decided to be complete dicks and no longer allow 3rd party linking unless a "ransom" of $400 is paid. Thanks to Chris for alerting us to this bullshit, http://www.columbusracing.com/forums/showthread.php?t=127255 So all of the photos of this build thread can no longer be viewed in the thread along with the descriptions until I move everything to a new host. To be honest, I don't know if I will ever find time to do so. For now, here is a link to my photobucket library where all the pictures that were once in this thread can be found, http://s157.photobucket.com/user/tinman_015/library/

That's about the sum of it. They are typically done towards the rear of an exhaust system as that's usually the only area with enough room. One thing that might, but probably not, be worth looking at is the exhaust temperature in different parts of the system as it will have a very minor effect on the proper length of the resonator pipe.

SOLD

The loud volume is only the first problem you might encounter. A straight through magnaflow style muffler will help to decrease the volume and rasp but you will then find drone to be an issue. A properly tuned helmholtz resonator can do wonders in decreasing or even eliminating said drone.

According to Jalopnik this car should be worth somewhere North of $5000 as it's a manual transmission equipped brown station wagon. But I'm reasonable, $350 CR price. It has been my winter beater for the past half decade but it's replacement was recently purchased and it's time to pass her on. Buyer owes me a picture of the odometer reading 300,000 in the next year or two. https://columbus.craigslist.org/cto/6182376605.html

Better but it's a far cry from any other track around. They put down 5" of asphalt over the old surface. I'm not sure what prep was done to the old surface but they did not do anything to make it any flatter. The huge dip after the bridge is still there and the dip at the apex of the kink is still the same which is kinda nice actually. With all the nannies turned on, the traction control was pulling power at several spots on both the front and backstretch due to the undulations. Currently, the new surface stands tall of the grass by it's full thickness. They said it would be addressed very soon but did not mention what fix would be done. My guess, topsoil and grass seed.

Thanks. It was recorded with an external microphone hanging around 18" behind and 6" above the exhaust tips. Still no drive by videos yet.