clean8485 said:
Does the front end geometry on your Cutlass, with the Speedtech parts compare with Lance's car, with the altered mounting points for the front control arms? Any idea of upcoming powertrain changes? Are you considering a manual trans swap? Just curious.
I didn't realize he changed mounting points, I'll need to go back and look at his build thread a little more closely. I haven't modified any mounting points, the goal with the car is make things work great with off the shelf parts that even the most entry level car guy can install in his garage.
I want to be competitive like anyone else, but my budget doesn't allow going crazy like some of the big name guys in the Pro Touring world. I'd like to say I put the car together for under $10K but I think body work and paint will eventually put me a little over that. That's a far cry from the $50, 70,100K + cars that we see at events and in magazines so I'm pretty happy with what the car does with what I have into it.
Powertrain is last on my list. Next step on my list is getting the interior back together, I daily drive it and it's like riding in a race car right now. After that I need to get serious about a rear axle upgrade. I have a 9" but need to save a little more cash to narrow and set it up with the right brackets and stuff. I plan on running 3.50 gears. If I want to maintain my gas mileage I'll need to upgrade to an overdrive, I currently run a stock TH350 with a "towing" 1800 stall. I will likely look at doing a 4L65E. They have a good low 1st gear that gets you out of the gate quicker and a decent overdrive. So swapping axles includes a trans too, adding cost of course.
My opinion is that for a daily driver and autocross car I prefer an automatic. The trendy thing to do to be like everyone else is get a T56 but is it really necessary? I'm not as much interested in road racing the car where I think a standard trans is very useful. For autocrossing, not having to deal with a clutch and shifting is one less thing I have to focus on, I'd rather focus solely on my driving a good line. Getting stuck in traffic with a standard trans is lame, no two ways around that one.
Right now my 406 small block likely makes around 325 hp and 400 ft lbs at the flywheel. I think I'd like to have a little better acceleration on the straights, but going steeper than the 2.41 factory gears I have would take care of a lot of that. Right now the car runs 14.6s @ almost 98 mph at 3000 ft altitude. I go through the lights at 4500 in 2nd gear on 275-50-15 drag radials. I shift into 2nd just a little before the 1/8 mile mark. I think with the right gears and maybe some tuning the car could slip into the 13s, so I don't feel like I need all that much more power like everyone else's 500+ hp LS motors. Remember all the power in the world does nothing if you can't plant it. Even with my current set up I can blaze the tires exiting from a curve into a good fast straight. Part of that's tuning the suspension but it would be way worse with big hp. On a tight course like a Goodguys event what good does it do to have all that power and you can only use 1/3 of the pedal travel to get through the course? I like the feeling of flat flooring it when I can even if it's only 250 hp at the wheels.
My 406 is 17 years old and approaching 100,000 very hard miles. It still holds 45 lbs of oil pressure and runs flawlessly everyday, but at some point I'd like to convert to the efficiency and response of fuel injection. To keep things on the budget side, future plans are a 5.3 salvage yard truck motor with a simple cam and headers upgrade. I figure even with a truck intake (more torque) I can put 350- 375 hp to the wheels with something like that, which I feel is more than sufficient for what I'm doing. A 6.0 or 6.2 sounds better but the price goes up significantly and gas mileage drops. I like getting over 20 mpg and keeping money available for new tires, lol! For now I have a a spare 406 short block ready to go and another virgin 400 builder in storage if anything happens to this one.
