Our 79 Monte Carlo- Pro Touring Project

[UMI Sales]

Hey GP.

I thought you'd like the mini-spool. I have bad memories of exploding one back in my pure stock days.

It already has a nice set of 3.73's in it so I think we're going to install an Eaton Posi. We just did one in our '85 Camaro build and it's working fine at a reasonable cost.

The slalom was pretty evil. Fun, but evil. Our main problem was timing it accurately (since it was 600 ft long and was difficult to look at the speedo while laughing). For the springtime we're planning to borrow our local SCCA chapter's timing light system. That way we'll be able to compare accurately and see how much the Flying Green Tomato beats the new cars.

ramey

Talk about fun. The three of us averaged a best of 14-flat when driving sensibly. The 3044-275 improved our balance enough to achieve 0.626g although the tendency was to break the back loose immediately upon throttle-on. This may seem bad but we expect our 1.250" front bar to balance the rear roll resistance and make the car awesome. We expected this result when using such low roll resistance up front. With the massive oversteer we decided not to try the front hole on the 3044 as it would have just oversteered a lot instead of really a lot...

Next step was the 600 ft cone slalom (another MT and R&T test). It consisted of seven cones spaced equally at 100ft. With the Green Tomato entering the first cone at the industry standard 45 mph all kinds of hilarious stuff happened. Jerry was the unofficial "loose condition" test driver and attacked the cones like a man possessed. Possessed with laughter. At one point Jerry had the car so out of shape it was close to bicycling on two wheels.

ramey

That is a great looking car and the color is awsome. But you know as well as I do with a mini spool how do you expect it to go thru corners with no rear stager. I know you're not wondering where the oversteer came from....

the slalom course must have been a blast with that car..

 

[pontiacgp]

have you considered a locker instead of a posi?. The pinion gears in a 7.5 posi don't have much meat on them and don't ask me how I found out.. :x

and how did the leMans do and do you have any pictures of it going thru the tests. That car is almost identical to the Tempest my dad bought in 70 for $3,400, the first year that model was sold in Canada

 

[UMI Sales]

have you considered a locker instead of a posi?. The pinion gears in a 7.5 posi don't have much meat on them and don't ask me how I found out.. :x

and how did the leMans do and do you have any pictures of it going thru the tests. That car is almost identical to the Tempest my dad bought in 70 for $3,400, the first year that model was sold in Canada

We have considered the locker but are trying to keep in the Pro-Budget price range.

The LeMans worked great and was actually the star of the show. We pulled 0.86g max on 17" street tires when our 2010 Mustang pulled 0.82g max on P Zero's.

We have LeMans stuff on our Facebook at facebook.com/umiperformance

ramey

 

[bourbon]

Love that color, always have. Would look good layed out on on some matte black wheels.

 

[UMI Performance]

Love that color, always have. Would look good layed out on on some matte black wheels.

That is exactly what we are doing 🙂

I think 18x9.5 in the rear.

 

[pencero]

wow viewing this thread really hurt bc my 79 gone & I'm missing it dearly now

 

[UMI Performance]

Hello Everyone,

Sorry for the lack of updates but we are finally getting back on this project and preparing it for spring.

The first steps are:

- Install and design C5 front brake swap
- Swap Transmission
- Install front suspension, then rear
- Wheels and tires
- Rebuild rear end

Right now we are working on the transmission swap. The TH350 and TCI torque converter in the car are shot, both need replaced. We are replacing the TH350 with a TH400. We choose the TH400 because we have a brand new never used TCI TH400 Street Fighter on the shelf 🙂

We are swapping the transmission now and I update as we make progress.

 

[clean8485]

Interesting looking exhaust system. Any changes planned in that area?

 

[UMI Performance]

Interesting looking exhaust system. Any changes planned in that area?

The exhaust was most likely built by an exhaust shop. Since it is virtually brand new we are going to let it on there and use it. We just blasted the headers, we have a few pin holes to weld then we will coat them.

 

[pontiacgp]

Are planning on boxing the C channel of the frame? I like that shop you have, it's huge. Do you get a chance to work on your circle track car there?