Keeping the drum brakes on the rear so I can fit a pair of 15x8 Welds back there. Not sure how well it will do at the 1/4 mi. I'm hoping what ever I get under the hood it at least runs some low 12's.

Hurst

 

I will tell you, the road race stuff does hurt the drag side of the car. When we pulled the 347 from my car, $hawn threw it in a drag car setup. He changed from a Cobra intake to a Holley, 30lb injectors down to 24lbs, and changed the TB from 65 to a 70. The drag car ran almost a full second faster in the 1/4....

Yea... when I think about it too... I was running the anniversary 17inch wheels and he had the 15 inch welds.

 

This project kills 2 birds with one stone.
We sold my wife's Tibruon (No great loss there). And she's been searching for a 99 - 02 WS6 Trans Am or Firehawk. Nothing in our price range has really caught my wife's fickle attention span. She brought up the idea of buying our son's car from him and converting it to a road racer and I said I'd rather do my 93 GT than his 90 LX. Than she ask how much money would it take to turn the car into something that would match her 96 Cobra. I did the math and it came up less than half what it would to buy a car she likes,.. plus adding in what she will want to do to it. This way we are creating a car from scratch that we both can live with and it will be what we both want.

Sometime in mid Jan Bryan (351Coupe) will be getting the car and doing the paint and body work. Hoping it gets done by March. During that time I will be building a motor and my wife will be sourcing out the interior parts that she wants to change. It will be her daily driver and my weekend fun car. Plan is that when it gets back she will attack the interior and I will handle the suspension and drive train.

Colder than a witches you know what out there right now and supposed to get even colder tonight. Spent half the day today bringing in all the out door plants so they dont freeze. Most of them are tropical and wont survive the cold like that. The whole Florida room looks like a jungle LOL

Hurst

 

Did they make it?? My Florida room is just as cold as outside, only without the wind!

Also, did you decide on which wheel to go with?

 

The cactus can handle the cold, they'll be fine but my wife has like 30 tropical plants that had to be dug up and potted and then brought inside. A good size rubber tree thats in a humungus pot is inside now too. Our Florida room has heat so they are doing good. Not the warmest room in the house but a whole lot warmer than outside.


I didnt really want to let the cat out of the bag. I havent even let Bryan know yet. But I've decided on the look I want. Played around in photoshop for hours upon hours. Looked at hundreds and hundreds of cars to get idea's for wheels and such.

Going to paint the car Beryllium Orange. Its very close to Autumn Orange that Ford used on 97 GT's. Beryllium Orange was used on 2007 Saleen.

Here are a few cars with the color.
This is the actual color.


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Thats the actual color. I will be using a 4" cowl hood. I plan to have the cowl portion of the hood and the trim of the car then painted black. Similar to how these cars are done.




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I did some photochop,. its difficult to get the color to come out just right,.. but this is the type of theme I am going after.

I'm considering the wheels on this car or the ones on the last carl. But this is the over all look I am going after. Just painted like the cars above.


This one shows the hood I will be using. Not the front bumper cover. I'm staying with my stock 93 GT front cover.


The color came out bad on this one,.. but this is closer to how the over all style would come out. Just a taller hood.




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And more than likely these will be the wheels I go with. Either these or the ones in the first photochopped car.



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Thats it,.. cats out of the bag.

Hurst

 

I really like those!!!
However, after looking at the photos, the other wheels don't look that bad either. I would have to look at them for a while, but they are growing on me. I do think the color will look pretty awesome!! Ask Brian how easy it will be to blend? Some of the metallic paint is hard to get it to lay the same way the second time. The reason I say that, is when my brother and I used to road race, the nose would take a ton of damamge from the rocks, rubber, and other stuff off the track. Sebring was really bad for a while, before they resurfaced some parts of the track. A little rock at 130 will make for some nasty chips. If you are anal about the paint and want to touch it up... make sure that color will blend!!!

I would say that your secret is safe with me... but.... the cat is out!!

 

The wheels on the coupe are AZA Z-02's and really arent that expensive. 18x8 up front and 18x10 out back. Can get a set of 4 shipped to my door for $675 through Wheelmax. I have coil overs front and rear so I can set the ride height and stance of the car to pretty much anything I want.

My second choice wheels are these. I wrote the name down,.. they are either TSW or I-forge. They are a little more expensive but not like CCW expensive. I can still get 4 of them in the size I want for under $1000 shipped to my door.







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I hate the hood on that car. I tried to convert it to a regular cowl hood the best I could and then turn the color as close to the tone of orange as I could.


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I had the same issue with this car. Finding good images to work with is difficult. For some reason some cars convert color very well,.. others dont at all.

This was the original image.



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Then putting black on the molding and hood was easy.


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But trying to get a shiney metallic orange out of that blue was next to impossible.


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Picture the car above,.. in the color of this Saleen, with the wheels from either the coupe or the blue hatch above. Not the one with the Weld Draglites.


And that is the look I'm going after with my car.

As for road racing,.. that will be all my wife. I suck at it. She can drive circles around me. She will be running the car at Sebring and up in Ga at Road Atlanta. She has her solo license as well. If I do it I'd have to have an instructor in the car with me. I have just as much fun watching my wife rip up the track,.. and with her being as good as she is its fun to brag when she pulls faster lap times compared to some of the other drivers. My wife is only 5'1, 115lbs. With the tubular k-member, suspension and other weight reduction I should be able to get the car down to about 2950 - 3000lb curb weight even with the 351 in there. With her in the car it will be easier then with my fat 6'1 300lb lard ass in there.

Hurst

 

Where did you get a quote from on the Iforged wheels? I think they are just as expensive as CCWs, True Forged etc.

Do you think 18s will fit without rubbing on a road course? In one of the MM&FF mags they had this coupe on there and the wheels rubbed like a bitch supposedly.

 

It doesnt matter what size rim you run,.. 15, 16, 17 or 18,.. hell even a 19 will work in a fox. So long as you dont exceed a 26" over all tire diameter you can make it work in a fox with the right back spacing.

Here is a Fox lowered on 19" wheels. According to the owner,.. no rubbing issues at all.


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On my wife's 96 Cobra we ran 17x9 up front with 275/40 rubber and 17x10.5 out back with 315/35 rubber. This kept both the front and the rear tires at the same diameter so the ABS was happy. The overall diameter is 25.6 inches. I want to recreate the same staggard wheel look that we had on that car.

I've run 275/40 up front on a fox before. The only rubbing was on the inside plastics. I modified it and eliminated the rubbing. How ever on my car I'll be running coil overs and a 17x9 wheel with 275 rubber will rub the springs on the coil overs. I have 17x9 4 lug wheels on the car now,.. thats how I know they rub. The solution would be to run a 1/2" wheel spacer,.. but this will put the wheel too close to the fender and with out modifying it I'll get fender rubbing.

The main reason I'm going with 18's and not the 17" that I would prefer to run is because of the available rim sizes for the wheels I want. I need a 9.5 - 10 inch wheel out back and trying to find a 17x9.5 or 17x10 with the right back space is difficult. But finding 18x9.5 and 18x10 seem to be very common sizes and are available with the correct back spacing I need.

With a 255/35/18 tire up front,.. the over all diameter will be 25 inches. Thats smaller than if I had a 245/45/17 up front. This will fit up front with out the need of a wheel spacer to clear the coil overs and will not rub the fender.

Out back I could theoretically run a 17x10.5 with a 315 tire. I could make it work,.. but again,.. I have coil overs out back and 17x10.5 with a 315 tire puts the rubber right on the spring of the coil over. Wheel spacer with that size wheel is not an option because there just isnt enough fender to make it work. I want to go for the staggard wheel look. A 18x9.5 wheel with a 6" BS will fit perfectly,.. as will a 18x10 with a 6.2" BS. They will both tuck in the fender nicely and just need some minimal inner fender well management,.. (BFH mod). When I had 27x10.5 ET Streets on the car I could barely get a finger in between the rubber and the coil over.

I'm going to try to keep body roll to a minimum, running 225lb springs out back and 325lb springs up front,.. plus I will have some pre-compression on the springs when I lock them down to the ride height I want. Then using sway bars front and rear from my wife's old 96 Cobra. This should (Hopefully) minimize body roll.

This is with a 17x9 5.975" BS Rim and 275/40 rubber on the back. I can just barely squeeze 2 fingers between the rubber and coil over. With a 10.5 wheel and 6.5 BS I'm afraid it will put the tire into the spring. A 18x10 wheel with a 6" BS and 285 rubber should fit perfectly. Ditto with a 18x9.5 wheel.





Hurst

 

Dayum, it might not rub but it looks like if you cross a painted line going too fast you're gonna bend the hell out of some rims.