I'm getting my car ready for it's first autocross. It's a '94 with around 28k miles on stock shocks. Well I've got a 32mm 1LE sway bar on order and I've gotten the brakes (hawk pads, rotors, new fluid), power steering (flushed-cooler coming soon), and everything on the car ready. It's got relatively new Dayton Daytona ZR 245/50/16's from the previous owner (definately not my #1 choice in tires). How bad are these tires? I did find out that they're an econo line made by Bridgestone. I've got $400 or so and was wondering if I should replace the tires or shocks first. Any advice?

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1994 Chevrolet Camaro B4C 5.7L LT1 V8/T56 tranny 1 of 334
2000 Chevrolet Silverado LT Z71
http://wot.50megs.com/B4C.htm

 

I know this may not be what you want to hear, but spend the $400 on yourself and not your car. Take a look at http://www.autocross.com/evolution and try to find a school near you.

I'd recommend this until you get at least 5-6 autocrosses under your belt. Right now you don't know what class you might want to run in, and don't have an idea how your car will handle on an autocross course, and thus what you might want to change.

For instance, if you got shocks now, you might figure out that you're interested in doing some other suspension mods that would put you into ESP. Then you'd need to change springs to be competitive and you'd have to modify your shocks to work best with the new springs. I'm a big fan of doing things once. It's cheaper that way.


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Mike Taylor
'94 Formula
Holley cold air, Borla downpipe, Walker UltraFlo catback, BMR STB, BMR PHR, Ground Control coilovers, Bilsteins, 16x9.5 Rikens, Hoosier 275/45/16 A3S03, G2 Torque Arm, Torsen T2R

 

I agree with the previous person that you should learn how to drive in autocross before spending the money on upgrades. I started for the first time this spring and now I am addicted to it. My first suggestion would be to pump a lot of air pressure in those tires, go with the max psi in the front and about 2-4 psi less in the rear. Also first figure out what class you want to race in before you do your upgrades, I found out too late that after I added my new rear sway bar it bumped me up into ESP and I have the stock springs and shocks. I'd have to say that the suspension isn't the biggest problem in my Camaro Z28, it is the body flex, I put a strut tower brace and it was one of the bigest improvements for my car, bigger than the sway bars. I put SLP subframe connectors on my car and they really tightened up the chassis although I think it is the added weight at the bottom of the car that helped out alot on turns. I wish I had better tires I would prefer 17's over my 16's. I would suggest a strut tower brace and good tire pressure to start, it will only cost you $120-200. I got the G2 three point strut tower brace and I like it.

 

Mike-Sounds like good advice I've heard it before although with my attitude it's hard to modify things but I agree it's better that I wait. I'd hate to buy something and end up throwing it away later. I'll just let the car be for a while.

jp2002ls1-I'm eventually wanting to get into road racing but I want to autocross a year or more to get experience and $$$. Unfortunately my car is going to get kicked into street modified. When I bought it the previous owner had done three mods to it: Kenny Brown DD SFC's, 3pt STB (KB too I think), and CAI. It's also a hradtop so IOW the car is pretty tight. I'd prefer not to have sfc's right now but I've decided to leave them in for the mean time b/c they're weld-in, I'm still learning to drive, and b/c I'll probably want them in the future anyways. Sound like a good idea?

Thanks for the advice guys-much appreciated :-).

 

Tires will always help if they are the right ones. I've run some lousy (stock or near stock) cars that had really good tires and won in their classes.

SFC's do put you in SP, so plan your other mods accordingly. If you want to road-race, go to an event and ask someone who is already running at that track what they did then watch how the car works. Get those parts rather than Solo II as that is your stated goal.

TankII

 

Your KBDD subframe connectors technically aren't legal for SM since they are more than 2 pts. per side. The only ones that are legal are the straight bars from front to rear. I highly doubt that anyone would protest you locally though, especially until you start cleaning up in the class.

I'd certainly leave the KBDDs on the car, unless you want to sell them to me for a good price. Hehe.

 

well, if you are going for either shocks or tires........ I'd say shocks. Get some good ones! Once you have the shocks you'll have them for a long time. Tires on the other hand wear out. So you could abuse those and learn on 'em until its time to get new ones, which you'll have to do anyway.

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'94 Z28 MN6
'93 Vette ZF6
'87 MC SS
'86 Regal