hey guys im new on here, im looking at alot of different things everybody has soemthing different, i want my 95 z to handle good enough to autocross it, i will be doing the motor but i wanna setup the chassis and evrything else ahead of time adn then drop the motor, in. i see prices on HAL shocks for 625 and kyb AGX shocks and there all expensive but what kind of setup would be good to get, and as far as motor, i wanna go all naturally aspirated but what are my options, i can do a 383 lunati kid, but will porting my heads and intake go well with that, i need some advice adn u guys are the ones who can help i appreciate any comments or suggestions. thanks again.

 

First you might want to decide which class you really want to be running in. That will determine what mods you can even consider doing. Just freshening up the OE pieces will let you stay in F Stock, where the car is competitive in stock form and will turn in decent times. Tuning what you've got and getting seat time will make those times drop. General consensus is that the Stock classes are better places to start your auto-x'ing in than classes that permit wild mods.

FWIW, all by itself, that 383 sounds like it'll send you past E Street Prepared and Street Mod directly to either Street Mod 2 (which is going to become a VERY tough class once it develops) or C Prepared.

Norm


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'79 Malibu, way not stock (355, 5 speed, . . .)
'95 Mazda 626 V6 5 speed, not entirely stock either
'01 20th AE Maxima, 5 speed, stock (so far)

 

yeah, don't mod your car yet - drive it!

start in F-Stock on street tires and see what you can do. Yeah, your tires will suffer, but just for the first season. Then you can get another set of wheels and some Kumhos or Hoosiers.

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94 Z28 LT1 M6 black !CAGS,!TBB,K&N FIPK,PFC-4 pads,SLP:airfoil,STB,flywheel/pp/disk,1LE:RLCAs,panhard rod,front sway bar,Global West SFCs,Eibach Pro Kit,Koni SA,B&M Ripper,Prothane bushings,Jet-Hot Hooker shorties/y-pipe,CarSound hi-flow cat,Hooker cat-back,RE730 245/50/16, GS-CS 255/50/16(autox)www.MrBigXL.com

 

If you are just starting out, any wild mods you make can very easily slow you down. Too much power CAN be bad. That's a hard lesson to learn. Check the rule book in the club you're gonna race with. Not all are the same. Changing to a 383 is a HUGE change and will most likely put you in a class with some pretty tough competition. For your first mod, if you're still able to run in stock class, I'd recommend a used set of wheels with some sticky new street tires. Then you might go to suspension mods such as springs, shocks, sway bars, strut tower brace, subframe connectors and maybe even better brakes if you want to branch out into road racing. When you start adding all these mods, you'll be bumped out of stock class. Get some 'real' race tires as soon as you can.

AutoX, believe it or not, is mostly handling. It does help to be able to nail the gas and zip down the strait shoots. But there usually aren't too many of those on an autocross course.

Once you get used to your car's suspension mods, and have got it tuned nicely, worry about the power mods.

I've been autoXing for over a year now and this is what I've found out. I started out in an old Civic 4dr and quickly jumped into my 383 Camaro. My times really stunk in the 383 because it wasn't set up correctly for autoX. That and I hadn't learned how to drive yet either. I still have a lot to learn. But I have learned not to race a car with more power than you can control. Not meant to be insulting. Just honest.