On my 1985 corvette, I am thinking of selling my whole dash and gauges and everything and building a custom aluminum dash and guages, installing a 12 point roll cage and corbeau seats, harnesses, I am going to get rid of the entire TPI injection setup and make the engine carburated. I will also get rid of the air conditioning and all computer wiring and everything to cut weight. This will still be my daily driver so I won't build the engine to be to rough. Well what do you guys think???? Do you think I should get rid of the entire dash and air conditioning and stuff and build a custom dash??

I know the 12 point roll cage isn't necessary but it would be cool and taking the dash and air cond. and everything out will cut a lot of weight. I already built up my trans and my entire suspension (should be pulling atleast 1 G on skidpad) I have always wanted a daily driver car that could handle great drive fast and be safe, my goal is a street car that gets 20+ mpg on highway, high 11's in quarter and 1.10 G's on skidpad. Please give me your input.

 

Keep the TPI, just get a holley stealth ram (i know u will need a different hood). The a/c u should also keep if you can. Daily driver? U will be needing it.

As for the instrument cluster I would get a nice piece of metal or aluminum and possibly dress it up with some stick-on carbon fiber or something. White face gauges would look cool with the right background.

The cage is up to you. The C4's are hard enough getting in and out its up to you if you want to make it any harder.

Oh, and you want gas mileage? Not with any 4bbl carb. You definitely need to stick with EFI if you want gas mileage and reliability.

 

In short, no way. If you're building a track car only, by all means, but an every day driver? A 6 pt. cage in a C4 will work just fine with a-pillar bars. Join the rollbar hoop to the a-pillar bar down low so you can get out of the car fairly easily and you'll have a pretty safe compromise for a daily driver.

Keep the TPI and A/C for a street car. I can't imagine a good reason to take them off considering your goals.

Definitely go with 17x11 wheels and 315/35/17 tires all the way around though. I have them on my Firebird and couldn't believe the difference from 275/40/17 tires. Bruce Wentzel has a C4 with that size Hoosier on it and it looks really good, as well as is very fast. I'd take a good look at his car next season as he's pretty much done what you're trying, except for the engine work you want.

 

Thanks for the advice (94bird) I might just go with a 8-point cage with swing out bars near the doors, then I don't have to redo the whole dash. I was thinking of 17X9.5 on front and 17X11 on rear, I don't think 17X11 would fit in the front. Jegs has a 8-point cage that might work well.

 

17x11 will fit in the front. There are quite a few BSP C4 drivers out there using this combination. Bruce is one of them locally. Don't spend your money yet, I'm tellin ya.

Look at it this way, how are you going to like seeing my car pull away through a turn next year just because you don't have 315 tires on the front?

I'll tell you what. My wheels and tires are stacked right now in the garage. Bring your C4 over one weekend and we'll bolt one up to your front and see what needs to be done. I have the 36mm offset wheels which I think would be a good test point for you.

Mike

 

Hmmmmmmmm, I was set on 9.5 rims on the front but that would be a shame if your whooping me that bad at the track, I'd appreciate it if I could bolt a 17X11 on the front to see how it would fit, I know I would need spacers, my rims now are only 16X9.5 94bird, you should drive my car, I'm curious to see what you think of my suspension.

 

Send me an email and we'll work out a time when the weather's decent hopefully.

 

HEY MIKE, convince him to upgrade his front brakes!!! i like the mod you did! seriously if you want to sell your front calipers and rotors to upgrade let me know.

thanks,
mike

 

I just checked with some other C4 owners who run 17X11's on the front and they said they rub the hood, also they stick out 1.4 inches from the fender, the rears will fit 17x11 but I guess I'll have to bolt some on to the front to test it before buying some.

 

This is how I want my car to look except for the hood, a different 8-point cage, two seats and streetable, and my car is black.

http://groups.msn.com/vetteracecar/shoebox.msnw?Page=6