Those of you with weak stomachs, do not like change, and believe 1978 gave us everything that we will ever need please back away now. Those of you who are still reading, welcome to 2016. This is a short story about evolution.
Many of whom who have been present during this metamorphosis have shown excitement and other have shown disgust. Over the life span of Ol’ Blue the pro-touring scene has evolved and so has Ol’ Blue. The purpose of this evolution has also changed over the years.
Going back 12 years Ol’ Blue wasn’t the old blue you know today. It was a mere gift to Mike’s wife and was nothing that would get much of a second look. It began as a “seafoam green”, 289ci with an automatic transmission. When first seen before the wedding Brianne though, “Mike sure has a lot of work to do.” After a quick 1 month to build the car it was ready to get driven to and from the wedding. It evolved into a simple performance street cruiser complete with the same 289, a toploader 4 speed, 9” rear end, blue paint, and a cleaned up interior. Over the next few years the car was a cool street car that just got driven. In 2008 the industry also began to evolve; performance parts and events alike. Good Guys Rod and Custom developed their autocross series. A couple years later the Run to the … events began to pop up around the country. During these early days most people were competing with their 350 horsepower, medium tires, and some bolt on suspension parts.
We then saw another level of evolution when people began to develop suspensions, chassis, and powertrains to get an edge on the other competitors. This drove companies that were content with leaf springs, panhard bar, bilstein shocks, and a Shelby drop to develop their knowledge of these vehicles to keep up with the trend. Now we have competitive events like Optimas Search for the Ultimate Street Car where if you want to compete you must push the envelope on development.
Without the evolution we would still be happy with polyglass tires and eight tracks.
Ya gotta love on them sometimes to make them better... I don't think I'll ever cut the fenders on Barney but I'm all for everyone else cutting theirs...if that's what they are into.
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Lance
1985 Monte Carlo SS Street Car
As per the intro on the last write up we had touched on keeping up with the times. Ol' Blue has gone through its evolution's and we had come to a cross roads. Do we lay over and leave the car or do we continue with the thoughts that made the car what it is now? Over much deliberation the decision was clear; Continuing is the only way to go!
With the decision now made we had to choose a path. Over the years we have done as much as possible to milk every second out of the old coupe. We could possibly fine tune a couple of tenths, but what we needed was seconds. Over the last few seasons it became apparent that we were among the skinniest of cars. As the years went on the manufactures have seen the benefits of widening the car and reducing weight transfer. This distributes the weight more evenly across all four tires throughout the turn, reducing the strain on the outside tires. As we noticed we were the narrowest by about 4" with respect to the rest of the field, not to mention taller than most as well, this only exaggerated our problem. The fix is now clear... Widen and lower to get on an even playing field, maybe even a bit of an upper hand.
Setting parameters is the first step. Scope crepe is a killer for jobs like this. The old..... I'm here so why not.... Always adds to the job. We do not have time for this so we added up what was realistic and this was a 2" drop and a 4" wider track. We can keep most of the guts of what we have with this. Re-engineering the front chassis will be at a minimum and the rear will need vertical clearance among several other things. Our one bit of scope creep needed will be a new wiring job. The wiring has been the same as the day the car was bought. Our goal was to be finished by the Circuit of the Americas Ultimate Street Car event.