wow, now thats a GTO. That is going to be awesome:cheers:

Jeezzzz! Well, its now been 6 months since I last had any progress pics to post, and were finally wrapping up the last of the chassis/drivetrain/exhaust stuff. To be fair, my chassis guy had a bad fall on a dirt bike (at his age he should know better) and he is still going to re-hab. So that added a fair amount of time. Personally, Ive been working 60+ hour weeks since before Christmas, so I havent had much time either. Next week (likely Tuesday) Im hauling the car out of DSRC (race car fab shop) to the hot rod shop that will do the final assembly. Since we cut the entire floor and much of the firewall out to channel the body over the frame, the stuff we had to do for an NHRA 8.50 certification cage/chassis were pretty extensive. Some areas (roof/floor) were actually done to meet the next level of certification (7.50). More on that later. The custom headers turned out nice. Big thick flanges, with 4 bolts per flange, big 2.250" tubes and nothing hangs below the bottom of the frame rails. These will be the first set of headers that Ive ever had that wont leak or scrape the ground/car.

There is a positive side to this 6 month delay. A very reputable shop has developed 5 axis CNC programs for the newly released CV-1 Pontiac cylinder head intake and exhaust ports. It gets better. The manufacturer of the heads has just released a new intake manifold. This intake can be had several different ways. As a classid 2X4 'tunnel ram', with a plenum volume that can be adjusted (with spacers). Since the plenum is adjustable, you can put a top on this intake that mounts an LS style throttle body. I have this version of the intake on order. Should be here next week. My castings will go in for the CNC deal by the end of this month.

Once the car gets to the hot rod shop, things should start to get done at a much faster pace.

Thanks for the update & sorry about the delay.
I can't wait to see what you post next for us to view. That is one NASTY GTO!!:hail:

Amazing car who makes that front clip?

nice GTO! Looks to be coming together nice. :thumbsup:

xxxxx222222222!!:hail: :hail: going to be 1 badd ride!!!

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That glass front end is a VFN piece. Of all the fiberglass manufacturers, their stuff seems to be the most accurate as far as fit is concerned. All glass stuff needs a fair amount of blocking and surface prep work. But Ive seen stuff from other manufacturers that doesnt even come close to fitting.

The hood (havent posted any pics of that yet) is a 2" rise stock appearing ram air GTO hood made by Glasstek. This is the only piece Ive used from Glasstek, and its a pretty nice piece as well. Dont want to give to much away, but the hood will get some work to improve air intake and support a cold air feed directly into the centrifugal supercharger.

Frame work looks killer it that a Art Morrison?

This build still has me drooling! Cant wait to see more!

Yas I really am getting into this build got any updates

I did finally get down to get the car out of what should be the last trip to the chassis shop.
They made the final modifications to the Art Morrison frame. Basically we changed the inner frame rails to allow placing the mufflers as far back as possible (where they belong), slotted the original round exhaust pipe openings in the frame to allow for the oval pipe and added some X bracing in the frame to make the NHRA happy. When you remove the floor and large chunk of the firewall, they have some very specific things you need to do for safety.
They added an NHRA legal 8.50 moly cage. We used the Alston pieces that make it possible to remove the door bars and rear cross bar for more comfortable street use.
The custom headers were also fabbed, and I could not be happier. They clear everything, dont hang below the frame at all and are big tube (2.250") primaries which the blown motor will like. We had Spintech fab us a 28 degree bend transition (from 4" round to the equivalent size oval) and just incorporated that piece into the header. Turned out sweet.
And, for the best possible 60 foot times, we added a drag race style torsion bar mounted behind the rearend in a pair of spherical bearings mounted to each frame rail. This is a drag race only piece that easily bolts on and off.
Time to get going on some serious assembly.

And the final stuff to get the motor ready has begun. More on that later.

With everything else starting to move more smoothly, its time to turn my focus to the motor. Originally, the plan was to use the 4 barrel single plane CV-1 intake, modified for EFI. But after a mock up of the intake, Wilsons throttle body and Extreme 4500 hat (I borrowed one of those), the final setup sat a WHOLE bunch higher than we had anticipated. We were going to just live with it and mod the fiberglass hood.
However, a newly available universal tunnel ram is now available for the CV-1 heads. This intake has a 2X4 base with a configurable top. For a carb setup, you add a spacer to the plenum to make it the correct volume for your ci and RPM range. Then you add either a double 4150 or 4500 top depending on which style carbs youre using.
For EFI use, you add the required spacer, and a flat top. Then you modify the front of the manifold to accept a throttle body. And setup this way, its a bunch lower than the single 4 intake and all the required pieces. Pics are of a prototype 2X4 base that I borrowed to do some comparisons. I will be switching to the 2X4 base and front mounted throttle body setup. In addition to a lot less hood interference, it looks a whole lot cooler too.

Very cool.
Cannot wait for this beast to be done.:thumbsup:

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :cheers:

That is one wicked looking GTO. Can't wait to see more.

Quick update. No pics. Been focusing on the motor. The Pontiac CV-1 cylinder heads are almost done. They are getting the full 5 axis CNC treatment. At my net valve lift (.700") we expect just over 400 cfm thru the intakes (with the intake manifold in place) and just over 300 cfm on the exhaust (flowed with a 2.250" tube). The tunnel ram base is being flowed with the heads. Thats done. Has the bungs for the fuel injectors as well as the bosses under the manifold in each port tapped for NOS. Just in case. I ended up getting an Accufab throttle body. Its based on the Cobra/Lightening part, but they cut it completely open and put a single butterfly in it. Procharger already sent me the parts to hook it up on the pressure side. All of the other engine pieces are waiting for the arrival of the cylinder heads/intake. Should have the motor on a dyno by the end of the summer. Good machine shops dont do anything quickly.

On the car front, been getting LOTS of little nit pick items resolved. Running the complete exhaust system, with hangers, thru what little room is there (with the car so low) has been a real challenge. Everything needed to be tack welded in place (centered in its space) and then custom mounts had to be fabricated that would suspend the part without allowing it to move side to side. Dont want any rattles. Even had to move the inlets and outlets (on the mufflers) slightly to get the mufflers in just the 'right' place as well as get each side in a straight line. Getting the 3.5" tailpipes from the mufflers over the big rearend required raising the trunk floor for the needed room. Finally, we had to make custom split tip ends that exit in the factory locations. The rear lower valance needed the spots where the factory exhaust tips fit opened up a bit to have room for the new pieces. Turned out exactly the way I was looking for. If you bend down (way down!) and look under the car, you dont see a single part of the exhaust system. The fabricator has well over 40 hours in this. Big job that needed to be done right. Done.

With the tailpipes in, and the trunk floor raised, were starting the work on the fuel cell can. Target is a 100L (26 gal) and keeping it from hanging below the bottom of the car's body. Mostly. Im thinking we will have to have a little showing because there has to be a sump. Still working on this. Once the can is welded up (.062"-.093" series plate aluminum) it goes to Fuelsafe. They will make the bladder, top, etc.

Still working 60+ hour weeks. So this is taking a lot longer than I want it to. But I aint complaining. I know guys who have been out of work for 6 months.

Sounds good SDMan!!
She's coming along slowly, but nicely. Keep us posted.:thumbsup: