Another Kid from Texas and my 57 Chevy, no its not stock

[rat_rod_russell]

I’ve been floating for a while now and I thought I should formally introduce myself so I can ask some other questions. I’m Russell Alexander from Central Texas. My family has a Little Hot Rod Shop down here. My father was focused on building cursers and comfort cars using the C4 Corvette suspensions. That was all fine and good until I build my 57 Chevy Sedan named Black Widow and decided to toss it around at an Autocross and then I was hooked, but then I decided I needed to make some changes. Sway bars, Dual adjustable shocks, Movement of the roll center on the rear end and road school for the driver. Cut some weight and now I just need to learn to drive so I can fully tune the chassis.

So My car, one 1957 Chevy 150 Sedan.
-Chassis
Hot Rod Jim’s C4 Rolling Chassis
Lowered 6” front and 5” Rear
85 Corvette Suspension
2 Turn Power Rack and Pinion
All Urethane Bushings
QA1 Dual Adjustable Coil Over Shocks
30 MM front sway
18 MM Solid Rear sway
Adjustable 4 bars
Dana 36 Rear Differential
3.73 Gears
Stock Limited Slip Clutch Pack
C5 Corvette Brake Upgrade
Twin Piston Front Calipers
12.6” Front Drilled Slotted Rotors
Single piston Rears
11.8” Rear Drilled Slotted Rotors
Hawk Pads
17”x8.5 Front Rims with 245/45/R17
18”x10 Rear Rims with 275/40/R18

-Motor Transmission
LS1 03 Corvette
Camaro pulleys computer and TB
Custom Cam
T56 Viper Spec
2.66, 1.78, 1.30, 1.00, .74, .50
Steel 3-4 Shift Fork
Carbon Ceramic Synchronizers
Brass fork pads
Stage 3 Spec Clutch
Steel Fly wheel
C5 Long Lube headers
Full 2.5” Dual Exhaust
Cheery Bomb Glass Packs
Steel Driveshaft

-Exterior
Black Widow Paint
150 Trim and Logos all Air Brushed On
C5 Corvette Flags with “Fuel Injection” logo
Shaved Door handles
Remote Poppers
Remote Trunk
Dark Tent
Narrowed bumpers

-Interior
Race seats
4 Point Harness
K-O wool Insulation
6.2 Inch touch screen Head Unit
CD/ DVD Player
4 - 6”x9” 600 Watt Mids
AMPS
Auto Meter Gauges
Tuned With EFI Live
LC-1 Wide band

[rat_rod_russell]

A few more



It always fun to see the looks you get when you show up in a 1957 Chevy at a autocross or a road event.

Thanks
-Russell

[montessaj]

Russell,

Welcome!

Beautiful '57. I see your from Luling. I am from Lampasas, Tx just north of Austin. I love what you have done with the car. I am doing a PT 1983 Monte Carlo SS. The car looks great and I think its cool that you autocross it.

[XcYZ]

Cool car, welcome aboard.

[Hdesign]

Glad to see you made it over here Russell! No shortage of great people and cool projects here!

[98ssnova]

Cool car looks grea and welcome to the site another texan we are gonna take over

[JamesJ]

Looks good, I love the City Market BBQ!!! and Welcome...

[simbad's68]

Sweet Ride.. Welcome, it's good to see more Texans on the site. I'm just north of you in Leander.

[rat_rod_russell]

Thanks all around for the warm welcome.

Have any of you guys from around Austin been to The Driveway? Bill Dollahite, a retired Ferrari Prototype driver and team owner, built a road race course in south Austin. But it’s not a high end country club design, it’s a school aimed at the more budget racers. 300.00 bucks and you take the L1 class, one day with 2-3 hours of track time and a little class room discussion. After that you can come up any of the open days and get to run on the short course, 25 bucks for a 20 minute session. Most of the instructors are on site and they’ll continue to work with you on lines, technique, and setup ideas. On my first trip after the class I was still screwing up the hairpin corner and after 3 laps Bill gives me the black flag. I’m thinking I broke something I pull in and Bill gets in the car and tells me “your line sucks we need to work on that, now drive.”

So with the autocross guys being shut down for a while I’m trying to spend a bunch of time up there. I ninja’d the front tires for my father’s 57 hardtop and the rear tires for the 57 truck project here in the shop. Now I have 275 at all 4 corners and with 35 profiles on 19’s in the rear and 40 profiles on 18’s up front. Grip ahhhhhhh.

I know that the Maxx Q data loggers are not the most accurate in the world but once the tires heated up and I got the pressures right I spikes 1.37 lateral G’s on my last lap with .98-1.19 being the average through the rest of the laps around the course. I’m still under steering and I had a buddy with me taking photos at that corner. The back’s lifting quite a bit so I’m going to bump the spring rates on the front so I can throw it a little harder.

[Kendall Burleson]

Welcome Russell that car is a kick to drive love it even with the tires trying to spin at the touch of the loud pedal. killer car