Project Tomahawk: 1967 Pontiac Firebird 400

[atomicjoe23]

I was able to attend the Del Mar Goodguys show this weekend (got to see Steve Rupp's '68 Camaro "Bad Penny" as well. . .I hope that my car turns out as clean as his!!!) and I was able to get a few more ideas and make up my mind for some areas where I was still indecisive.

I have decided for sure to go with a 3-link rear suspension vs. a 4-link or the truckarm suspension (I will probably end up coughing up the cash and going with the Lateral Dynamics 3-link vs. using parts and fabbing my own version. . .I have had no luck in getting response from AFCO Racing concerning the parts I would need from them to make my own 3-link. . .and I was able to talk with Steve about the Lateral Dynamics piece so I made up my mind on that one) and I will be using a Watt's link instead of a panhard bar. The more that I have read about the differences between the different rear suspensions and the more I have been able to talk with others I believe that the 3-link and the Watt's link have distinct advantages over the other types of rear suspension. . .and although most of us may not be able to tell the difference between a good 4-link with a panhard bar and a good 3-link with Watt's link (either due to our own inexperience or because the car is not driven hard enough in the right environment. . .I hope not to be in the latter group) I would still know in my head. . .so I will go ahead with the slightly more expensive 3-link with a Watt's in the rear.

I was also swayed slightly more in the direction of the DSE front subframe vs. CAR subframe not because one is better than the other but due to user friendlieness. . .I can buy the DSE front subframe and install it myself whereas the CAR subframe is a completely custom job and is more oriented toward the straight-up track car vs. a dual-purpose project such as my own. . .the only thing I still have to look into now is the Art Morrison front subframe after talking with Steve Rupp this week.

I was able to look at a lot of interiors as well and it has helped me make some forward progress on what my ultimate desire for my interior to look like as well. . .I will have to wait to post further on the interior until I actually get my car out here to Cali though.

I also just checked out the Marquez Design website again for the first time in a while and saw the billet '69 front lights and I will be using these as opposed to the stock '69 Camaro foglights in my front valance panel.

Once I get the car out here though I will be taking lots of pictures of everything that I do and I will keep this thread updated with pics and info as much as I possibly can.

[Bandit Ls-1]

awsome renderings i like the 3rd one...the darker silver with the silver stripe but without the camaro foglights and the flares not so big, i think with the fog lights theirs too many lights up front and those flares r overkill, well goodluck with it dude.

[G-Body]

Dude dont touch it! that car is beautiful.
plus nothing wrong with going in a sraight line !!!

[atomicjoe23]

Originally Posted by Bandit Ls-1

those flares r overkill, well goodluck with it dude.

Check out these fender flares. . .these are what the flares will look like in real life:

'69 Camaro in primer. . .rear 3/4 view right
http://www.racehome.com/images/dynowestcamaro.jpg
'69 Camaro in primer. . .rear 3/4 view left
http://www.racehome.com/images/camar...ro-touring.jpg
'69 Camaro painted. . .front 3/4 view right
http://www.racehome.com/images/camar...estcamaro1.jpg
'69 Camaro painted. . .rear 3/4 view right
http://www.racehome.com/images/camar...estcamaro2.jpg
'69 Camaro painted. . .side 3/4 view
http://www.racehome.com/images/camar...estcamaro3.jpg

[atomicjoe23]

Originally Posted by G-Body

Dude dont touch it! that car is beautiful.

Thanks for the compliment!!!

Originally Posted by G-Body

plus nothing wrong with going in a sraight line !!!

The good thing about a straight line is that it gets you to the next curve in the road!!!

[tyoneal]

That car has always looked Kick Ass.

The light blue with the orange reminds me of the Old Porsche 917's from the early 70's.

You have to have a Bad Ass car to pull it off correctly.

Ty

[atomicjoe23]

Originally Posted by tyoneal

The light blue with the orange reminds me of the Old Porsche 917's from the early 70's.
Ty

Reminds me of the Gulf Ford GT40's back in the late '60's when they were schooling the Ferrari's!

[atomicjoe23]

Decided to go with the matte finish for the rendering. . .Brian says I can always get a glossy from him later if I want.

In other news I've been starting to do a bit of aerodynamics reasearch concering airflow over, under, and around the car. . .so I may be changing some things on the from the rendering.

The two areas that are going to get the most attention in my research are going to be the nose and the tail. I've wanted a front spoiler on the car from day #1. . .brings to mind the TransAm racers of the late '60's/early '70's but I would like to see if I can figure out a way to retain the look of the current style of front spoiler in the rendering and incorporate a front splitter as well (I recently saw the new MTI Racing carbon fiber C6 front splitter/brake duct housing and I loved it); the thing that is most likely going to change for sure is the rear spoiler though. . .the ducktail style spoilers are probably more effective at creating downforce than are the '69 T/A style spoiler I have on the car in the rendering. . .too bad though because I've always liked the '69 T/A spoilers on the '67-68 'Birds! The only two other places I will be looking at will be the underside of the car and possible some sort of venturi or rear splitters. . .check out this thread to see someone elses versions of the stuff I'm talking about

http://www.pro-touring.com/forum/sho...ont+spli tter

OK, time for some more updates because I keep getting to go to more car shows and new stuff is always coming out. . .

-I've decided on a fairly radical change in the chassis/suspension area. . .I've decided to go with an Art Morrison Profile Max-G Musclecar chassis/frame with C5 front suspension and the 3-link and Watt's linkage rear end. One of the main reasons that I wasn't completely sold on either the Art Morrison or the Schwartz Perfomance chassis/frames was that neither of them had a 3-link and Watt's linkage option which is the rear set-up that I wanted. . .AME has now made the decision easy for me. . .I don't have to decide between different subframes at all. I looked into the ast-gen/4th-gen hybrid set-up, Schwartz Extreme Performance SPC, and the AME Max-G chassis' before coming to this decision. . .the only thing that I now have to verify is that the AME Max-G chassis will accomodate the Tiger rear-end that I would like to use or if I have to use the 9" housing which they offer. I will be adding the shock tower hoops (similar to what are on the Schwartz SPC) to the AME Max-G chassis to tie into the rollcage and to use to mount an engine bay brace (also very similar to the SPC).

-Due to the above change I believe I will be running with a Baer Extreme Plus kit (14" rotors/6-piston forged aluminum calipers) on the front C5 spindles and with Baer Track Plus kit (2-pc. 13" rotors/2-piston cast aluminum calipers) in the rear with a Baer adjustable proportioning valve located in the cabin (somewhere within easy reach of the driver without having to move from the normal driving position).

-I still need to figure out which shocks/springs that I will be using for this set-up. . .I'm thinking of maybe going with Penske shocks, but I still have quite a bit of research to do in that area before I go ahead and make a decision there.

-I've been working on some dash and door panel designs and I think I may have the dash roughly hammered out and ready to go to Brian to get a drawing of the interior done once I figure out the door panels. . .I'm waiting to see the Marquez Design '67 door panels first though. I did see some new billet door strikers that caught my eye when I checked out the Marquez website last though.

I think that's it for now.

[customcam]

wow cool project
Keep us posted

[atomicjoe23]

I got some more interior ideas ironed out and decided on. . .going to go with the Sparco Modena seats. . .I was looking at the new Dodge Demon concept the other day and I really liked the seats in it. . .the back shells were carbon fiber and I thought they would tie in really nice with my carbon fiber, brushed satin metal, and black interior and the carbon fiber headliner I want to use. . .turns out that Sparco has some exactly as I would want them so I lucked out there.

I also liked the Demon's notched bezels for the guages. . .so I'm gonna see if I can't incorporate that into the dash guages. . .they have a modern high-tech look to them, but the notches balance it out with a nice vintage feel that I think would be right at home in a muscle car interior. . .here's the best picture of the bezel rings that I could find on the web:

http://images.leftlanenews.com/conte...on-concept.jpg

and here's a picture of the Demon's center console which is pretty similar to what I've been working on for my center console as well:

http://images.leftlanenews.com/conte...on-concept.jpg

I've also finally decided on two exterior components that were giving me a lot of problems. . .the exterior mirrors and the door handles. Initially I was going to have the door handles shaved, but I found out that most tracks won't allow you to run with door poppers because of latching issues. . .so I decided I would go with some flush mounted door handles from a modern vehicle but I was having trouble finding some that I liked. . .I know a lot of people use the C5 Vette's but I don't like how they look on a muscle car. . .the round lines just aren't right. . .so I've decided to go with the C6 Vette handles. . .I will probably have to get some donor doors from a salvage yard and cut the whole area out and graft them onto the Tomahawk's doors (same for the striker and probably the whole area on the C6's B-pillar as well) to get them to work, but I like the C6 handles more than anything else I've looked at.

I was kinda in the same boat for the mirrors. . .see lots of them with the C5 Vette mirrors which look good but it just wasn't what I had in mind. . .I've been looking at mirrors on nearly every sports car I could think of and I had pretty much decided to just go with a bullet style mirror, but then I remembered a company I was referred to for mirrors for my sportbike. . .so I'm gonna use some high end sportbike mirrors from a company called Barrac. . .they supply the mirrors for the MV Augusta F4's. . .they have two models that I'm looking at. . .the MV Augusta F4 mirrors (I'm leaning more towards this mirror) or the B1 model (I think this one might be just a little too edgy) which is very similar to the F4 model but has a vent in it. . .both models come with integrated turn signals (the B1 model has LED lamps) which will also solve one of the other things I've been trying to figure out. . .what to do about front turn signals since I'm gonna fill the front valance panel in where the original '67 turn signals and fog lights are and be grafting in parts of a '69 Camaro front valnce panel and using the Marquez Design billet fog lights.

That's it for now. . .post more when I get it. . .getting closer to the time when I'll be shipping the 'Bird out here to SoCal every day. . .I can't wait!!!