1969 Chevelle Turbo LSx-T56 Magnum-14" brakes-CTSv interior

[gnx7]

Digging into the body work the sail panel below the rear window had some rust and some of the rear window frame needed repair also. I had a neighboring shop repair that and prep the rest of the body, weld some of the trim holes closed, and put it in black primer.

At that point my good friend Chris Coffey was leaving the area with an empty trailer back to Nashville, TN (he was out doing some fab work in the area) and asked me if he could take it with him so he could work his magic. Realizing that my progress was slow and I don't have the skills to do a full cage that actually looks good, a turbo system that would be reliable, and other touches the car left with him! He has been a fabricator for pretty much his entire career and would work on it during his slow times and charge me a discounted rate as a result.

At that point I felt like I was paying alimony at times as monthly funds were being sent to make headway and buy parts. I'm coming towards the end of the build so this thread needed to be put up!

[gnx7]

I sold the TC78 turbo and went with a GTS76 billet unit (1200hp rated), bought a beefy CG&J custom radiator, Holley Dominator EFI, chromoly tubing for the rollcage, and the hot side parts for the turbo system. 2.25" crossover tubing using truck manifolds and Vbands welded on them. Downpipe is 4" into a Badlandz e-cutout and then dual 3" into 4 mufflers for super stealth mode when closed.

Looked for a year and found some black Recaro heated/cooled seats from a totalled 2009 CTSv and had to have them.

[gnx7]

onto the cagework.... Coffey Fabrication on it! Chris builds Bonneville salt flats landspeed cars for a hobby!

The first picture is the frame table Chris and his friends made from plate steel and then drilled in something crazy like 350 threaded holes into it!

The CTSv rear seats need to go to an upholstery shop to be cut and fitted properly; however they do sit in there nicely.
Front seats were pretty easy to install.... the wiring to control them is the next challenge.

[gnx7]

Newport Engineering wiper motor.... few more of the turbo progress.

Big thanks to SpeedTech for their ATS spindle kit to correct the poor factory ackerman that resulted in scary steering. Also added a faster ratio rebuilt Cherokee steering box and Global West tubular control arms at the same time. Body bushings were replaced in California by me with poly Energy Suspension stuff.

[gnx7]

Flew out to Nashville last fall to visit and get some work done on the car I didn't want to waste Chris' time on. Knocked out about 40hrs on the car that week and prepped all the floors for Lizard Skin heat and sound barrier. It was a ton of work; however I feel it will really help in the end. I also installed the 4" aluminum DriveShaft Shop driveshaft with billet 31 spline yoke in the car. It is beefy.

In the first picture that is a '95 Firebird landspeed car project with full chassis built on the table, 540ci twin 88mm turbo, Bruno trans, Winters style quickchange rear, and other goodies to shoot for 300mph this year at SpeedWeek.
They are feverishly working on it! That picture is from last fall.

[gnx7]

Put in Vintage Air a/c and some nice brackets were fabbed up to make it look right. A/C bracket is from Holley. That picture shows the CG&J radiator in the back, then the intercooler heat exchanger and finally the a/c condensor.

Fuel system is -10AN PTFE e85 rated feed and -8AN return running Weldon filter/regulator combo. Purchased a used 25 gallon s/s fuel tank (Rock Valley I believe) that Chris is going to put in dual Walbro 450lph pumps with the Holley Hydramat to solve any pickup issues.

Chris welded up the intercooler water tank with clear lid opening for my Chiseled Performance 1500hp A/W intercooler and a Rule2000 pump inside the tank. The system including the water in the lines and unit itself should hold around 10 gallons I'm guessing. He also added a cogged drive for the GZ Motorsports vacuum pump driven from the alternator. Thankfully the Chevelle has a very generously sized engine bay and can swallow all these parts up with ease.

The last few items to address on the car would be the following:
wiring (Painless purchased then redone to our liking already)
Holley engine harness with quick disconnect fitting at the firewall
fuel system plumb and modify tank
finish dual 3" exhaust from turbo downpipe
brake system- 14.25" Wilwood C6 Z06 kit up front, Wilwood 12.19" rears with parking brake, Wilwood master cylinder and remote proportioning valve to dial it all in.
JRi custom single adjustable coilovers (built by Cortex Racing- thank you Filip) using the SpeedTech coilover conversion parts on the super nice Speedtech A-arms
wheels/tires (hello.... any sponsors?)

I purchased a GM warranty take out LS9 motor that needed rebuilt with new rings/bearings, converted to wet sump (cut the crank snout), ported Lingenfelter LS9 heads (flow 350cfm), and BrianTooleyRacing cam of still to be determined size. That will eventually go in once I get the car back and work out any kinks. With nearly 1 liter more displacement than the 5.3 engine any turbo lag should be minimized. The compression is also set at 10:1 so it should still be potent even out of boost. My guess is the LS9 setup should make 480rwhp without boost..... add 15psi and it will surpass 950rwhp with ease. 20psi should be a fun ride....

[gnx7]

A few more random pics of the build. Note the bellow for the air filter that goes from 6" down to 4" inlet to the turbo.....and Ford Taurus 4000cfm e-fan. They really suck.

Cage is pretty well tucked in and hidden from the outside. The door bars have yet to be fabbed in until the rest of the work inside is completed.

[Che70velle]

Been wondering if you were ever gonna start a build thread on this car! Nice find!