American Motors Xperimental full frame

[Ron in SoCal]

Love those spindles Ron. What are your plans for steering arms?

[FETorino]

Originally Posted by 57hemicuda

You know Dave, couldn't get the geometry to work out, needed the drop spindle. Its just a bonus that its all shiny, and you know I couldn't have the shiny diff cover, and not balance it out in the front. Still gives me a bit of a chubby.LOL

Those are the kind of billet shiny parts worth buying. That's part of what makes you the "Good Ron"

Originally Posted by 57hemicuda

The driveshaft in this car is at kidney height so I always planned on running a driveshaft hoop, just not one this beefy. This car is starting to remind me a little of that Animal House line "Overweight and underpower is no way to go through life" Its close anyway.

Just buy a nice Carbon Fiber drive shaft and you can eliminate a lot of the fear of it coming through the tunnel along with some weight.

I really appreciate all the effort you are going through to ensure somebody's car is heavier than mine.

Originally Posted by 65_LS1_T56

Hey I'm an enabler, that's all. I enabled Ron to have the rear end of his dreams (that sounds weird) and I enabled you and the tall guy with the big car (that I really like) to find a brewery or two. That's it. Just trying to help a guy out

You're a giver

[Sieg]

Originally Posted by FETorino

I really appreciate all the effort you are going through to ensure somebody's car is heavier than mine.

Appears he pretty good competition! If it's based on pounds per inch of wheelbase I don't think Ron has a chance.

[byndbad914]

Originally Posted by 57hemicuda

Still amazes me how small the 335 18's look compared to the 335 19's. Still going to be a challenge to get the fenders to clear at full compression/full lock, but it is at least doable.

When you suggested you were going to put 19s on the front I figured that was going to be a bit much but was interested to see how you solved it. IMO the 18s will visually fit the car much better as well - old cars seem to be about maxed at 18s in that 295+ width as the tire diam is right around 25-25.5" typically which is inline an old-school 50 series 15" tire.

I pulled the 20" off of the rear of my Vette to see how it would fit in the Nova and it literally just would not fit without serious reworking of the inner fenders and rear seat area and it really looked out of place in the wheel opening. The 18s with 335s fit quite nice on the Nova while they look a little small on the Vette as GM made the fenderwells visually match the large, 26.7" diam tire it comes with.

You mention clearing large rotors in previous posts and John is very cool and he can get you an 18" that will clear huge rotors - it was either his wheels or Forgeline and I just like the looks of the 3pc Forges or I would have definitely gone with CCWs again. My Z06 has 15.4" rotors and while it is a squeeze, they fit The Nova is 15" rotors and that little bit of difference is more than plenty and makes installs easier.

Those LG spindles are bad a$$ - I was looking at them as well but got lucky and was able to package factory spindles at the ride height I wanted. I hear you tho' about making the geometry all work out - total PITA packaging the front end with everything that has to fit there.

Very cool project - enjoy seeing the progress.

[57hemicuda]

Originally Posted by Ron in SoCal

Love those spindles Ron. What are your plans for steering arms?

I kind of reengineered the front clip moving the rack back where GM put it on the C6, so I don't need to cut the arms off. It uses the factory arms, and now more or less the C6 geometry. Would have made me cry to cut those new billet knuckles almost as much as I did when I cut my new glass hood.

[57hemicuda]

Originally Posted by FETorino

I really appreciate all the effort you are going through to ensure somebody's car is heavier than mine.

Simmer down now, this is a pony car not a Clydesdale. LOL. Other then the main back bone and X, the whole chassis is chromoly, a really, really lot of chromoly. Scaled it once, my tears kept me from reading the scale properly. Xperimental I keep saying, I guess we'll see.

[Beach Cruiser]

Mine weighed in at 3130 with gas and me on the scales at VIR this weekend

[57hemicuda]

Just scored this dry sump off the Vette forum, looks like it will fit my chassis with no modifications. Need to scrounge a tank, and some lines. The good part is, I ended up with a dry sumped, forged LS3 for less then $3500, the bad part is my car budget is cleaned out.LOL

[57hemicuda]

Originally Posted by Beach Cruiser

Mine weighed in at 3130 with gas and me on the scales at VIR this weekend

That great Mills, 2900ish for a race trimmed Camaro is perfect in my opinion. I wanted to be weight conscious with this car, but like always I get out of hand.

[bonecrrusher]