66 Nova SS Project

[byndbad914]

There is something to be said about a turn-key hot rod!

As for the interior, I do like the suede seats and steering wheel as well. The 2012 seats had a different shoulder bolstering that looks like it might fit well but I will stick with the factory seat shape in this one.

[parsonsj]

Originally Posted by Tim

Having the track width on the front narrower than the rear is a bad idea for cornering as well.

It turned ok. Kyle Tucker once ran a faster time in an autocross in II Much than in his own car.

To avoid pulling the tires in to turn means nearly 4 inches difference in ride height -- which has its own problems as well. There's no good answer in a 66-67 Chevy II body without changing the body lines.

[wiedemab]

Originally Posted by parsonsj

It turned ok.
To avoid pulling the tires in to turn means nearly 4 inches difference in ride height -- which has its own problems as well. There's no good answer in a 66-67 Chevy II body without changing the body lines.

Yep -- I've been looking at my Dad's car for the past couple of years as I plan out my '67 build and I can't figure out anything "good" given that damn body line right above the wheel openings.

[byndbad914]

yep, it is hard car to get low with sides like a barn - that car is truly a box. I hear you about trying to keep it low too John, the only solution I came up with was the lowering of the center of the frame to keep all of the drivetrain weight low in the car and am essentially lifting the body up. Still has a higher cg than lowering the whole shot.

And that body line is the PITA part - I was trying to figure out if I could move the fender opening up in the car but then the body line makes that mod obvious, and to relocate that line down the length would be a total PITA.

[parsonsj]

The only other thing you can do is to limit the turning radius. I did that some, but I wanted to be able to make ordinary parking lot and U turns. If you give up some more of that, you could push the tires out an inch per side or so.

[byndbad914]

Originally Posted by parsonsj

The only other thing you can do is to limit the turning radius. I did that some, but I wanted to be able to make ordinary parking lot and U turns. If you give up some more of that, you could push the tires out an inch per side or so.

You are spot on John and this is exactly what I am going to do - I plan to track the car and give up some turning radius on the street to move the tires out. On my 914 I severely limited the turning as it was truly track only and I never needed to go to my "new" lock position, so I was going to copy that into this car. That is how I got the fronts out as far as I did in the photos and could still turn "just enough" and juuuuuusssst barely not hit the fenders.

I started measuring the Vette suspension pieces on my car last night and man the lower A arms are long! 'Course that car is also super wide, it barely fit in my trailer to get it home. I will likely just custom make some arms and then adapt them to the Vette uprights, maybe consider C5 stuff to reduce the wheel height requirement.

[byndbad914]

I have been working on regrouping and so forth and finally last Friday I ordered a set of Forgeline GA3s with the correct fitment to bolt onto my Vette. Will look like this but with gloss instead of semi gloss centers



I intend to primarily use these wheels on the Nova tho'. Should have them in 3-4 weeks. 18x10.5 with 295/30R18 R6s front and 18x12.5 with 335/30R18 R6s on the rear. These will clear the front 394mm rotors and massive calipers on the Carbon so any brake I put in the Nova will fit without issue. My friend carries Stop Tech and Brembo brakes so I am considering them with 380-385mm front rotors and 355-365mm rear rotors for the Nova. That might be enough brake

Also I ordered C6 spindles from 2 different junk yards today to get a total of 4 on their way. 3 were basically brand new from a 2011 car (1000 miles on them, off of a car used in a new Schwarzenegger movie apparently) and then had to find the last one which is off an 09 with 18K miles. The latter has the hub still attached so that is good to get started overall spindle fitment. I will use SKF ZR1 hubs for final assembly.

Once I have all of these parts in hand I can start mocking up placement in the car again, take measurements, and design upper and lower A arms again. I measured a spindle on my Carbon and it was essentially the same height as the front spindle I had on the 914 so I might get lucky and be able to use the pick-up points I have already tacked into the Nova - we will see.

In other news, I ran across a critical piece of the Mendeola to Vette torque tube puzzle while in CA over July 4th weekend I had been searching awhile for - a buddy happened to have the rear housing out of a C5 auto and let me have it! TSA loved seeing that in my suitcase apparently as they rummaged thru my luggage like the low-brow, minimal IQ, 99.9% chimps they are and then left my neat, double packaging open so some of my nice clothes could get covered with grease stains on the trip home Apparently the "nothing is free" saying continues to hold true.

So I met with a rep at Mark Williams today to discuss making some adapter parts I need to attach that to the Mendy and then convert to Universal Joints to run a standard design, carbon fiber driveshaft. This is something I have considered the largest hurdle with the whole project, so to see that design coming to fruition is pretty positive.

The bummer is that between the new wheels and tires, spindles, hubs, big brake kit and the driveline parts, every dime I got for the 914 as a complete roller including a 2nd set of wheels will be OOF! That is a pretty square kick to the monetary testicles...

[byndbad914]

As I mentioned before, I had stripped my 914 race car down to build the Nova, then sort of out of the blue, got an email from a guy that had came across some extra cash and wondered if I still wanted to sell the roller. So, I took all the susp back out of the Nova, put it back, and sold the roller on Memorial Day weekend.

I got Forgelines today and fit them on the Vette and they look great. Will add a pic this weekend. I dropped a spindle in a front and measured stuff on the Nova - tho' I had already built the suspension up from my custom stuff I had in the Porsche then took it all back out of the Nova - turns out I could literally have reused everything from the Porsche with C6 Vette spindles and stock Vette wheel offsets! I had designed that suspension for the Porsche without much info on a Vette but decent info on a modern Porsche... and just having an idea of how suspension works... turns out the A arm ratios match the Vette, caster within a degree, kingpin inclination the same as a C6 Vette and the spindle height is literally within 1/8" of my spindles I custom designed and machined. Guess that explains why the car picked up nearly 10 seconds on the track when I put the new suspension in!

Good news is this means the Nova should be nearly as impressive for cornering tho' it will likely be a bit slower with about 2" narrower track width than the flared 914, a bit heavier and taller height.

Current plan forward is to get Coleman lower control arms with monoballs for the lower ball joints, Chrysler taper, then ream the Vette spindles to match. I will press the upper BJ out and make a custom spacer to replace it with a Chrysler taper, then use Speedway IMCA upper A arms with Howe Precision Chrysler BJs in the arms.All off the shelf stuff, literally nothing custom other than reaming the spindles to Chrysler 1.5"/ft taper I am also hoping to get into the machine shop at work Friday morning and machine up the adapter for the Mendeola to the Vette hub, then get it over to Mark Williams for splining.

Will add pics as I move along... updates are boring without pics

[gnx7]

This is going to be one bad ass Nova! Great fab work so far.

Are you mid mounting the engine? I wasn't sure on that answer!

Also on post #16 that red flared Mustang is my buddy Filip who owns Cortex Racing. My engine builder did the LS7 in it It sports a new paint job (still red) but it is truly beeeeeautiful now with steel flares.

[byndbad914]

Engine is still front mount with significant setback (I am shooting for 6-7" setback from stock location). Should get the front of the block right inline with the front wheel centerlines, hence technically putting all of the engine weight behind the front wheels. I will then run the transaxle in the back, a C6 Vette bellhousing with aftermarket clutch assy, and a carbon fiber driveshaft to attach the two.

Got the lower control arms from Coleman and a bunch of HD rod ends and high-misalignment spacers from Kartek on order today. The uppers I need to really double-check the measurements tonight and order tomorrow - turns out the uppers have a somewhat limited range of adjustment so need to get out the fine tape measure