Plastic Fantastic 76 Corvette

[SuperBuickGuy]

First, where I'm at. I built this car to compete in various SCCA and USCA events. It didn't start that way but it snowballed. First, where is it now.



Okay let's back up 4 years. I bought the car for $2500 mostly because it was parts and I had flares that I hadn't put on another project.
trust me, it looked even worse in person

but it's a 4 speed car, it was close, and I take home strays.
Somewhere around 2018, I was watching one of the Motor Trend shows and Randy Probst mentioned that the 2010 Camaro was a better handling car then the 2010 Corvette.... Hmmmm, I've built more then a couple things including this

and lots of cars too..including the Corvette that was supposed to get the flares.
What I have now is a 1976 Corvette that looks like a 73 with flares, 2010 Camaro SS rear suspension (clipped in place), and a 2010 Corvette front suspension with Aiden coil overs, Brembo brakes from the SS Camaro. The motor is a 12:1 compression bb 427 with ST-10 trans, sniper spark and fuel control.
My goal was to do Optima Challenge. I made it, it broke the first day. Which was not optimal but given the car was in primer a year before AND I built a new motor for it in-between those dates... I did okay.

But now, it's time to take this to the next level. It handles amazing - the Willow Springs picture, I'm doing 150 mph in that corner. What I did learn was I needed to tune the shocks, add stiffer sway bars, and start working on aero. It also gets a bit warm at full song for extended time.

I figure builds come in 1/3rds. 1st - body work/suspension. 2nd - assembly after paint and driving, and 3rd - tuning. I'm solidly in 3. I'm also building a 64 Buick wagon in the background of this as a tow car - with a twin turbo 6.0 LS. Mostly, though, will be the things I identified above. currently it has terrible understeer, but I may have started to get a handle on that. I also broke the midplate on the t-10 so a TKX is waiting to be installed. It'll be a week or two before I start updating again - thanks for having me.

[SuperBuickGuy]

motor shot

gratuitous Luigi shot


optima, I was so far behind my goals that just making it was win. I had one autox on the car, no track time, maybe 300 miles on the entire car.... and still felt safe at 150 on Willow....

forgot, inside is Corbeau seats, Dakota Digital dash/gauges.

[camcojb]

Welcome!

[WSSix]

Welcome to the site. Sounds like a fun build. I look forward to the pics and progress. Good luck!

[fleetus macmullitz]

Wow, quite the build.

Sounds like you’re really getting to enjoy it too.

[egoman]

Love it, keep posting and we will keep reading. Nice side pipes!

[SuperBuickGuy]

​Finally back on this

pull the shifter off


fluid looks perfect!

wonder what I'll do with trans next...

and hooks

basically they attach to the prior spring mounts....



wrapped the hook with stainless rod - basically it adds a lot of strength

bit of cleanup tomorrow and paint them "please hook here not on a headlight red"
​

[SuperBuickGuy]

cleaned up

now with paint

installed

rear matching

for sale

first problem... the cross member is simply in the way

I could have got the trans in/out without removing it but that would be a real problem on race day since it'd mean moving the motor

now it's not a problem

first issue... a bit of massaging and it's fine now

time to set angles before building the cross member

a bit of envisioning going on

it does fit really well, I have no trouble cutting the floor - which solves the issue of whether or not I need a special shifter

[PBarkley]

Killer looking car! TKX is a great choice, which gearset did you go with?

[SuperBuickGuy]

Originally Posted by PBarkley

Killer looking car! TKX is a great choice, which gearset did you go with?

2.87 first gear, .68 OD ....

cross member time

now 4

and weld

and cross member

need to finish welding, put the e-brake cable pulley in place then paint it.... but doneish