[aron69nova]

put the cage in before getting the car done up with nice interior and nice paint. i built my '69 car without a cage at first, even though i knew the car should run in the 10's if it ever hooked. i waited a 6 months before having the $ then put one in. makes the car more responsive imo.

if you're running the tko you should consider doing different things to the trans as well as running a better clutch. problems you'll run into with that TKO are: high rpm shifts, power shifting, and the clutch will limit how you launch and your 60' times. I was able to get my TKO to propel me to 11.24 in the 1/4 and the two times I took it to the 1/8 mile track it did 7.08 despite adding 150#'s for the cage. 60' times were a dismal 1.66 while launching at 3500rpm. i HAD to let off the gas between gears or else i had trouble making the next gear. the clutch i ran was a centerforce dual friction which had burn marks on it and was sliding the friction material away from the rivets. that clutch hit HARD and never really allowed my car to hook up well. I'm installing a soft lok clutch this coming week once I get my disc back, and i had the TKO 500 modified to be a TKO 600 with the liberty's gears faceplating. everyone i've talked to says the car should run at least 1-2 tenths quicker, if not more. we'll see... I wanna see the car do 6.80's in the 1/8 and hopefully 10.70's in the 1/4. we'll see if that happens though.

your car having a bigger motor and being lighter should run 10's if it ever gets traction. 10's should be EASY in that car actually. for this reason alone you should step up to a minimum of a 6 point roll bar. good luck, and make sure to keep us posted with pics and results.

 

[aron69nova]

forgot to mention:

i did that 11.24 at 125mph. 125mph should be a 10.6x ish 1/4 mile time. that's assuming everything went ideally... so because of a lackluster shifting ability and hard-hitting clutch the car was missing out on 0.6 or so seconds of 1/4 mile time. what a waste...

you should think about that when putting your car together. and don't expect to lift the front tires too much, as they will almost undoubtedly break loose upon side stepping the clutch

 

[aron69nova]

My tranny came with an upgraded clutch but I can't remember the brand off hand. It's not a center force or dual friction I don't think.

Your basically saying a little slip is better?

an 'upgraded' clutch is still probably an organic clutch that's basically an on/off switch. even if it's one of McLeod's street twin clutches it'll still gonna be rough on the drivetrain. when you hook up with a hard hitting clutch something has to give, usually the tires, sometimes a u-joint, sometimes the axle tubes (ask me how I know), sometimes the clutch (ask me how I know that one, too), sometimes the transmission and sometimes a ring gear or any other weak point in the driveline. a slipper type clutch allows for a controlled amount of 'give' in the system. I'm new to all of this, but have gathered from experience and talking to people that some 'give' in the clutch that is controlled is the best thing to keep from breaking parts. if the tires hook up too much the clutch gives and you still get optimum traction while not destroying something. again, i'm far from being considered knowledgeable on this stuff, but i do have a rough understanding of the concepts. i've not raced with a slipper just yet, but when the car gets reassembled i will give a full report.

if your car is a driver mostly and occasionally goes to the track a $1200+ clutch ($1800 if it's a McLeod, $2800 if it's an Advanced Clutches unit, i did NOT pay that for mine, as i'm too cheap and the unit was used) might be too much as well as too difficult to drive all the time. the hub is unsprung and chatter is commonly reported with use. if it's misadjusted you can fry it on the street in a second. it's a lot of maintenance for just a cruiser. if you race mostly then go for it. i debated for a long time, and when it came down to it it only made sense for me to go with the big dog type unit.

 

[aron69nova]

i think the consensus is to put a roll cage in it. sounds like you'll be fine with the basic 6 point roll bar. main hoop going behind the drivers head from rocker panel to rocker panel with a bar connecting them, two struts going from the top of the hoop to the rear frame rails, hopefully through the package tray if you want to keep a back seat, and two diagonals that go to the floor from the main hoop to the rocker panel near the feet of the driver/passenger. i think it'll be difficult to make swing outs with a 6 point cage, but not impossible. if you add the two front struts from the main hoop that go up to the windshield then you'll have an easy place to mount your swing outs. I know this cage is in a 3rd gen, but hopefully you get the idea

http://s20.photobucket.com/albums/b235/aron71nova/Blue Car/

I can't get into the back seat very easily, but part of that is because of the seats not having tracks and the seat being far back. I would imagine the interior of a 1st gen car is a little more cramped.

The kit I used is a Chris Alston ChassisWorks kit. I added the rear struts, as I wanted them to go all the way to the back of the car, NOT straight down through the package tray. Look at the album and you can see that, for the most part, the cage is fairly hidden. Honestly it's not even a problem for me.

 

[aron69nova]

it isn't just you. look at some of my posts. the reason this would not go tens is traction. he'd do low eleven with big mph. this car should be a blast to drive

 

[aron69nova]

The 383 that was in my old car was a regular every day driver with the TKO, 4.11 gears and ran 11.60's. It was a blast to drive every day. That was with a flat tappet cam and out of the box heads that only flowed 259cfm. You should EASILY out perform that car. EASILY. You're lighter with more CID, better heads and bigger cam. How soon until this 'fun car' is on the road?

BTW, if you get one of those slipper clutches you can't beat up on it on the street as much. You'll goof up the disc pretty easily. If you are more about beating up on a car on the street the way to go is with a hard hitting and unforgiving organic clutch. You'll just spin the tires instead of burn up the clutch. Just an FYI.