Willow Springs, Spring Fling, MATS 1600 mile road trip

[Skunkworks Challenger]

Congratulations on a great piece of work!  There is nothing like that first trip around the block.  PK

[bb71challenger]

Cool! I dont get to come in here nearly as often as I would like but your car is one that I have always followed. So glad you are back on the road with it!

[Travis72]

That's so awesome!!!  Congrats!!  Man you live on a busy street  lol  :-)

Travis
72 Cuda

[Topcat]

You're gonna be the show stopper next year at Ohlone.

[4THECHALLENGE]

Beautiful!

[ntstlgl1970]

You're gonna be the show stopper next year at Ohlone.

I should be good to go next year, I really hope Bob (conv340) brings his car, I thought he would have been here this year....

[ntstlgl1970]

I've got about 50 miles on the car now. I'm confident enough with the trans that I ordered and swapped in a 10" lockup converter. No more goofy shims and extra gaskets to make the 11" fit the JW ultrabell. I've still got a ton of stuff to do of course, but it's nice on the freeway, about 2400 RPM @ 75ish MPH in overdrive with the converter locked. I'm hoping to have the megasquirt GPIO box sorted out this weekend so the lockup and overdrive scheduling is more how I want it to be. Right now it's kinda klunky but it works. I'm going to have to raise the car up some to make it more driveable. I had cut the bump stops in the front to run it lower before, but ultimately, it just bottoms out too much. I swapped in some new bump stops and raised it up a little. I think that I can lower it back down some with some shorter tires in the front. Just so much to do. Had to swap out the alternator pulley, not enough belt engagement to keep it from squealing no matter how tight it was. I'm just not impressed with March at all. Oh, driving without mirrors or a horn sucks.

[hemiken]

When you did the bump stops, did you check to see if the front shocks were bottoming out also ? sometimes it is a case of the shocks bottoming and not hitting the bump stops fully at all, just a suggestion, car looks amazing sitting at the height it is right now.

You have built one totally incredible car buddy , look forward to the final stages as you post them up for all of us to see

[ntstlgl1970]

When you did the bump stops, did you check to see if the front shocks were bottoming out also ? sometimes it is a case of the shocks bottoming and not hitting the bump stops fully at all, just a suggestion, car looks amazing sitting at the height it is right now.

You have built one totally incredible car buddy , look forward to the final stages as you post them up for all of us to see

Hi Ken -

Good to hear from you! The frame stops where the snubbers hit were polished pretty good and it made a "thud" as opposed to a hard "clunk when it bottomed out (oh and the tires hit the XV shock tower braces too, which is fun on the freeway) So that sold it for me. Once I swapped the bump stops, no more "magic" lane changes!

[hemiken]

  It even hit the XV shock towers........................

Good thing you evaluated the problem by a diagnostic evaluation by a simple play on noise and feel, i do the exact same thing, if you have experienced it in the past, you usually can pin point the problems

Great that it drives so much nicer now, does it have a new car feel when you drive and does it corner as your mood permits ? aggressively and subtle depending on how you want to push it ?

Good to hear from you again also

[ntstlgl1970]

I haven't driven it enough to evaluate all that. I still need to reset the alignment since I raised it up. The SS springs in the back have so much bias that the car sits crooked (they are supposed to be that way for drag racing) so the ride height and alignment aren't the best for handling. I'd like to get rid of the SS springs and use something else, but one thing at a time. Ultimately I'd like to get a bigger front sway bar to help out with the cornering. Once I have more of the interior in so that it isn't so noisy inside, I'll be able to tell what is going on easier.

[69bronzeT5]

I'm sure you've mentioned it numerous times but what colour blue did you use? My stepmom wants a '70 AAR (real or clone) and she wants the exact same colour your 'Cuda is. It's absolutley gorgeous!

[brads70]

One on the nicest Cuda build on here!   Congrats on the "first ride" 

Next summer is gonna be a good one for ya! 

[Topcat]

Ultimately I'd like to get a bigger front sway bar to help out with the cornering.

Didn't that sway bar I gave you help?
That was a pretty thick sway bar.

[ntstlgl1970]

I'm sure you've mentioned it numerous times but what colour blue did you use? My stepmom wants a '70 AAR (real or clone) and she wants the exact same colour your 'Cuda is. It's absolutley gorgeous!

Its subaru world rally blue