The Beginning of a Track Car

To build the ultimate track car we first need to tear down a perfectly good C4 corvette. The tear down was uneventful. Being a Corvette lover I kept thinking this was almost sacrilegious.

But we are trying to reduce the weight of this C4 to make a track car competitive with the newer higher horsepower corvettes.

Here are a few pics of the tear down progress,

Then I loaded it up onto the trailer and took it outside to pressure wash it. I needed to get 30 years of crud off of it.

Then it was back in the garage for some steel cutting, the front posts, and the Roll bar.

Finally the car stripped down looks like this.

FIRST CUT AFTER PRESSURE WASHING

This was the first cut after pressure washing the chassis. I cut the front posts and the windshield off.

cut off front posts and windshield

cut off front posts and windshield

LOOKING AT THE 2ND CUT

This was looking down on the frame after cutting off the frames roll bar.

looking at the cut frame

looking at the cut frame

THE FINAL "BARE BONES" CHASSIS

This is how it looks now. All ready for the roll cage.

The bare bones chassis

The bare bones chassis

NEXT STEP- DESIGN

And now it is time to start building the roll cage. The concept is to build a roll cage that still keeps the corvette look. I’ve included this video to explain the design considerations and why I need to start building the flexglas (fiberglass with flex additive) body panels before the roll cage.

I will keep you informed as to my progress.

I’m making more progress on preparing the hood to make a mold so I can build the light weight version. The original weighs 220lbs.

In addition to making progress on the mold for the hood, I’ve also built a mock up motor and placed it in the car with the stock motor mounts, in the stock position. I’m hoping once I finish the car it can remain here.

Ok we are one step further

Now for the fiberglass process.

And now a bit more as I have been adding the roll cage.

It’s coming together..

Here’s what it looks like today. Nose on, engine in place. I’ll be posting more soon. The used engine needs to be removed and cleaned. The frame also needs cleaning. Very little welding left to do and I need to get some paint on the cage and frame.