Technical C1 Corvette performance upgrades

C1 Corvettes are so cool but when they do this, the are even cooler! Lets see or hear about your successful performance upgrades on these cars

Thanks to Jim (Vetrod62) for an awesome photo

 

Holy Crap ! we uploaded at the same time! Great minds think alike!

 

There's a Corvette drag car thread that's been around for years, you should take a look. I'll see if I can find it for you.

Edit:

Maybe I am thinking of this thread:

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/corvette-gassers.573476/

 

Great ideas, Are we starting a trend to take restored C1 vettes back to where the all began, racing?
I think you two should combine threads
. Jim

These are not drag cars, but rather street cars now that see the track once in a while.

 

Ya, re-read the title on my laptop. Thought it you meant something different when I read it on my phone

 

Dad would haunt me if i restored his old 57, he made sure i knew that before he passed!

 

My new desk top! Lol


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Yes, all you who know tell us everything! It’s hard enough to find people who actually drive their cars let alone bang gears!


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I agree...
lumpy63 started this thread
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/early-corvette-drag-racing-tips-and-tricks.1207833/

 

I think this question would fit better here since the other thread is a drag racing thread. I know that more than a few of the early cars raced road course (ie american sports car). Does anybody here on the H.A.M.B. have experience setting up the chassis of an early car to handle turns? Asking for a friend
Scott


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One thing that I did back in the 1966, was to raise the front end stance of my 1961 Vette by 4".
All you have to do is take out the 10 or so 9/16" bolts on each side, and the entire front suspension will slide out off the frame rails. Then just insert some 4" C-channel and get get 4" longer bolts and bolt it back together. NO change to alignment settings, plus it looked like it was launching when it was just sitting there. Did the same modification to my '40 Chevy street rod.

 

Here is a list of modifications made to Bob Mouat's 57 which was a successful SCCA B/P racer in the early '60's:

 

Great, thank you. That is a start.


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Viewed that list, not much different than the drag list we put up recently.
Performance mods...... Porting and polishing the intake. Yes every one does that, Although it was later learned that polishing the intake would cause the fuel and the air to separate on curves because of the weight difference of fuel and air. Leaving the machining surface would cause turbulence and keep the fuel mixture together.

Competition exhaust .... headers and low flow pipes

Cast iron exhaust and heads, already covered.

Wheels winded by 1/2".....We widen the wheels by 5"

Generator on right side? We run alternators, less weight and twice the output. I would think the belt would be twice as likely to be tossed if it was on the right side because the crank is pulling the belt clockwise, thus, having a greater tension on the pulley, making it tighter in the pulley.

Front sway bar, we take them out, they tend to break when doing wheel stands. With extra springs in the rear, the car rides stable in turns.

Cooling.... Of course going for Max cooling.

Center of gravity for road racing on this list, just drive these cars as crudely as you can .
I know this list is from the early 60s, but my response is from the later 60s.
Jim

 

I have driven this car several years ago in the "Hershey Hillclimb" and
It still performs great.
I don't remember seeing any old photos of the car with a hardtop.
Certainly the installation of the lexan windscreen would preclude this.
Dave
Dave

 

My hat's off to you guys that raced these C1 and made improvements for speed and handling along the way. Ever have so much fun just getting into a car and driving that you will live with all the little, or in my case big handling problems? That was my case with my '62. On the freeway, doing 70 mph or more, hard rubber bias ply front & rear, the front fenders, doors & hardtop would all start to shake rattle and roll all to a different beat. I thought the doors were going to come unglued but I had a grin on my face the hole time!

 

Here is a picture of the #57 car with hardtop (before restoration):

 

I hate photos posted as pdf's. They unnecessarily take up space on my device because even after deleted their taking up space somewhere. I hate photobucket too.

 

Thanks for posting that picture of the # 57 airbox car. I had not seen this photo before.
Dave

 

It looks like straight line hard acceleration is pretty well covered but does anybody have any suggestions on setting up an early corvette to handle?
Alignment specs?
Shocks?
Rear sway bar or no sway bar?
Tires?
Springs?
Spring height?
Steering?


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Here is some info on what the factory was doing to help racers with the earliest C1's:

 

a buddy hot-rodded his $800 1960 corvette with the usual '70's touches. long shackles, rear tires sticking out of the body by 6", 350 turbo with hi-stall convertor, cammed-up, dual-quad intake...

 

Well at least the brakes were okay


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Here is part of an article posted by super Chevy in 2009 on a C1 race car. The class rules are pretty strict so the car is pretty stock.


“Chassis preparation is similarly basic. "In our experience, the biggest handling problem with these early cars is a terrible loose, or oversteer, condition exiting corners. They just will not put the power down," Park says.
His solution? "Lower the car as much as possible and increase roll stiffness at the front while lessening it at the rear. The first step is to not run a rear sway bar, and to increase the diameter of the front sway bar." The rear suspension can be softened by removing one or more spring leaves. Stiffer coils in the front also help.
"Some drivers prefer additional caster in the front," he adds. "This can be achieved by simply adding another factory caster wedge between the frame and crossmember. It's also helpful to run as much negative camber as possible in the front suspension." According to Park, with the stock suspension settings, the cars wear the outside front corner off the front tires.
Sanctioning groups restrict tires to 26.5x7.00-15 Hoosier TDs. These are the closest viable tires available to what was used back in the day. "Others are allowed, but this seems to be the most popular choice," Park says. "We run 6.0x15-inch Halibrand aluminum wheels. These are the closest that we can find to the Halibrand alloy wheels that were actually available as a limited factory option for racing '58 Corvettes."
Super Chevy July 2009


“As any C1 owner already knows, the brakes are the weakest point of the solid-axle Corvettes. "We run basically the same `heavy-duty racing' drum brakes that were available from 1957 to 1962," Park notes. "Our sanctioning bodies require that the brakes be `as available during the year of manufacture.' These brakes have slightly wider drums and factory cooling air scoops."
Super Chevy July 2009

Per the author the car has seen a top speed 165mph during some races. Pretty impressive!



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When they split the fuel unit and then weld it back together for race cars does anyone know exactly what they do inside? I am guessing they ported and polished it but does anyone know for sure?

 

I’m no expert but I just got off the phone with my buddy Tom Ordway (he is on here but doesn’t say much) and the topic came up because I was asking about my 61 unit. His 57 dog house has been cut in half, ported and welded back together. Basically the 57 unit has been opened up to flow like the bigger 62 unit and does well on his “small journal” 350. The end conclusion though was that there was not enough benefit on mine compared to the amount of work due to the limited flow from the air meter.
Tom has ran both injected cars and dual quad cars in Jr stock and does pretty good when it comes to tuning them.


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I know that doesn’t directly answer your question but basically open up the ports to flow like the bigger injector.


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Yes they cut them apart to port them and weld them back together.

 

Seems like a lot of work, but it must have been worth it as I have seen a few. AND thanks for the explanation.