Since he'd lavished a lot of loot on the motor, he had to tighten up the budget a little on the suspension and chassis modifications. He'd done a rotisserie job on the body and frame, so it was easy to refurbish the stock front components (including the '70 Chevelle spindles) with Energy Suspension bushings and amend the system with Summit 90/10 drag shocks. Weld Pro Stars and 26x5 M/T Frontrunners crown the stock disc brakes. Eddie approached the business end of the car with stock mono-leaf springs but moved the shock absorber attachment point inboard to coincide with the Competition Engineering coil/over crossmember, three-way adjustable coil/over shocks, and Slide-A-Link traction bars.
To instill a suggestion of torsional rigidity, he tied both halves of the car together with Jeg's subframe connectors. As a bucks-down racer, he coped with the marginal 10-bolt by welding the tubes at the coconut and installing a stock GM Posi-traction differential with 4.11:1 gears. Deflection is inhibited by a Moser cover with carrier main studs and Moser C-clip axles spin those 26x10 M/T slicks on 8-inch-wide Weld hoops. This probably wouldn't be a viable situation if the car was governed by a clutch, but the automatic soaks up enough of the gaff to maintain the axle's structural integrity.
So you're Eddie and you're inside the orange comet. Everything looks neat but pretty stock, save for the 15-inch Grant steering wheel you got both hands around and the big AutoMeter tach hung just below it. The G-Force harness and belts are so tight you can barely breathe, much less move. The part you're sitting on is shabby chic. The upholstery on those stock seats is ripped along the seams and threadbare throughout. Foam pokes a squishy head out and looks you right in the eye. But it's still very cool, very much in the spirit of the car, the core tenets being function and utility and nothing else.
Eddie's last words: "I've got a wife and kids. If I want anything for the car, I've got to do the work myself. All I need now, Johnny, is a Popular Hot Rodding article on doing your own interior! Ha!"
| Where Did The $10K Go? |
| Before you pull out the calculator, realize that we've labeled some parts as "free" or "traded" because they are various big ticket items that we could not omit. Aside from the obvious attraction of buying used parts at a greatly reduced price, we also see that these recycled items are serving their second owner with the same performance that a new part would. Since Corcino has not reported anything untoward with the parts he bought used, that would speak directly to the quality produced by the speed equipment industry. The underlying themes here are wheeling, dealing, and slitting the throat of pride. Pride never won any damn race, but good parts will help. |
| 1971 Nova | $300 |
| Rear Bumper | free |
| Glassteck Cowel Hood | $260 |
| Competition Engineering Slide-a-Links | $350 |
| Energy suspension bushings | $180 |
| Summit 90/10 front drag shocks | $50 |
| Competition Eng. coil-over crossmember | $35 |
| Competition Eng. coil-over shocks | $90 |
| New GM mono-leaf springs | traded for a twelve pack of beer |
| Moser C-clip axles | $225 |
| Moser Performance cover and carrier main studs | $180 |
| GM 8.5-inch clutch pack | $180 |
| 3 x 0.083-inch driveshaft | $235 |
| Jeg's subframe connectors | $100 |
| Used Weld Prostars | $400 |
| M/T Slicks | $300 |
| M/T front runners | $120 |
| COMP Cam roller lifters | free |
| Crane roller cam | free |
| 396 Engine | free |
| Ross 4.155 pistons & 4-inch stroke GM steel crank | $450 |
| Oval-port open-chamber heads | $800 |
| Eagle rods | $300 |
| Moroso oil pump/pan | $200 |
| Machine work and balancing | $600 |
| MSD Ignition(6AL/coil/distributor/start retard/RPM switch) | $600 |
| Perma-Cool electric fan and Summit radiator | $250 |
| March V-pulleys | $160 |
| Weiand water pump | $130 |
| BTE Converter | $700 |
| GM TH400 | free |
| Hurts Promatic Shifter | $100 |
| TH400 Labor to rebuild and new B&M pan | $675 |
| Homemade air pan and K&N filter w/Stubstack | $60 |
| Used Holley 830-cfm race carb | $280 |
| Used Holley Black fuel pump | $80 |
Edelbrock 454-O intake manifold | $200 | Used Autometer Tach | $90 | Mallory oil and water gauges | $35 | Four-point roll cage | $300 | PPG paint/clear "Fiat Burnt Orange" | $475 | Paint prep/body work | free | Paint booth | free | Professional painter | traded 396 block/crank | Total | $9,560 |