1976 Chevrolet Camaro - Project g/28 Part 2

PHR's new project car gets an affordable suspension that looks great, and really works-thanks to PST, Global West, Weld and Falken.

By Johnny Hunkins

Photography by Johnny Hunkins

Project g/28, our Gen II '76 Camaro, picks up momentum this month as we dive into arguably the most important system: the suspension. As the interface between the body and the road, the suspension can make or break the handling; get the suspension wrong and nothing else down the line matters. And while it is very easy to just throw a pile of cash and custom fabrication at a new project car, the real challenge is to get the good result without paying all that cash.

As we stated in part 1, the goal of this project is to build a g-Machine without a lot of cash. Specifically, we'd like to get this thing done for under $20K-car included. It ain't gonna look pretty, but we think we can knock down some respectable numbers to the tune of 0.90g on the 200ft skidpad, 46 mph through the 420ft slalom, high 12-second quarter mile ETs, and a 60-0 mph stopping distance of 120 feet. In keeping with these goals, we selected a Gen II Camaro. These cars have much better suspension geometry than the highly sought-after Gen I cars, and they're cheaper too. Between 1970 and 1981, Chevrolet made over 1.9 million of them-and they all share the same suspension components. We haven't even counted the hundreds of thousands of Firebirds and Trans Ams built during the same period, but the sum of all Gen II Camaros and Firebirds makes it the most prolific musclecar ever.

After finding our '76 Camaro for $2,300, we proceeded immediately to our Fontana test site-the parking lot of California Speedway-for some hard numbers. They weren't real great, but that's kind of the point: we ran the quarter mile in 17.63 seconds at 78.62 mph, the 420ft slalom was run at 40.3 mph, 60-0 braking took 216.9 feet, and the 200ft skidpad averaged 0.70g. This was with a completely stock car, right down to the Costco 205/70R14 whitewall tires.

We knew Gen II Camaros had lots of potential, but unlocking that potential on a modest budget would require some thought. Right off the bat we knew we couldn't make any improvements to handling, braking or acceleration without a good foundation, and that means refurbishing the chassis. Translation: replace the ball joints, bushings, tie rods and the like. Performance Suspension Technology (PST) is known for their Gen II chassis and suspension parts, and they have a reputation for high quality and rational pricing, so they were our very first phone call. We ordered up PST's Super Front End kit, some polygraphite leaf spring pads, a quartet of KYB shocks, a drop spring kit, a G-Max front swaybar kit, and a body mount bushing kit.. This stuff totaled $1,276-just over half the price of our project car.

Our second stop was for wheels. The goal was three-fold here: don't break the bank (i.e. no three-piece hoops), find something that will stand up to track punishment (i.e. no heavy Asian knock-off castings), and find a wheel that looks attractive and unique at the same time. We didn't want to have the same wheel that a ton of other cars have-but if others decide to copy us later on, that's cool. As a point of interest, the wheels "make" the car, and it's really disappointing to see how little thought other car owners seem to put into selecting a wheel. Of all the cosmetic things that can be done to a car, the wheels and the stance are by far the most influential on a car's look, even more so than paint color. After researching the options, it became obvious that when price was factored, we had to go with Weld's Pro Star XP. They are made in the sizes we need (18x8.5 and 18x9), they were relatively affordable (around $1,394 for the set of four), and they didn't look like every other wheel on the road. As a rolled forging, they beat the hell out of a cast wheel for strength too.

But before we picked up the phone to order wheels, we did what most serious car builders would do: we enlisted the help of a professional artist-Kris Horton of Cars By Kris-to render our project with the wheels we were planning. This costs $300 to $400, depending on the project, and gives us an idea of what the finished car will look like, right down to graphics, spoilers, paint and stance. We like to think of it as a blueprint for how our car will look. It's also a great motivational tool to have a picture of the finished car pinned on your garage wall while the real thing is in pieces on the floor. With the Pro Start XP wheels mounted on the imaginary car, and our stance figured out, we had enough confidence to order the wheels.

For rolling stock we went with Falken, a company that is rapidly gaining respect among hot rodders and g-Machiners. Falken tires have already won the respect of racers and performance enthusiasts in Japan, and as their product line gains visibility in the US, the same is happening here. What makes Falken different from many other overseas tire manufacturers is that the product line is tailored for the American market, i.e. the sizes are right for our big cars, and our punishing roads. Let's face it, most of the Asian tire manufacturers make plenty of tires for big-diameter rims and narrow footprints, but this stuff is all show and no go. We're not interested in bling, we want performance, and we want value. Those two criteria intersect with the Falken FK-451, our chosen tire. We say value because all four skins set us back just $684 through a well-known mail-order tire source. As an all-season tire, the FK-451 isn't going to get us all the way to our skidpad goal, but it will give us enough grip to evaluate our suspension mods for effectiveness. Once we get that dialed in, we'll step up to some R-compound tires when it's time to pull the real ammo off the shelf. Keep in mind, using an R-compound race tire from the beginning can only mask problems with the suspension and braking; we'll get as close as we can with the Falkens, using them to fine tune our set-up.

As a matter of record, we bolted on the wheels and tires before doing anything to the suspension. This was to discover any possible problems with fitment beforehand, and we discovered plenty. Up front, we had initially chosen an 18x9 with a 6-inch back spacing. This proved to be too much, as we bent a wheel on the upper control arm upon making the first turn. Six inches is too much, so we dialed it back a bit, and ordered up some 18x8.5s with a 5.5-inch back spacing. This worked fine with the 255/35R18 Falkens, but our concern lingered. Under highway conditions the clearance was there, but what about hard cornering? When we discovered Global West's Gen II upper control arms had a slightly narrower profile than the stock upper control arms, we ordered a set for $535-bringing our total outlay to $6,189, including the car.

Our last real hiccup with wheel/tire fitment was at the rear in the wheelhouse area. The 6-inch backspacing of the Pro Star XP is livable on a Gen II, but not ideal. The tire is so close to the inside that it rubs at the front of the wheelhouse; this is in an area that roughly corresponds to the cove where the rear seatbelt retractors reside. We got out a big mallet and hammered the offending area into submission, but later discovered on the skidpad that the tire would rub on the leaf spring when pushed hard. The quick fix turned out to be a set of quarter-inch thick wheel spacers (from Baer Racing) and some longer wheel studs. The clearance problem is now fixed, but we're a little dissatisfied with the appearance; we think the rear wheels are still too far sucked into the bodywork (compared to our artist rendering) and need to be pulled out to the fender lip. We're looking into some 1-inch thick bolt-on spacers which look promising. If they do the trick, we'll report back later.

So what did we get for our $3,889 in parts? On the 420ft slalom course (six cone gates set 70 feet apart) we improved our speed from 40.3 mph (stock) to 46.2 mph. Of all our results, this was the real shocker because we TKO'd our lofty goal in the first round of mods-without a rear swaybar. As a point of comparison, the fastest car we've ever tested in the slalom ran 48 mph and cost well over $100K. Mission accomplished.

In the 200ft skidpad, we went from a 0.70g average to a 0.79 average. That's right on par with most modern performance cars on production tires (i.e. Mustangs, Camaros, Firebirds). We feel a set of R-compound tires will push us over our 0.9g goal by a wide margin. For comparison sake, our '94 Camaro Z28 with Nitto R-compound tires and lowering springs (honestly, that's it!) has already run 0.94g thanks to R-compounds, so that goal is well within grasp. In the meantime we'll fine tune things to chip away as much as we can before using the DOT race tires. Who knows, maybe 1.0g is even a possibility.

The skidpad, however, did bring into focus a concern we had early on. These cars have room for a lot more tire than earlier Camaros and Firebirds ('67-'69). This is something that should be taken advantage of if at all possible. The controlling factor here was not finding trick suspension parts or doing months of fabrication (like with first gen cars), but of finding a wheel wide enough for the space available. The fact is, the only way to get a big enough wheel into these cars is with a custom three-piece hoop. That would double the price of the wheels for another 0.02 or 0.03g in lateral road holding. Is it worth it? The looks alone would tempt us, but when it comes to dollars and sense, an R-compound tire will get us to our skidpad goal with cash to spare. Of course, if Weld can build an 18x9 with a 5.5-inch backspacing (or even an 18x9.5!) we could fit a 275 tire up front. An 18x10.5 with a 6-inch back spacing would be perfect for the rear and could fit a 315 tire, but we're just day dreaming out loud.

The final test we ran was 60-0 mph braking. Even though we didn't upgrade the crappy front discs and rear drums, we calculated that the larger footprint by itself would be enough to effect an improvement in braking. What we found was the biggest improvement (by percent) of all the parameters we measured. Stopping distance went from 216.9 feet to just 163.9 feet-an improvement of 24 percent. Sure, 163.9 feet is nothing to write home about, but at least we no longer have to put our foot out the door to stop the car.

Our next stop is Baer Racing in Phoenix, Arizona. We're going to upgrade the rear drum brakes to a Sport system (11.35-inch rotor with 1-piston PBR caliper, $875), and the front discs will be endowed with a GT system (12.75-inch vented rotors with 2-piston calipers, $1,345). We'll also add a proportioning valve ($55) to adjust the rear brake bias. The whole deal will set us back $2,275, which is a few hundred less than we budgeted for. Can we get our braking distance down to 120 feet? Check out the June issue of PHR to find out!