Well, I’ve got about 400 miles on bowtie6 with the new frame and the Ecotec. Simply put, this thing rocks. I expected an improvement, but damn! This thing is awesome. And I have only scratched the surface.
Where to begin? Well, the coilovers are amazing. The front coilovers have made an incredible difference in the steering “feel”. Before, with Richard Good uprated springs and SPAX adjustable shocks the steering was very “heavy”. At parking-lot speeds it took quite some effort to turn the wheel. Perhaps it had something to do with the 205/55-16’s up front or the extra heavy springs but now, this thing turns as if it had power steering. At speed, the steering response is very quick; point and shoot actually. What does this look like? Take a look:
The front suspension towers were designed in such a way to accommodate the TR6 front suspension pieces but also the front coilovers. Some things to note:
- Yes, those are “stock” rotors. They are cheap, and this allows me to use a very aggressive pad compound on my Wilwood calipers. I am not racing this car so there is no need for the extra unsprung weight of “vented” rotors. Contrary to popular opinion, these rotors along with the uprated calipers offer plenty of stopping power. Remember, the master cylinder is from a Vette so this offers more than adequate clamping power.
- Take a look at the sway bar end. It has a blue SuperFlex bushing. All the rest of the front suspension uses SuperFlex bushings – I ordered these from England. They are amazing; a bit pricey but certainly worth the expense.
- The coilovers are adjustable for rebound. That is the little knob on the top, right below the top “A” arm. I’m still trying to dial them in.
This is what the Wilwood caliper looks like:
Just like a good looking super-model, bowtie6‘s backside is just as sexy…
- The rear coilovers are similar to the fronts; these are also adjustable for rebound.
- The exhaust is a single 2.75 pipe. We have a single resonator just past the bend off the headers and then at the exhaust end, a pair of SuperTrapp mufflers. The basic principle with SuperTrapps is their adjustable baffles. This works by adding or subtracting discs that add or subtract backpressure and noise. The less discs the more backpressure and less noise. With more discs, less backpressure and more noise. I added quite a few discs but this made for a very high shriek anywhere north of 4500 revs. So, I had to tone it down. Right now we’re running eight discs – four on each side.
I’ve already started messing with the ECM a little. HPTuners is an awesome tool to dial in the engine and I am just getting started. With the new redesigned intake, headers and above mentioned exhaust things are flowing very “freely”. I noticed the airflow mappings were way off and this has been the first thing I’ve started to modify with pretty good results.
