[69Goat1]

In 2006 I bought a 1969 GTO that had a very mild iron headed 400 in it and was used as a bracket car.





The only chassis mods were a set of SSM lift bars and some no hop brackets and an air bag with comp engineering shocks and stock springs...I put the engine out of my black 69 GTO street car that would run high 10’s in it and it would run low 10’s in this one but had some wild chassis characteristics...





I took the no hop brackets off and put an anti roll bar on and it helped quite a bit as far as chassis movement but actually slowed a couple hundredths in the 60.



I ran it until 2012 when I had a catastrophic engine failure while making a test pass on the street. The car was fully hooked but the block split just as I got into 3rd gear. It was so violent it not only took out the block, crank, rods, pan, timing cover, lifters and most of the valves, it also broke the bell housing, bent the converter snout and broke the ring gear. Before all of that I ran it about a year with a new T400 with a trans brake. I was never able to make it hook on the brake so I always had to foot brake it. Fastest the car ever went was 6.13 @ 114 in the 1/8th foot braking with a fairly mild 462 and 323 cfm eheads. Car weight was around 3540 with me in it.

The car sat many years in my old shop while my wife and I bought 90 acres and built a house and now finally a shop. I have been tinkering around with my old 69 GTO cruise night car but since it weighs 3940 with me in it and has all the factory amenities including heat and stock gas tank, battery in stock location, full factory interior and stock shocks it 60 foots like a pig at the track and only runs 6.40’s spinning most of the way down the track...it’s a fun car to cruise and has 8.4/1 compression and runs on 91 octane. It is 11% underdriven.



Last September I decided to drag the old GTO out and move it to our shop at our new house.



I met a guy at a local cruise that had a very nice S-10 with a lot of very nice chassis work and he told me who did the work 1 state over from us so I gave him a call and decided to take my old GTO over for a diet and a complete small tire TRZ chassis upgrade with a mini tub and a few other weight saving measures and a complete roll cage to replace my roll bar. I was originally going to completely rub it but in our area big tire classes are almost non-existent and really the only thing you can do with a big tire is bracket race but small tire events are everywhere! I am in the process of collecting the components for a very high horsepower IAIIA (already have block, heads, and intake).

Here is the day I hauled it over to him...




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[69Goat1]

I made a very sizable order with TRZ and we started all of the modifications. I knew I wanted it to fit at least a 13.5” wide 30” tall tire if I wanted to. I also wanted coil overs all the way around and a tube core support as well as all new control arms and front brakes.







It sitting on coilovers.



Rack install...



Brakes.



Then we decided we had better mock the engine in with headers and all to make sure the engine plate and everything would work. Good thing we did because we had to modify the route for the rack shaft...





Core support work...





Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[69Goat1]

He then started working on the rear and my criteria was it would sit low and hold a 12” wide beadlock wheel on a stock width rear end and a 13.5” x 30” tire without rubbing inside or out. He studies on it and decided the best route would be new rear frame rails in the wheel area so he built a set.















We picked up 3 1/4” more on the flat part of the frame and 5” more on the rounded part at the front and rear of the wheel well frame and we have 17 1/4” from the frame to the fender lip so we can fit a much larger tire now.





Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[69Goat1]

More pictures...




















Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Mike Davis]

Looks like a good start. Who did the heads? Are you planning on the Victor or Gutsram?

[ponjohn]

Why do you need to run a stock-width rear?

[69Goat1]

Originally Posted by Mike Davis

Looks like a good start. Who did the heads? Are you planning on the Victor or Gutsram?

Butler originally...I sent them to a local head porter I used on my last set and he gained me close to 20 more CFM. My plans right now are to use the Victor intake/2 stage plate to start off but I am going to turn the gutsram into a blower intake for a future methanol/hat/blown configuration since I don’t like the BDS intake especially for a wide port...

[69Goat1]

Originally Posted by ponjohn

Why do you need to run a stock-width rear?

2 reasons

1. I had it.
2. I hate the look of a full tubbed narrowed rear car on a small tire...with this setup I can run an 8” rim with a 26 x 8” slick or a 12” rim with a 14” x 30” and it will always look great. Just needs the right backspacing.

[blueghoast]

Originally Posted by 69Goat1

2 reasons

1. I had it.
2. I hate the look of a full tubbed narrowed rear car on a small tire...with this setup I can run an 8” rim with a 26 x 8” slick or a 12” rim with a 14” x 30” and it will always look great. Just needs the right backspacing.

Your my new hero LOL

GT.

[bpenrod]

I like it!

[GTO Dan]

Nicely thought out and great work. Cool!

[Bill Eveland]

Looks good, my buddy did the same thing, he built an adapter to mount his blower to his tunnel ram

[455firebird1969]

Always liked that car, nice upgrades, it’s gonna be even better now!

[RUDOLFSSON]

Very cool !! Thanks for the pictures...

Kris

[4zpeed]

Originally Posted by 69Goat1

I hate the look of a full tubbed narrowed rear car on a small tire...with this setup I can run an 8” rim with a 26 x 8” slick or a 12” rim with a 14” x 30” and it will always look great. Just needs the right backspacing.

100% agree with you, appreciate the thread, pics and inspiration !

Looking forward to more, awesome car !


Thanks,
Frank

[adam woodmancy]

Cool thread, thanks for sharing. Look forward to seeing it progress.