Can't remove the front bar, has to stay attached and functional.
Unruhjonny,
I have my 70 RAIII formula setup to run PS.
For sure run the polyglass tires for this class, don't even look at the modern radials in the equivalent size. Those bias tires work very well at the track and will 60 foot better than one might think. On a side note, the Firestones work a little better than the Goodyears
If you're content to run a manual trans, I go for the M-20 wide ratio every time. The first 3 gear ratios are steeper than an M21 and will accelerate you down track quicker for the first 800 ft or so. The rpm drop in 4th at that point is inconsequential because you have momentum on your side. Also much easier to control wheel spin and recover quickly the first 60 feet.
M21's are more crucial when it comes to rear gear choice to find that happy spot between bog and spin. Not as forgiving from my experience. How you have the secondaries setup on the Q-jet play a roll here.
I'd personally start with 3.73's and the M-20, then you may want to change the rear gear from there (possibly) to suit the car/driver better.
On the cam I like the Melling stuff. Seems to be the most accurate when checking lobe lift and duration specs. You can go the custom route if you want to take advantage of the slight gain in lift and duration the rules allow, but I don't bother. Keep in mind nothing in the rules tell you where you have to install that cam. You can move it around to suit your car, traction, or the lack there of. Might look into retarding it a degree or two if worried about 60 foot times driving a stick shift with a lot of gear multiplication.
Behind the engine I run the original 400 turbo in mine, never opened up or rebuilt and still running it's original converter. So no tricks here. I run a 3.31 gear in the 12 bolt because it's primarily a driver first, fun track car second. So I give up some ET with it but I've still gone low 13's at 106 mph and it will cut 1.8 60 foot times.
Suspension is very basic and simple. Installed new front control arm bushings, well lubed, slightly modded and move somewhat freely. Front shocks are oil filled shocks, not gas. Gas shocks are too stiff. Rear shocks are gas shocks, stiffer to control the rearend a little better (my theory). My front sway bar has poly bushings on the frame mounts that are honed out and greased up to allow the bar to twist freely and not limit front end rise so much but end links all still hooked up and functional per rules.
Rear springs and bushings are bone stock factory issue (47 years old). I left it alone because the car just flat works. I've tried clamping the front of the leaf springs (allowed in PS) but it did nothing but hurt my 60 foot times with this car. Mine seems to like being setup kind of "loose" and has never had any spring wind up or wheel hop issues.
Are you going to take advantage of the 1.5 compression bump the rules allow?
I never did that either, I run mine on pump gas so I built the engine with 10:1 (another compromise I made with mine)
Mine weighs 3690 without driver. Has PS and PDB. Even with the compromises I made (gear, compression, cam, converter) I'm still close to the 12's. I think 12's would be very easy to do with one of these cars when building it to the rules. If that's your plan you should get there no problem.