Key insights on the car: 1.) Intended more to enjoy the process and learnings than the outcome. I expect it will be heavier, uglier, rougher/rawer, with a slew of mistakes that had to be corrected or "lived with". And that's ok. IE - using the corvette frame sections instead of making my own brackets cost me significant footbox room - but I'm not correcting that. I DID, however, add a few inches to the wheelbase - and I'm on the fence as to if I would do that next time or move the cooling package to the front. 2.) LS4/Impala front subframe/drivetrain including struts moved to MR/RR configuration, C5 front cradle (including frame members), main chassis members made of 1.5" .120 square stock, intend to build fiberglass body. If I come in under 2500lbs I'll be pretty excited/happy, and most of that will be on the rears. It's in raw/rough near-roller status (it would roll but the front would be near bottomed out without anything holding up the front). 107" wheelbase.
On me: I've been sitting on most of the parts needed to get going for almost 7 years without putting anything together, and got tired of constantly changing my mind on big parts/thoughts/ideas - so decided to just build something, and then use the lessons learned to make more. So far I've REALLY enjoyed just sticking things together, blocking out and imagining where it is going to go and letting that guide me.
At this point something that would hold the car up is the "acceptable" - so any of the options that I could make work are fine. I imagine the front end will be quite light - other than maybe the battery (and probably not), I intend to leave the LS4 equipment as it sits (so cooling package, etc is in the rear). So front won't be holding up an LS1 and cooling package as it would be stock, but will still have to contend with most of the other things (lights/bodywork/etc).
Looking at the "ebay"/amazon ATV/motorcycle coilovers, I can find a close length, and they claim 660lbs at <200lb/in spring - which seems like it would be pretty ball park - but they have half the stroke that my suspension can handle. Which seems I could adjust for with a roughly 2:1 bell crank if I can make the setup make sense to my head. But I figured someone has already agonized over this and might have the easy answer. With suspension (as with most things), consider me to know just enough to not sound like a moron in casual, and basically what it all does and how it goes together... but the fine details are beyond me. For instance, I don't even know if I need or want the full 5" of travel - maybe half of that is plenty....
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