Basett_Racing

As you can tell by my join date, I have been driving thirdgens a long time, but in recent years, I have fallen off the map. My '82 Z28 was my first car, and I bought it from the original owner in 1992. I drove it through high school and college and basically grew up in this car. In around 1998 I bought a new truck, and got into drag racing, and the car became a fairly mild street/strip 12 second car. Of course, that wasn't good enough, so I built a 383 for it and got into the low 11's on motor and subsequently put nitrous on it and got into the low 10's. I used to frequent this board, and back then I also had an '89 RS that I set for up handling and had 17" SEC racing wheels (BIG rims for the day!), but I sold it in 2004. I quit racing around 2005, and the car has pretty much set around since. I have cranked and moved it around a little and took a few new friends that wasn't around when I racing down the road for a few terror blasts, but that's pretty much it. Over the last few years I have missed just being able to drive it. I'm tired of the loud 3" 1 chamber Flowmasters, 4000 RPM stall, and drag springs/struts/shocks. I miss how it used to drive and handle and I miss being able to drive it anywhere, anytime.

So...
I have decided to take all the racing stuff off the car and make it a driver again. I took the engine and transmission out a few weeks ago, and took the springs, drag struts/shocks, 4.56 geared and spooled rearend last weekend. Today, I replaced them with new springs, struts, shocks, put the sway bars back on, and put in a 3.42 geared posi rearend. I have a freshly bored .030" over 1 piece seal 350 block on the stand in the shop and trying to decide which direction to go on the engine. I have a couple of sets of Vortecs and I have set of aluminum 64cc Edelbrock Performer heads sitting on shelf. I know I'm going to go with a relatively mild hydraulic roller, but I'll choose the grind when I decide which induction system I'm going with. I want to stick with something from the thirdgen era to maintain a close to stock look. I have a couple of TPI setups and a '84 Vette CFI system. The TPI is clearly the better setup, but a CFI system (restified and modernized, of course) would look right home under the hood being an '82!

Anyway, I remember everyone loving pics here, so here's some (old) pics in a race trim, and a few I snapped of the new rear suspension I installed to today.

Sorry for the novel! I am just excited to be redoing my baby!





Does anybody here remember the car?




The car came with silver ground effects and red stripes like the car below (not mine). When I was 16, I hated them, but now I really like the early thirdgen stripes. Go figure, right?

Basett_Racing

Here a pic of the 383 before it got the plate system.


1998 called and said it wanted it's interior color scheme back, so I'll be going back to stock on it!


Here's a few old pics at the track.

Basett_Racing

Progress pics. Here's what I accomplished today. Can you tell I have had rubbing problems with slicks once upon a time?

IROC#1

Its great to hear that youve owned your car for 17 years (wow) and are putting her back on the road. Always like to hear stories like this versus "I sold it 2 years ago and now wish I hadnt".
Keep us posted, cant wait to see some pics of the car back in street trim. What size rims are you going to put on her?

Basett_Racing

Thanks for the encouragement. I'm 31 now, and after talking with a ton of people I went school with, I've found only one other guy still has his first car. Most people don't, and I feel fortunate that marriage, 2 kids, mortgage, etc. hasn't ever forced me to sell it. I've had a some very decent offers for it over the years (sometimes when I could have used the extra scratch!) but I've just never been in the situation where i had to sell it.

As far as wheels and tires, I'm going back with the stock 15 X 7's. I ordered a set of BF Goodrich Radial T/A's Friday, but slightly bigger and wider than stock. The early Z28's came with those oddball 215/65 R15's, but I'm going back with 235/60's. I used to run the 235's back in day, and they look a little beefier than the 215's. The guy I bought it from lived 3 houses down from where I grew up. I loved this car as a kid, and I remember when he got it. I remember it looking so futuristic back then, and I want it back like it was when I first fell for it.