brucelee1

iTrader: (2)

Chaw60 has nailed it. My first SC was a 95 and I had the exact same experience. The car simply oozed class and had plenty of pep if one needed it. You could safely ignore the idiot in the Mustang, who clearly didn't have a clue.

I still feel that way. No need to even acknowledge the ricers.

Candela

iTrader: (1)

I love my SC300 because to me its a classic sports car/grand tourer.

As they say in Top Gear:

Straight 6 at the front, manual transmission at the middle, and rear wheel drive at the back!!

KahnBB6

iTrader: (5)

^^ This. The SC is old but they also don't make such cars outside of Stuttgart any longer.

SEIDO

iTrader: (1)

Since ya mentioned

SoaringSC

iTrader: (4)

For anyone doubting the handling potential of the SC chassis, I redirect your attention to the gixxer_drew suspension:

The original thread on supraforums
http://www.supraforums.com/forum/sho...pension-thread

and just one of the reviews for this setup on an SC
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sc-...ion-setup.html

Something I thought the OP might like to consider.

Bluv

Well said Chawk60

Fonzopin92

I think everyone has their own definition of a sports car. The SC400 has sports car styling and power, but not the handling, at least not stock. I love my SC400 with the 1UZFE with VVTI. The vvti engine is a blast to drive, and surprises many people on the road. Get what you want and what will make you happy, who cares if people talk crap, they wont be the ones sitting down on one of the best engineered, longest lasting, bullet proof reliable cars ever made.

GS FONZy

iTrader: (6)

This again?!

siqsc

I wish sc400 came in a manual and AWD. Now that would be bad a$&

Murco

iTrader: (1)

The "Trans-Am" class? In what sanctioning body? The SCCA has owned the name "Trans-Am" since the mid-60's and since the late-70's the class has been solely populated by purpose-built tube-frame cars. I've raced in SCCA Street-Prepared & Modified-Production classes racing SOLO, Autocross, and slalom events. I also raced in NASA's CMC class for several years. I've been racing for over 20 years but am scratching my head trying to figure out what kind of racing you did with such a car...

So let me get this straight... You road-raced a Dodge Magnum (a tarted-up Cordoba) - A 4300 pound car when new that you got down to 2900 pounds, with an 800-pound engine in it, that had a full interior with no roll-cage, and you had 15" rear tires on it with a stock frame so you could use most of the "police interceptor package". Are you Donny Allison??

UZinator

iTrader: (1)

To answer a couple of your questions:

I may not be correct about them calling it "Trans Am" class -as this was many years ago (1980-something). But as I remember -I thought they called it the "Trans Am" class. I can tell you what kind of cars raced in the class and I guess since you are the master of trying to belittle me -you can figure it out for yourself.

I raced against Monte Carlos, Camaros, Corvettes, Pintos, Mustangs and whatever else people raced. I believe the club that I raced with was called the Porsche club -but they may have been SCCA sanctioned -I am not sure. The class that I raced in allowed almost any car to race other than all out modified (Tube frame). I even raced against some 914's that handed me my own A$$ every time. They didn't require a roll cage at that time for the class that I raced in but we did have to have helmets, a racing harness, a fire extinguisher and a few other items.

It was not road racing. It was Auto-X. We raced against the clock and not against other cars. We met every Sunday at the local Air Base and set up the cones on the tarmac at the end of the runway. I think (if I remember correctly) I paid $20 to race each Sunday.

Yes -the Magnum was a modified Cordoba -of which I had one of those before the Magnum. Yes the car did start north of 4000 lbs (not 4300 -but more like 4100 according to the grain scales that I used regularly) and yes I did get it down to 2900 lbs -but with what only "appeared" to be stock interiors. I had pulled out the entire interiors and removed nearly all the secondary metal that was not structural and cut lightening holes in all the rest -and lipped the holes. If you were to pull my gutted door panels out -you would find just a shell of a door with brackets holding up the windows (made so that I could easily remove them when I wanted). I cut holes in the floor boards and taped them up with aluminum tape before putting back down the carpet (minus any sound deadening material. I had removed all the sound tar from the bottom of the car.

I don't remember how much weight I removed from the car in electronics alone (to include wiring) -but it was a lot. I even gutted the electronics from the seats and cut some weight out of the seat framework. I was a weight junkie -I guess you could say. I was entirely obsessed with weight removal. It was a ghost town behind my gutted dash -all but the instrument panel.

I did these extreme covert modifications because I was young and still liked to do the "Cruising" thing downtown on Saturday nights. It was a good place for my sleeper to find an occasional victim to race at our local (and illegal) 1/4 mile strip. As I said before -there was only one car around that could beat me for a long while and that was that stupidly fast AMC AMX -with way more power to weight ratio than I had when he cheated with the bottle. But he also blew engines a lot more often than I did too!

I had replaced the stock rear end with a posi 4: something ratio, 9-3/4" third member rear end from an Old New yorker. P.S. -don't ask me why it was in the NYer because I have no clue. That is just where I found it. An acquaintance at work knew about the race car that I was building and told me that he thought the rear end in the NYer sitting near his barn had a posi in it.

The rear sway bar that I found in a JY was nearly twice the diameter as the stocker. I had to weld some steel blocks to the diff brackets to lower the car some and added 2 leafs on each side to the interceptor springs that I found. I had to find some seriously long "U" bolts to bolt everything together. I also fabricated my own lateral bar with ball ends and welded it to the diff for increased lateral stability.

I purchased some really wide rims with offset that kept those Firestones under the car. I cut out the wheel wells (which was the only obvious giveaway) so that I had clearance for the wide meats. I can still remember that they were Firestones -but I can't remember the line name. I found them in a Pawn shop and was amazed with how wide profile they were. I had to buy some of those wagon wheels to fit them on because they were the only ones that were wide enough to handle the tires. I believe (if I remember correctly) - I mounted them on 12 inch rims and had a lot of tire bulge. But if you measured the tread -you would see damn near 15 inches. I liked racing the bulging tires because -to me -they seemed to hold better in the turns like that.. They would not fit radially without cutting approximately 2 inches of wheel well around them. But then I riveted the inner wells to the outer and did a little body work to make it look decent and it did look good. I had about 2 inches protruding in the rear. The fronts rubbed some in hard corners.

In the 440 engine that I built -I used 6-pack rods out of a 413 well pump motor. I spent a great deal of time lightening those heavy rods and then balancing them. I polished the beams and balanced them down to very close tolerance. I had 11:1 compression TRW forged pistons. I had a cam that was just under the roller limit while still extremely aggressive and I believe they called it a 3/4" lift cam (can't remember). I had 426 Max Wedge heads that I found on an old motor that was in a scrap yard under a 20' x 20' pallet. My uncle had purchased the scrap yard and he told me that I could have anything in it that I wanted. So I explored and found the 426 jems.

I spent a lot of my time trying to figure out how to port the heads correctly -and did an amazing job on them. I used hollow chromoly push rods to open the valves. I bought some expensive sodium filled valves because that is what race car teacher (old guy on the farm) recommended. I put headers on the car and some high flow Hush-Thrush mufflers. I topped it off with a Holley Street Dominator intake that I did a lot of porting work on. I had a huge double pumper on top of that. I had my good friend Bruce -who built race cars for a living -do lots of work to the carb alone. He spend a lot of time on just the carburetor to tune it and tweak my engine for more.

I was scouring the junkyards every weekend for parts and came across several police interceptors to include one that had the 6-pack intake set-up on it still. I didn't buy the intake -but I should have -from looking at what the originals sell for now. I found a road runner that had the serious suspension stuff underneath that I got most of the stuff from. I experimented with a lot of shock combinations and found a truck one that worked with the perfect valving that I needed. The car sucked on rough pavement because it was super stiff -with very minimal lean. I had it sitting extremely low to the ground (not for looks but for low CG).

I never said once that I was an honest racer. I cheated every chance I could. -But that was the only way to win -because either you cheated or you didn't compete. That was the name of the game back then -and I am sure it is still somewhat the same today.

The OP started this thread to ask a question about improving the SC4 and I commented based on some of my past experiences with "Lead Sleds" to give him some inspiration amongst all of the negativity about the SC4. I don't see anywhere that I was openly inviting your attack and I don't see it as warranted.

P.S. If you were a Dodge BB man -you would know that a fully dressed 440 with a 727 TF trans attached weighs in at around 650 lbs (not anywhere near 800 -engine alone). The 727 TF is around 133 lbs -which puts the 440 at around 517 lbs. A 1JZ weighs in at nearly 500 lbs. A 1UZ tips the scales at 471 lbs with 1 liter more displacement than the 1JZ and 3.2L less displacement / nearly the same HP as one of the economy rated 440 Dodge BBs of those days.

I can go on and on with more details of every modification I did to the car to make the post even more boring if you require more info to try to cut me down on. But I would rather that this thread get back on track with the OP's question vs. having to entertain your problems with my comments.

UZinator

iTrader: (1)

To the OP: I am sorry if my boring and lengthy post is not quite on track with your original question. However -I am building my SC4 -much the same way as I built my Magnum back in the eighties -but with more technology available today. There is a lot that can be done to the SC4 and a ton of unharnessed potential.

This time around -I have more professional tools such as a pneumatic lapper, a full set of hole punches and we have better materials such as lightweight sound deadening material (to preserve some of the luxury appeal).

I did a lot of research on the 1UZ long before I bought my first SC4. I found that the engine was designed as a race car engine by TRD (if I am correct). It is not uncommon for these to turn in excess of 300k -which is an excellent stat to start with.

I have found that early small block Chevy rods (of the correct length) can be made to work in them with very little modification.

I have found someone who will grind 1UZ cams if I send him a set to create profiles with.

I have found that it is not uncommon to find stock pistons that can be re-used due to minimal wear from a favorable rod ratio.

I have found (if the info I have read is correct) that late model Mustang plug wires will work on the 1UZ.

I have found that the SC3 has 4.27:1 rear end ratio.

I have found that the Supra non-turbo torsen diff works in the SC4 rear end.

I have found the Gixxer-Drew suspension thread (Very informative) to set up the suspension -with all the thinking already done for you.

I have found ways to increase the flow in the heads tremendously with smaller stem, lighter weight valves.

I have found double valve springs that will work in these heads with very little modification.

I may have found titanium retainers for them.

I have found that there are a lot of electronic luxuries that are un-needed for the luxury feel that can probably be eliminated to save weight. That zzz thing the steering wheel does when you first turn the key is totally useless. The fly-by-wire system is absurd, redundant and dangerous in my opinion. The extra electronics in the driver's seat (motor for lumbar and arm/actuator) add quite a bit more weight to the seat vs. the passenger version. The passenger and drivers seat tops are interchangeable. All of the overdone audio can be overhauled to save some weight.

And I have already been targeting lots of metal that I feel can be safely cut away (my car only). Please do not cut away on yours -as you can still make it very competitive without doing so.

There is a lot that can be done with the SC4 platform -but people stop short of what cannot be acquired easily. If you don't stop at that same stopping point -you can make the car what you want to.

PseudoK

I dont see the benefit in using SBC rods in the 1UZ, thr rods in the early 1UZs are already pretty strong

and I REALLY dont think there is any benefit to using mustang plug wires..

UZinator

iTrader: (1)

I would say that the benefit of the SBC rods is lighter weight and stronger material. You can get the Early SBC rods in an "H" beam chromoly like the ones I have. The original rods are powder forged -and so they are not as strong as true forged rods. And chromoly is superior to the stuff they made the OEM with anyway.

There is a benifit to the Mustang plug wires because the stock ones are too thin. It isn't necessary to go with gargantuan plug wires -but on the other hand -you can have them too thin for high voltage ignition systems. And it is my belief that the stockers are too thin.

I don't plan on sticking with the stock voltage for my ignition system. I have had 10mm Acel wires that jumped spark to the plug wells.

Murco

iTrader: (1)

Not meant to belittle, just sounds really, really sketchy. You raced in a series and were so serious about it that you spent tons of time on a car that, in the hundreds of races I've attended, has never been a competitive platform even in odd-ball classes. You raced in an unlimited class that didn't have roll-bars, ran an engine set-up for all top-end performance, and yet you don't even know the sanctioning body? You also don't know what kind of tires you ran? I remember every detail of every set-up I had on my Camaro from the day I bought it new in 1989 up until I stopped racing it in 2006, including tires, and still consult with active racers about that platform. Can you see why someone would be a little skeptical??