What are some must haves for a street racing car?

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You need a few million for when you cream a 4 year old little girl and get sued.

You must develop a fondness for large sweaty men, this will make your jail time more enjoyable.
 
We all know you really meant to say street-driven car that will also see sanctioned drag strip use. Right?
 
Ok I will try to give a somewhat real reply……

You mentioned cornering and acceleration on a 10k budget. You also mentioned racing so I will assume you are in competition with another car/driver and/or time clock.

In short…… You can't be competitive in both cornering and acceleration for that budget when your foundation is a Dart.

You will get beat by every Evo, STI, Turbo Civic……. The list goes on.

I suggest you pick one or the other. Hard acceleration with modest cornering or Hard cornering with modest acceleration.
 
must haves would be good springs,disc brakes a good at least 8 point cage, fire extinguisher,5 point harness tied to roll bar and the rest is pretty much up to you
 
here we go again. i wish new guys would use the search button so they can see how the other new guys have already been beaten on this subject.

anyway...
for handling the first things you should do is 1" torsion bars and subframe connectors
 
hellion_locdogg said:
He is asking about a road coarse car... Wow jump to conclusions much?
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Assuming you're asking about a road race or autocross car, I think I can try and help

1968FormulaS340 said:
In short…… You can't be competitive in both cornering and acceleration for that budget when your foundation is a Dart.
You will get beat by every Evo, STI, Turbo Civic……. The list goes on.
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This isn't entirely true. If your Dart is already a solid car (ie, the entire 10k goes to mods/upgrades, not floorboards) and you have some mechanical/fabrication skill, $10k will go a long way. You can have a Dart that should be able to pull a lateral G if you do it right. Now, will you compete head to head with Evo's and STI's? Probably not.

But it depends on if we're talking autocross or road racing. Autocross is hard even for A bodies because they're big, and autocross courses are not. Road racing is a little different.

Anyway, this is what I'd do...


Suspension-
Front end rebuild kit with poly bushings $500 from Just Suspension
1" Torsion bars $200 from Just Suspension
Addco 596/675 Sway bars (F/R) $300 from Summit
RCD Shocks $400 from Hotchkis
Frame connectors (2x3" steel) $100 if you can weld
"Road Race" leaf springs $260 from Firm Feel
Boxing plates for LCA's

Wheels & tires
15x8 or 17x8, 245/255 series all around. Price depends on what you get, anywhere from ~$1200 for cheap steelies and good tires, or a lot more depending on rim selection.

This will get you in the handling ball park. Because you already have a '73, you could also upgrade to later 11 3/4" disk brakes up front, probably for around $300. You need new disks and the 11 3/4" caliper brackets. Find the right brackets and you can keep your calipers. The disks come off of 77-81 Cordoba's (and similar, Diplomats etc). Nice, but not absolutely needed.

This would get you started with good handling car, with the right tires and tuning, you could probably approach 1 G on a later skid pad. You'd probably also need offset UCA bushings to get your alignment right, set it up with -1/2 to -1 degree of camber, and in the neighborhood of +4 degrees caster. If you bought everything, (brakes included), you're probably in about $3,500 if you spent wisely.

Engine-

Assuming you've got a 318, you can get 300 hp out of a fairly mild rebuild. Flat top pistons, near 10:1 on the compression, larger valves in 318 heads, or maybe 302 heads or a set of magnum heads. Get in the 300-350 hp range, with good gear selection, and you'll accelerate fine. Even more toward the 350 hp mark, you should be able to do this for under $4k, even if you don't do the work yourself.

Should be money left over. Adjustable UCA's are nice, but if you're racing be careful, that could put you in a different bracket. You can also look into steering, a rebuilt manual or power steering box will really help. You can drop $500 there pretty fast.


By no means the "end all, be all". But do that and you'll have a pretty quick Dart that will handle well.

Be sure to look into rules for racing organizations you want to participate in, you don't want to put yourself in some kind of modified class and get your butt handed to you. You may need to stay away from tubular UCA's as I mentioned, but also through-the-floor type subframe connectors. They also have rules on tire sizes and tread compounds, so you'll want to look into that when sizing your rims/tires.

Find AutoXcuda on here. He's well versed in this. And do a search!
 
1968FormulaS340 said:
Yes….. I am well aware of that car.

But…. Without the connections involved in that build the average guy will not replicate it's performance for 10k.


And this.....


I didn't jump to any conclusions. He specifically said "Street Racing" in both the title and post.
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The only connection needed with that car is the engine build.

The rest of it is simple part hunting. The green brick was/is an affordable upgrade. It is entirely stock parts. There are no parts that are impossible to find with that car. I have the whole setup for the front suspension using the same things the green brick did in my 67 dart and i found these parts in the last 6 months. The most expensive so far is the viper brake calipers at $150 per caliper.
 
I would find out what series or class you want to race and then follw their specs from there.

,Cliff
 
72blunblu!! Thank you!! I appreciate your help. For you others, I'm not some 17 yr old kid that wants to be reckless. I'm a father of four and am brand new to muscle cars. I was hoping to get answers about general tips of building a car that can be fun through corners and snappy out of the hole while also being able to go above 100 mph at the strip. Something that I can bring to a sanctioned road course and have fun... Thank you again 72blunblu!
 
And that reply is a much clearer picture.

I keep my Magnum Low, not silly kid low, with wide tires on all 4 corners. 245/60/15's. I would like to add on later;

Thicker T-bars, anti-sway bars and frame connectors. Mayne move the springs in for insane wide tires and clearance. It'll help with the stroked and blown big block.
 
caferacerx said:
wow 18 and father of four
$10,000 could go a long way to getting those kids an education
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caferacerx said:
he claims he is not 17, yet he sounds like a teenager
I added a year because I have no reason not to believe him perhaps he is 19,
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hellion_locdogg said:
Yes it is the interwebs, but acting like a douche is not a requirement...
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caferacerx said:
then dont
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C'mon caferacerx, just because his terminology was a little off there's no reason to be a internet thug, not everyone grew up web-savvy. Lets not turn this into a pissing contest. Dude's just trying to get some info.

RDupont01 said:
72blunblu!! Thank you!! I appreciate your help.
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No problem. As others have mentioned, if you're serious about competing then you'll want to get a copy of the rules from the organization you'd like to race with. Nothing worse than finishing a build and finding out you can't compete because of you mods, or that you've got to compete in the unlimited class against old factory racers.

And look up autoXcuda in the members list here, he's got a very well set up car and racing experience. There's quite a few threads on here with more info, try searching autocross, autoX, road racing, etc. There's also info on each one of the mods I posted, looking up info on subframe connectors alone should give you dozens of posts to sort through.
 
One thing I wouldn't forget to do and that's get some type of cold air intake system. I can't believe how many hot rods are still running those open-element 60's style air cleaners, sucking in all that hot underhood air. A couple of my "grocery-getter" A-bodys have those open-element filters, but....for a somewhat competitive ride? Hell no....it's a smokin' bang-for-the-buck.

Here's one I just picked up from Jeg's.....on sale for $99.00!!!.....WITH a K&N wanna-be filter included!!! I think that's one killer deal!

P1002527.jpg


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