I have been seriously considering building a 1970 GSX clone with a Roadster shop chassis for SCCA CAM, Road course and all around fun. I am thinking I also want to stay with a Buick motor. Has anyone used Roadster Shop? I am not aware of any Buicks that have been built to this level to be a fully lightened car with Roadster shop chassis. Very interested to talk to someone who has or is the process of doing a project of this magnitude. Thanks, Mark
A couple of years ago, I did extensive research on various A-body aftermarket chassis. Most of the companies in this market are street rod oriented, and not really all out performance oriented. I called them all, priced out various options, developed a spreadsheet, and ranked them. After all of that, I would recommend Roadster Shop for great performance, if your budget allows. I went with the company that I ranked 2nd, so I could save a couple thousand dollars. After getting the chassis home, I took detailed measurements, bought some chassis software, and entered everything in. After some more research on Pro-Touring.com and Lateral-G.net, I got out my Saws-All, cut most of it off, and threw the parts in the scrap bin. If you are ready for more fabrication to get the body on a new chassis, and want race car handling, go with a former race car designer and builder. Ron Sutton Race Technology.
Jeff, Thanks for the information. I checked out there website and they actually did a Monte Carlo that runs in the KC Region. I will also talk to the owner of the SS Monte to see what they say. I have thought about doing the Ultimate Street Car Challenge and think I will need to go to this level to be competitive. It would also be fun for some of the open road challenges like Silver State and Nebraska Open Road Challenge. Mark
A guy at work has his Camaro at Schwartz Performance for a street project. They are near Chicago. I have seen some of their cars on the Hot Rod Power Tour.
I have seen cars with their chassis in action and read about them in magazines. I was also impressed with the quality of Morrison products.
If your considering a Roadster Shop chassis be prepared to shell out big bucks. I have friends with Roadster Shop cars and you'd better have deep pockets. Their cars are beautiful and if you went to their shop you'd be impressed. Bottom line none of the guys who had cars done didn't go back for there next build. How would you like to spend over a half million dollars on a car and still have no side windows. Then they want ten grand to put the windows in. Ouch! Some of the guys that replied have some good suggestions. Morrison and Schwartz are good places to look into. My friend has a 55 Belair on a Morrison chassis and it's killer of course it was done by Rad Rides by Troy. He loves the way the car drives and handles. He has many killer cars and swears by coil over suspension compared to air ride. There is a lot of tuning that goes into these cars. Don't expect to bolt in a new chassis and components and be happy. After everything is installed where the work begins.Making all the components work together and finding the right set up for both street and track can take years. Then there is the learning to drive it properly to take advantage of all your hard work and money spent. just my 2 cents. Good luck with your build.
Speedtech extreme chassis is the best atm Not totaly sure if its out yet or not though Has improved c7 spindles only available with frame. Theirs also a torque arm option. .2nd choice would be an AME with a 3link
You'll be in $20,000 before you get it uncrated. I'd spend some time checking out other competing cars to get a good feel for what's going to be competitive first.
Agree, I need to start going to some of the Optima Battery challenges and figure out what other A Body guys are doing. I have a G-Body guy in town that has done several of the challenges. I will be talking to him as well. My concern is that most of these cars are six figure cars and I am not sure I am looking to invest that kind of money to be competitive. Mark
Yep, definitely want to go to school on those guys. A lot less painful that way. i was really interested in doing the same thing, but there's a lot of "factory" rides. I'm not sure what it would take to be competitive, but I know it's a lot more than just having a great time. You'll still have an awesome car when the dust settles.
Those aftermarket chassis are nice and address a lot of the little quirks , downfalls and discrepancies of the stock GM frame /chassis. Personally myself would love to have the modern aftermarket chassis.......but.... The price .... wowzers. Over on Protouring.com and Lateral G.com there are not to many aftermarket chassis running the events and programs , not saying that's a sign ,but just saying. However there are quiet a few factory frame a chassis guys running and are running with and sometimes beating the aftermarket chassis cars. There is quite a bit of aftermarket support for the GM A body chassis when comes to handling . Most address the antiquated suspension on the 68-72 GM a bodies and add confidence to the driver . A couple years back we had a Auto x at the GS Nats .. I did a couple ride alongs with Jeff Peoples (here on the board) in his 72 GS , holy cow that Buick was freaking flat when hitting those tight turns , all with bolt on suspension , that same comment was also made by a gentleman whose car ran a full aftermarket front subframe vehicle.. So it depends on you and the ole saying of "how fast wanna go?" if you got the money and you are going to be competitive at a certain level I'd say go for it! If not don't fret you will still have lots of fun on the less inexpensive side with the stock chassis and some tried and true technology. There are several aftermarket suspension companies out there , but like to keep my support for the guys who also understand us Buick nuts and support our crazy habits so I recommend checking out GNSPERFORMANCE.COM for a lot of your suspension stuff. Either way you go ( and the car isn't gonna drive itself with all the improvements) you need to know to how to improve yourself as a driver and how to understand your car better , find join and get to one of Ron Sutton Technology chassis tech and driving seminars he holds all over the USA. hth
I have not. The project has taken the back burner to another project I am working on unrelated to Buicks. I think I would probably not go roadster shop now based on the information provided. Mark
