UMI's Newest Test Car- 1971 Camaro- Pro-Touring Build

[UMI Performance]

Well it took a year and half but we are finally back on this project and have it in full swing. We have a goal to have this car completed for at least half of next years season, so follow along and lets see what we can do.

Before dismantling the car we had a few projects that need finished first, we dialed in our height for lowering the car using front springs and rear leafs. We also finalized on front a-arms and have them in production. Our development can now continue using our house '78 Camaro.

We began the major dismantling yesterday. The front subframe will be removed, blue printed, welded, powder coated and prepped for LS power. The body of the car was completed by the previous owner and looks decent so it will stay as is. The car will receive new frame rails, road race cage, fuel cell, mini tubs with LS/T56. Stay tuned.







Dolly is patiently waiting for the body, it should be on it tomorrow.

[BMR Sales]

Ryan, in your 1st Post, you said you were replacing the 305 (307) with a 383. In the last post, you said LS.

No wonder I'm winning this race, you can't make up your mind on the engine! lol

[UMI Performance]

Originally Posted by BMR Sales

Ryan, in your 1st Post, you said you were replacing the 305 (307) with a 383. In the last post, you said LS.

No wonder I'm winning this race, you can't make up your mind on the engine! lol

Whoops, haha. I forgot about that. We even bought heads for the 383 and they are still on the shelf...

But we decided now LS power is what we want. I love the Lemans and how it drives. But engine decisions are the worst, I am not good at those at all

[UMI Performance]

A few more pictures of the progress from yesterday.

[WSSix]

Good luck, guys!

[UMI Performance]

More progress last week on the Camaro. We got the body on the rolling stand and started drawing out ideas for the cage. The floor has some fiberglass repair patches we will cut out and repair. We also got the rear frame rails ordered from Auto Weld, which is another PA based company and seemed great to work with.

In the meantime we are finalizing some of our new suspension items for the 70-81. We installed some more prototypes on our '78 house car to confirm height and fitment as well as ride quality. We are also working on front shock extension mounts using front clips we have here.

[UMI Performance]

A few more updates.

When we purchased this car the big selling point to us was the body was already done. The new quarters look nice, no signs of body work the paint is decent. The paint quality could be a little better but for a car that will spend its life on the track it's perfect. While the body was done nicely I assumed the floor boards and underneath of the car would be a little better. The 1" thick rubber undercoating really hid a lot of the problems we are now finding. And the "new" truck pan was fiber glassed in and over top of old rusty sheet metal never removed.

We cut the bad floor areas out and replacing them with front floor pans. The truck area is cut out and we will be prepping it for the fuel cell. The new frame rails are in as well. To keep moving forward we will be selecting seats to give us the seat location which will help with the cage. Fuel cell will need purchased soon as well.

Updated pictures:

[67XR7]

looking forward to the progress on this build.

[DKz Garage]

Looking forward to more updates...... cool project!

[UMI Performance]

Next update.

The car had a lot more rust in the floors and rear trunk area than expected. The trunk was a disaster, the new trunk pan was attached to rust using fiberglass. The more we cut at it the more that needed removed. The rear trunk is completely out, the inner fenders and frame rails removed too. We will rebuild the trunk around a fuel cell. You can see below the piles of rusted metal removed from the underneath of the car.

We are also beginning to mock up the cage and the cage mounting points. This requires boxing in and reinforcing areas where it will mount.