56 Hardtop, LS1, Twin Turbos, C4 Corvette Suspension by Hot Rod Jim's

[rat_rod_russell]

Here’s a fun project we’ve just started here at Hot Rod Jim’s.



Fred’s 1956 came to him as pretty nice car but after selling his C5 Corvette the Old 350 and power glide just didn’t impress him anymore nor did he really trust it any more. We’re first outfitting this 56 with our Stage 2 Rolling Chassis so we can toss some custom tweaks to the frame for the turbos. With the corvette suspension this car will now have power rack and pinion steering, all wheel disk brakes, QA1 coil over shocks, IRS suspension and our front sway bar upgrade. To Power the new chassis we were looking for power without breaking the bank. So we started with an LS1 and T56 from a 2000 Camaro. For less than 4,000.00 we now have a LS motor, T56 transmission, pulleys with power steering pump and AC compressor, a wiring harness we can rebuild and some exhaust components to start with. Fred wanted about 500 HP and he was looking at LS7’s and LS3’s but once you got the 5,000.00 motor now your looking at a custom harness for at least 1,000.00, 1,500.00-2,500.00 in pulleys and you still don’t have a transmission flywheel or clutch. So we’re going to huff a little more power in this bad boy with a custom STS Twin Turbo System pushing 5-7 PSI and giving us about 500 at the rear wheels and we’ll also get better gas mileage too, 28+ on the highway.

Some photos of Freds 56. We’ll be going to pick the car up and bring it back to Hot Rod Jim’s so we can swap it over and re wire the car.



Here’s Fred’s Chassis as it would be delivered to a customer who ordered our TriFive Stage 2 Rolling Chassis with Fred's LS1 and T56 sitting in it already.




-Russell Alexander

[T-Bolt]

Russ,

Nice to see an affordible approach to getting power down to the wheels. I think you have enough lessons learned from the PT-57 to get this at full power on the first key turn.

Dave

[tones2SS]

Very cool. Will be watching to see how this bad boy comes out!

[rat_rod_russell]

Originally Posted by T-Bolt

Russ,

Nice to see an affordible approach to getting power down to the wheels. I think you have enough lessons learned from the PT-57 to get this at full power on the first key turn.

Dave

Ya, its easy. Don't try to build the whole system in 3 days when you haven't slept in 2. Don't leave parts at home when you go to the dyno in another state. And don't let someone who doesn't know how a waste gate work put one on your car. Now if I can just get dad to stop calling waste gates, blowoff's.

[ItDoRun]

My favorite Tri-Five model. Sounds like a cool project. I'll be keeping my eye on this one.

[RECOVERY ROOM]

Nice to see a Tri five get some love

[Kendall Burleson]

Killer project I want to help.

[rat_rod_russell]

Turbos and exhaust goodies came in earlier in the week so we’ve got a few mockup photos for you all. We will be doing a little floorboard mod to the back to give us a little more room for the turbos otherwise the rest of the floorboard is stock. Waist gates will dump down in front of the rear end right where the tubing turns up to go over the rear end.





-Russell

[tones2SS]

Looks awesome Russel. Keep us posted.

[70rs]

Looking good. I am curious because I know nothing about turbo set ups but is there any power loss having the turbos so far away from the motor?