1967 Chevy Camaro Project - Torque Box

Editor's Note: Typically, Super Chevy doesn't follow along on outside projects-you're lucky if they don't turn out to be complete disasters-but in this case, the offer was too enticing. Frank Serafine, owner of Prodigy Customs in nearby Apopka, Florida, and builder of our November 2009 cover cars, and John Parsons of II Much Fabrication, asked if we'd be interested in covering this build of a 200mph Camaro g-machine that'll run 8s in the quarter and be totally streetable. We figured we'd go along just for the heck of it.-Jim Campisano

In this issue we start our first of many build installments on our Project Unfair Camaro. Over the next dozen months or so, we will cover the complete build from start to finish. And when we are done, we will run Project Unfair at major Pro Touring and challenge events around the country. Super Chevy Shows, of course, Optima Challenge and Optima qualifiers, and Goodguys are all on the list. The final schedule of events will come later.

This is a full-on effort to build the fastest all-around Pro Touring car on the planet. That is a pretty lofty goal, especially when you see exactly what we mean by all-around. This is not only going to be a great Pro Touring car. It'll be one that can compete on a high level against the world's greatest on autocross, road race, slalom, and streetabiliy. Quite honestly, with the incredible array of aftermarket parts available, it is pretty easy for anyone with the wallet and resources to build a car to do everything mentioned extremely well.

We are throwing a couple of extra requirements on our "all-around best" project by doing some of things other g-machines cannot or have not done. For example:

(1) 8.99 dragstrip times. No one has done it yet. The suspension is the big limiting factor. Suspensions designed for handling do not hook and go at the dragstrip very well. In the spirit of being "Unfair," we will be using a two-pulley method of boost for our engine, taking our mild-mannered, 700-horse pump gas motor to a 1,200hp, high octane fuel-snorting monster. Additionally, we will be using a dual-mode suspension that within a couple hours can be converted from killer road race/autocross set-up to a killer dragstrip set-up. You will learn about the suspension in a future article.

(2) 200 MPH Maxton Mile standing run. Again, a suspension change, and pulley change on our blower will give us the power and traction needed to blow past the 200 mph barrier and more.

Project Unfair has gotten its name for many reasons. In the spirit of the Mark Donohue book, "The Unfair Advantage," we pay tribute with a few unfair tricks of our own. A literal team of engineers and some of the Pro Touring community elite are working on unfair tricks we can use. A few of these Unfair Advantages have already mentioned above. And many more will be released as we can continue. But of particular importance now is something we are doing in this step-by-step article.

The floor was completely destroyed by rust and required a quick trim, but the inner and outer rockers were surprisingly OK. Later we will be doing some modifications to the outer rockers anyway, but it was nice to have some structural integrity intact. It made it much easier to build and attach our jig to the car.
The floor was completely destroyed by rust and required a quick trim, but the inner and ou
We wanted to do a jig that someone at home might be able to build. Assuming your car is in good shape at each of the pickup points, you could build this jig for a few hundred dollars. We took a simple approach and welded the rockers to the jig. At the front and rear of the rockers we wedged some angle iron against the pinch weld and tacked it in place and made four equal length stations from 2x2-inch box tubing to support the outer body.
We wanted to do a jig that someone at home might be able to build. Assuming your car is in
We made adjustable stations for the six critical pick-up points on the undercarriage. We used 2x2-inch square tubing for the outer tubes and made a sliding inside tube made of 1.5x1.5-inch tubing. We cut 3 inches off the outer tubes, welded the 3-inch drop to the inner tube, and slid the two parts together. We had to add a piece of 1⁄8x1-inch flat bar as a shim to keep the tubes snug so they would still slide and be adjustable. We then drilled through the inner and outer tube with the tubes compressed together; this would be our stock floor height setting. We then drilled another hole in the inner tube 1.5 inches below the first hole so the tube would have a stock floor height pin location, and then could be raised and pinned 1.5 inches higher. This will allow us to build the jig to the car, trim out all the original undercarriage, and raise all the pickup points equally at once.
We made adjustable stations for the six critical pick-up points on the undercarriage. We u

The first pick-up point is the torque box under the firewall. This is the subframe mount and has an alignment pin opening used to align the front subframe. We used some angle iron and welded a 5⁄8-inch pin that goes through the alignment hole to it so the torque box could not move once we removed all the structure. Here we are lining up the pin.
The first pick-up point is the torque box under the firewall. This is the subframe mount a
You can see in this picture the torque box is mounted and locked in place by the pin.
At the front of the rear framerail, we mounted the front leaf spring bucket to the original framerail and welded one of our adjustable stations into the leaf spring bucket. For better photo purposes, we used this picture of the new frame rail bolted in place.
At the front of the rear framerail, we mounted the front leaf spring bucket to the origina