79 Malibu stock suspension build
 

Hey all,

I know this is a class racer forum, but thought some here might find this rebuild of some interest.

The car is a 1979 Chevy Malibu that I've owned since 1993. Been raced all these years seeing many changes, the most recent and major change a complete rebuild started in the fall of 2010 and completed in May of 2012.

The car was running at the 8.50 limit for the mild steel 10 point cage, so the car was torn down to redo the cage as a 25.3 SFI cert, but the project snowballed into a complete rebuild top to bottom. Metal fabrication alone took me 600 hours to complete evenings and weekends over the 18 month period.

I'll let the pics tell most of the story, but I'll be glad to answer any questions.

Re: 79 Malibu stock suspension build
 

some more...

Re: 79 Malibu stock suspension build
 

some more...

Re: 79 Malibu stock suspension build
 

A couple from the 2012 racing season following the completion of the rebuild.

Re: 79 Malibu stock suspension build
 

Some basic information about the car.

The car is raced in a class called Ultra 275 which is run at Cecil Country Dragway during the street car shootout races on the first Saturday of each month. This is a heads up, pro tree 1/8 mile class requiring cars to run on a 275 drag radial tire.

The car weighs 2925 lbs with driver. The engine is a home built 582 bbc that made 1056hp/811 ft/lbs on VP C15 fuel. With a swap to Q16 in the fall the engine was making closer to 1080 hp. Trans is a Rossler 1.80 glide and one of Lenny's 8" Ultimate converters. Rear is a chromoly TRZ housing stuffed with Strange 40 spline light weight internals.

After some tweaking all season long the car ran an all time best of 5.09 @ 135 with a 1.129 60'. This combination is run naturally aspirated BTW.

Hope you enjoy the pics.
Todd G

Re: 79 Malibu stock suspension build
 

Awesome car,,, Todd. Thanks for all the photos. What intake and carb are you using on your 582?
Danny Durham

Re: 79 Malibu stock suspension build
 

Very nice work Todd

Re: 79 Malibu stock suspension build
 

If you did the work yourself......be very proud! It's a very nicely done car!

Wade Mahaffey

Re: 79 Malibu stock suspension build
 

Thanks guys. I did all the fabrication, welding, sheetmetal work, wiring, plumbing and assembly. The only things I didn't do are the chassis/cage powder coating, body/paint and the custom carpet.

Danny, the intake was a Brodix 2017 that matches the head Hunter MC heads. The carb used to be a Pro Systems 1300XE when it was run on C-15, now have an APD 1250 calibrated for Q16.

Right now the engine is at BES where Tony Bischoff and his crew are making some HP upgrades along with freshening. Should be back in a couple more weeks. In the past I have assembled all my own engines, but this time around we did some custom stuff to where I felt it wise to have Tony do the final mockup and assembly.

Re: 79 Malibu stock suspension build
 

Couple quick videos.

This one is prior to the rebuild.



In car Go Pro video first race after the rebuild. Slug out of the hole with a ton of power taken out.



Test session after having the converter tweaked. Getting after it much better, but still prior to the Q16 carb/fuel swap.

Re: 79 Malibu stock suspension build
 

Todd beautiful work

How many passes out of those 275's before you have to put new ones on? Are you rotating tires left to right?

Re: 79 Malibu stock suspension build
 

Thank you.

This set of tires had 40 runs on them when last season ended. I might use them for the first testing of this season and put a fresh set on for the first race.

I do not swap sides as the tread slots make the tire directional.

Some of these small tire higher hp cars only get say 10-12 runs on a 10.5 x 28 stiff slick. I know some racers on the old Mickey D/R that get less than 15 runs. I'm running the new 3754X Pro tire. So far very impressed with not only performance & consistency, but tire life as well.

Re: 79 Malibu stock suspension build
 

that is impressive, we ran some outlaw 10.5 down here and on the older technology tires we got 15 passes max out of them (side wall was gone).

Re: 79 Malibu stock suspension build
 

Yup, couple of our good customers have Outlaw 10.5 cars we built. Two nitrous, one twin turbo. They tell me 10 to 12 runs on average on the nitrous cars. If testing they will stretch that number out, but for racing, they change no more than 12 runs.

Heck, even at 40 runs a set for my 275 tires, I can run the whole season on 2 sets. lol

The consistency from the tire I run is impressive. The last race I had the following 60's (second run we made a tune up change). This was with the launch retard detuned due to extremely cold air/track temps. High of 44 degrees, absolutely no sun to warm the track. Also had equal luck on a very high track back in July with air temps at 102, track temp 140+ degrees.

1.157
1.129
1.150
1.156
1.155

Re: 79 Malibu stock suspension build
 

Thanks for the info,, Todd. Thats a cool looking piece,, take care.
Danny Durham

Re: 79 Malibu stock suspension build
 

Your welcome and thank you Danny.

Re: 79 Malibu stock suspension build
 

What beautiful craftsmanship, design and engineering Todd. The car looks awesome.

Re: 79 Malibu stock suspension build
 

Bravo!

Re: 79 Malibu stock suspension build
 

Well We went out to BES Racing Engines in Indiana last Friday to dyno and then back home. Dyno went well, picked up some significant power over the original build. Other than replacing wear items like rings, bearings, lifters & springs, the only major parts changes were the intake and pistons. Even kept the original bracket cam. Tony and his crew are awesome to deal with and have a real knack for making strong N/A power.

Just gotta work out some kinks with the headers, tweak the throttle linkage and we should be ready to fire up.

Picked up a fresh load of Q16 fuel the other day and just ordered a new set of rear gears today.

First race is April 6th, don't know if we will be ready in time or so.

Re: 79 Malibu stock suspension build
 

REALLY nice!

Re: 79 Malibu stock suspension build
 

Hey Todd, good luck in the point this season at Cecil's Outlaw Street Car Shootout. Are you running any other Ultra races like Door Wars?

Tom Sr.

Re: 79 Malibu stock suspension build
 

Thanks Tom,

Would like to run the Door Wars event, but my schedule is up in the air right now with some potentially serious health issues my wife is going through. Points at Cecil might be compromised if I wind up needing to miss the first race on the 6th.

Making a strong effort to come out being a top contender, but will just have to let the cards fall as they may.

Re: 79 Malibu stock suspension build
 

I am sorry to hear about your wife. Racing comes and goes, a good wife is lifetime.

Good luck with her health and she will be in my prayers.

Tom Sr.

Re: 79 Malibu stock suspension build
 

Thanks Tom, that is very thoughtful of you.

Todd

Re: 79 Malibu stock suspension build
 

That is one clean looking Malibu. Very nice work.

Re: 79 Malibu stock suspension build
 

Todd let me know if there is anything I can do to give you a hand.

Re: 79 Malibu stock suspension build
 

That is such a nice job, Todd. Very very nice !

Re: 79 Malibu stock suspension build
 

Nice looking ride.