[Tim Hancock]

I am toying with the idea of building an oval dirt racer out of a 2nd gen Camaro (mainly have been looking at '79-81'). I avoided Chevy/Ford/Dodge all my life, so I don't really have a good idea of what models were what back then.

If I do this, I will likely start with a 350 Chevy and 3 or 4 spd manual trans. Ultimately I would build a 383 stroker, but I can start out with less.

What year/model 2nd gen Camaros came stock with a 4 bolt main 350, 4 speed and disk brakes? The track I would race at mandates pretty much stock front American clip, but I can gut/fabricate the rear chassis one of several ways. Supposedly the Camaro front suspension has better geometry than many other GM chassis cars of the type that are legal in this local racing class.

The engine can be modded, but must use non "bowtie" (whatever that means) cast iron straight plug heads/intake/exhaust manifolds. No electronic ignitions. Valve train/cam/compression pretty much wide open.

The top guys "supposedly" are around 450-500 hp and turning 7000 rpm.

I have an old friend whose 17 yo son is racing latemodels and my friend and I are considering building up some bombers so we can play too.

Buying a complete used racer would be quicker/cheaper, but I like building stuff and this would make for a fun winter project.