Hello everyone. Im posting this as a kind of online diary of what is going on with my monte. I will be uploading pictures and keeping you updated with any progress made. At the moment my car is torn down and being prepped for new paint, but that is just the beginning of what is going to be done with it.

 

As of right now we are in the process of taking care of rust that has formed on the left rear wheel well. We have decided to gomwith some thicker metal and we have begun to weld and shape. This is whatnit sits at right now.

 

What does the finger writing say in the rear window? Paint?

 

My friend wrote "paint me" in the back window.

 

Good luck with your project! Curious to see what you have in mind.... anything link this?

 

My plan is for dark metallic blue, with white racing stripes in the same fashion as Jimmie Johnson's car. And then put 18inch rims with 255s on. New suspension to lower the car, and new stiffer anti sway bars. Add a rear strut tower brace as well. For the suspension I'm looking at possible adjustable camber set ups and what not, but I will have to look into that further once we get to that point. After all that is done ill go to the easy part. More power. Starting with exhaust and then adding a turbo to it. Not worried about lag because with these front wheel drive montes they don't hook up at low RPMs anyways. My goal is 500+hp which is very attainable. My friend in town as a Camaro with the 3.8 in it as well and he is pushing 530 with a turbo set up that is still fairly street friendly. My goal when this is all said and done is to have a daily driver that will still lay down some good auto cross times.

 

And it also needs to be faster than my moms car. Which is Pontiac Solstice GXP that my dad as done a little engine work to and is pushing 340hp

 

Nice plans!! Making a car hit over 500whp is able to be done on a turbo build for sure!! Now with that said, you will need some engine work to get there along with the turbo. You will need to be intercooled as well and probably need a meth injection kit to get there easier. Now for the big question.... you mentioned nothing about transmission upgrades.... the factory trans in no way will hold this kind of power, what's your build plan for the trans?

Good luck man! There is a few turbo guys on here including myself if you have any questions feel free to ask!

 

Well for the trans I've found a couple places online that sell beefed up versions of the same transmission for Grand Prix and montes. So I might go that route. And for the engine I want to get as close to that number as I can without losing reliability and then put a somewhat small turbo on it. Less lag is the goal. But my dad owns a engine shop where we build motors or many of the drag cars in town and most of the stock cars out at the dirt track. He is also very involved with IMCA which sanctions most of the dirt tracks around the Midwest. So he is one of the few shops certified to reseal the 602 crate motors for the sport mods and the 604 crates for the Amods. So that's why I said the engine will be the easy part. Everything I need for the most part is there. I don't plan on using my current motor tho, at 85k miles I feel it would be a shame to tear it apart already. And I'm am also aware that race parts have a short lifetime, and these engines weren't made for this about of power. So I'm going to find another 3.8 and take my time and built it right and how I want the first time. Then swap the motors. So if I ever happen to toast my motor( which I wouldn't e surprised, since I'm bringing a street motor to race HP) I can just drop my original motor back in. I'm not sure if I want to have both of them hopped up and keep switching them or just have one as a temp motor with no turbo and whatnot. So any advice would be appreciated. But in the end it all comes down to how fast can I afford to go.

 

As of right now the car is pretty much ready for paint. The new fenders are already painted as well as my new hood. New bumpers just came in. And I just finally got my new trunk and spoiler in. I got rid of the surfboard spoiler and got the NASCAR spoiler now. The new paint color is dark blue metallic but in the sun has some shades of purple in it as well. Excited to see what the car will look like. I felt I got a good deal on the spoiler and trunk as I paid 75 bucks total. We also had to sandblast up by the front windshield as we found some rust.